Newman name to grace Baruch College campus

Real Estate Weekly, June 29, 2005

Baruch College recently named its sweeping 17-level, $400 million, 800,000 s/f classroom-and-office building the William and Anita Newman Vertical Campus. Designed by the prestigious architectural firm of Kohn Pederson Fox and completed in 2001, the architectural award winning building is the core of the Baruch campus and the home of the College's Zicklin School of Business and Weissman School of Arts and Sciences. Thousands of students pass through its halls daily.

William and Anita Newman are long-time benefactors of Baruch College. William Newman, class of '47, chairman of New Plan Excel Realty Trust, has given more than $40 million to his alma mater. His generosity has provided support to the William and Anita Newman Library, the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute and the undergraduate and master's level Newman Real Estate programs housed in the Zicklin School of Business and the School of Public Affairs. A $5 million unrestricted gift from Mr. Newman in 1993 was, at the time, the largest gift received by the College since Bernard Baruch's $9 million bequest in 1965. The Newman gift also launched a new era of fundraising within The City University of New York.

Some 150 people, including many members of the New York City real estate community, officials and trustees of The City University of New York, as well as family and friends, honored the Newmans at a dinner held on June 22 in the lavish conference facilities of the Newman Vertical Campus. Speakers included Matthew Goldstein, chancellor of The City University of New York, architect Henry Wollman, director of the Steven L. Newman Institute, and Kathleen Waldron, president of Baruch College.

The Newman family's connection to Baruch College extends back to the 1920s, to the days when Baruch was the School of Business and Civic Administration of City College. William Newman's father, a Ukrainian immigrant, graduated from the school in 1926 and his late brother, Joseph, also attended.

A plaque that will be mounted on the interior of the 25th Street side of the Newman Vertical Campus bears a quote from William Newman. "I'm grateful for what this school, now Baruch, has given me, and I welcome the opportunity to help do the same for a new generation of young people."