Columbia Law school receives $5M for building renovations

Real Estate Weekly, April 14, 1999

Columbia Law School has received a girl of more than $5 million from Jerome L. Greene, Class of 1928, that will allow the school to substantially renovate its main building at 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue which bears Greene's name. The project represents the latest phase of a more than $50 million construction campaign at Columbia Law School.

This spring, Columbia will embark upon a project to overhaul and create new faculty space at the Law School. In addition to the construction of additional faculty offices, the plan also includes a new faculty library, faculty lounge, numerous conference rooms, and a spectacular new interior staircase. Public space will be dramatically improved and expanded, bringing in natural light and exterior views to the perimeter of the building, as well as providing needed open space.

"We are in a period of extraordinary faculty renewal here at Columbia and this magnificent gift by Jerry Greene will assure that our faculty are provided with facilities second to none," said Dean David W. Leebron. "This next phase of our construction project will have as dramatic an effect upon the sense of community for our professors as did our recent projects to improve student life and administrative services. As we continue to draw the world's leading scholars to Columbia, we will now have facilities to match the quality of their teaching."

A prominent New York City real estate attorney, Greene is one of Columbia's most generous benefactors. With this girl, he has contributed nearly $16 million to the Law School. Greene, a 1926 graduate of Columbia College, has served as a trustee of many non-profit organizations, such as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Thirteen/WNET, the Juilliard School and Montefiore Hospital, as well as chairman of the board of trustees of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

"Columbia Law School gave me the wherewithal to do what I've been able to do," said Greene. "It was an extraordinary learning experience. For this, I am forever obligated. It pleases me to be able in some small way to discharge this obligation."

In addition to creating new faculty spaces, Greene's generosity is allowing Columbia to build new suites for the offices of the Dean, Admissions and clinical programs, and a significant upgrading of the building systems infrastructure, including new telephone, computer and audio/video networks.

The project follows an earlier $13 million renovation of the lower floors of Greene Hall that dramatically improved student life at the Law School, creating a new cafe and student lounge, as well as a substantial amount of new social and study space. In the past two years, the Law School also built and opened two new buildings that include state-of-the-art classrooms, new spaces for student and administrative services, international and public interest centers, clinical programs and the Columbia Law Review.