A couple of views of the demolition and construction going on with Columbia's new campus in Manhattanville. The university is going at full speed to demolish most of the standing buildings and build the infrastructure for the campus, which is expected to open in 2015. These pictures are way too small to see any detail.
Back in 2004 I took a bunch of photos of the neighborhood and I see now that I used the same title for a post just last April. Sheesh.
A few years ago I put up a bunch of photos from around Manhattanville, that little corner of West Harlem where Columbia was planning to build a new campus. Time and lawsuits have passed big swaths of the neighborhood have disappeared as the university starts preparing the site for construction. A big stretch of the Riverside Drive viaduct is visible for the first time in close to a century. I'm not sure when buildings will start to rise but the anticipated completion date for the first set of them is in 2015.
I'm running out of pictures to show and things to say here. Maybe I need to go somewhere lush and green.
View from the south end of the park
People on the pier
Fish cleaning station.
There are several of these unexplained signs
Bicyclists no longer have to divert onto 12th Ave.
Arriving home late Thursday night I noticed that the Harlem Piers Park opened while I was away. It's a year or two behind schedule, and not all the park is open or finished, but it is finally open.
Currently the best thing about the park is that bicyclists can stay on the bike path and don't have to ride in the heavy and semi-lawless traffic under the Riverside Drive viaduct. Fairway is across the street, so this is going to be a convenient spot to take a break.
There are plans to have a ferry from Weehawken (that's the ramp in the bottom photo) and to open the southernmost pier to kayaks and such.
Trivia question for the older New Yorker and/or Chuck Barris fan: In the middle photo, what did those tall apartment buildings across the river replace?
I don't know if I've ever seen this business under the Henry Hudson Parkway at 125th St. open. I do enjoy the artwork on their grates. In addition to the guys above, a very faded Fred and Wilma Flinstone are around the corner. For any geographers and geologists reading this, yes, that is an erupting volcano with a huge river flowing out of its side in the background.
A long time ago I wrote about how Columbia is seeking to expand into Manhattanville, an old industrial neighborhood to its northwest. There has been opposition to the development by some in the neighborhood and the university is negotiating a community benefits agreement with representatives of the community. The signs above are all from Tuck-it-Away Self-Storage. The university is also reserving the right to ask the state to use its power of eminent domain to acquire the property.
Lots more information can be found in the Columbia Spectator. Greg beat me to the punch and put similar photos on Flickr last month.
A few scenes from the Riverside Drive viaduct over 125th Street and Manhattanville. Previously, I visited Manhattanville in the daylight.
I'm going out of town for a week. Posting will be light around here until I return.
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