SoiferI VtP Annotation: Reading Places

Various actors in West Harlem have different visions for how the place should emerge, but the city of New York has taken to Columbia University's vision. The assertion was that Manhattanville was "blighted," the likes of which rendered businesses and residents already there disposable. Community Board 9 members had a vision for the area as being a potential mixed-use development--Columbia concurred, but such would be fulfilled on their terms. Mixed-use for Columbia means purchasing whole blocks to be devoted to their institution. It means transforming a formerly industrial site into a campus allegedly so unlike the old campus that is gated off and fortified. However, this discounts the fact that only about 24% of the space will be devoted to public use--much of the campus will be underground and inaccessible to the majority of the population. Thus, rather than designing a campus that is visibly closed-off, the campus has been buried. As the "Eminent" of the neighborhood, working in tandem with the City that also seeks to benefit, Columbia has envisioned a new rendering of an exclusive campus.