The North Quadrangle, present in edifice, is certainly not the campus of
yester-year. Lewisohn Stadium, where Dr. Hofstadter (Nobel laureate in
Physics, 1961) addressed our graduating class, is long gone. The NAC,
North Academic Center, a huge edifice which I can describe as an
airplane wing sliced into the front wall with 8 floors above it, houses all
the campus life as we knew it: the Library, the cafeteria, Finley Hall,
literally a corridor, and classrooms, clubrooms and miscellaneous
registrar functions. This is truly a city college: life's destiny controlled by
a series of gongs and elevators.
In front of the NAC is the Plaza of Honor, a collection of spiral paths of donor bricks.
Shepard Hall has been cleaned; sparking gargoyles adorn the buildings. The gargoyles' friendly grimaces are no longer limestone, but composite resin to last another hundred plus years. Lincoln's bust no longer welcomes you at the Shepard entrance but is safely inside, avoiding the elements and the impassioned "nose rubbing". Dr. Gallagher's office at the end of the hall is now a meeting room for the Faculty Senate. A music library is in another reclaimed office at the opposite end of the hall. The Music Department now resides where the physics labs and classrooms used to be: part of the stone behind the building was excavated to provide a recital hall, (a truly eclectic group of musicians, two from Israel, one from Kansas: I don't remember all the hometowns but only one was from NYC). Remember CCNY is a tuition school open to all who qualify!
The Great Hall, formerly the Technical Library, no longer has the mystic of greatness. The somber mien fostered by poor lighting, stained glass windows, wooden tables, and tired flags of the Universities of Europe are replaced by cleaned, brightened windows, open space, and bright lighting. The Flags still look tired but are clean! The Hall that housed troops on the way to the Great Wars, and the manual mechanics of registration for generations of college students is now the home to "rock dances!" The magic of the elliptical acoustics, that resonated a whisper from the podium throughout the Hall, is altered by baffles hung from the ceiling to modify the dissonance of amplifiers suspended and mounted throughout. The Hall also houses the magnificent pipe organ, which unfortunately, is mute.
The Quadrangle, Baskerville, Goethals, Townsend Harris and Wingate stand erect, gutted of their historical functions.
Our hosts:
Jim Schatz, Executive Director of the City College Fund
Elena Sturman, Donor Relations (facing the camera)
Lev Sviridov, our tour guide (front left, blue shirt) (Strange but true: Lev lives in the building on Grand Concourse directly across the street from 1245 Grandview Place, the origin of my commute to CCNY!
In front of the NAC is the Plaza of Honor, a collection of spiral paths of donor bricks.
Shepard Hall has been cleaned; sparking gargoyles adorn the buildings. The gargoyles' friendly grimaces are no longer limestone, but composite resin to last another hundred plus years. Lincoln's bust no longer welcomes you at the Shepard entrance but is safely inside, avoiding the elements and the impassioned "nose rubbing". Dr. Gallagher's office at the end of the hall is now a meeting room for the Faculty Senate. A music library is in another reclaimed office at the opposite end of the hall. The Music Department now resides where the physics labs and classrooms used to be: part of the stone behind the building was excavated to provide a recital hall, (a truly eclectic group of musicians, two from Israel, one from Kansas: I don't remember all the hometowns but only one was from NYC). Remember CCNY is a tuition school open to all who qualify!
The Great Hall, formerly the Technical Library, no longer has the mystic of greatness. The somber mien fostered by poor lighting, stained glass windows, wooden tables, and tired flags of the Universities of Europe are replaced by cleaned, brightened windows, open space, and bright lighting. The Flags still look tired but are clean! The Hall that housed troops on the way to the Great Wars, and the manual mechanics of registration for generations of college students is now the home to "rock dances!" The magic of the elliptical acoustics, that resonated a whisper from the podium throughout the Hall, is altered by baffles hung from the ceiling to modify the dissonance of amplifiers suspended and mounted throughout. The Hall also houses the magnificent pipe organ, which unfortunately, is mute.
The Quadrangle, Baskerville, Goethals, Townsend Harris and Wingate stand erect, gutted of their historical functions.
Our hosts:
Jim Schatz, Executive Director of the City College Fund
Elena Sturman, Donor Relations (facing the camera)
Lev Sviridov, our tour guide (front left, blue shirt) (Strange but true: Lev lives in the building on Grand Concourse directly across the street from 1245 Grandview Place, the origin of my commute to CCNY!
Harold Hauer's CCNY Tour
The following is a Harold Hauer's impressions of what the CCNY campus looked like in 2002 in comparison to
what it looked liked 40 years earlier when Harold was an undergraduate there.
The Campus Tour
November 15, 2002
Harold Hauer, Tour Guide
If you've not been to the campus in the past 40 years, you will not recognize the CCNY of "our days".
Virtually all of the South campus as we know it, isn't there. Our "new" Cohen Library" is now the "Y" building.
This home of various administrative functions, and undoubtedly the source of various administrative mailings, is there to answer the recipient's lament, "whY am I here?" The tennis courts we used to pass on our right on the way to Finley Hall are replaced by the Aaron Davis Center of the Arts, a state of the art theater complex for the dramatic arts.
The main floor of the Center served as the Class of '62 staging area where we were given our official picture button and tour (For those in Chemistry, Rhoda Weinberg has her back to the camera, as does Barbara Blumenstein. These are the '60s names, I don't remember their current surnames.)
The remainder of South Campus is a mélange of athletic field and temporary buildings. All of us on the tour were totally disoriented with respected to our memories; it was virtually impossible to map out the college of the old days.
By the way, President Gallagher's house is now a day care center!
The High School of Music and Art changed to the High School of Performing Arts is now the Randolph High School. The reason this shot doesn't look familiar is that it is NOT the Convent Avenue side.
Jasper Oval, home of the ROTC parade, is buried under the Marshak Science Building. As our guide explained, the money for the building was a long time coming. Various compromises and additions were included e.g. the Nat Holman Gym and a swimming pool. An entrance to the rear of the building was omitted and was added after the building was up.
November 15, 2002
Harold Hauer, Tour Guide
If you've not been to the campus in the past 40 years, you will not recognize the CCNY of "our days".
Virtually all of the South campus as we know it, isn't there. Our "new" Cohen Library" is now the "Y" building.
This home of various administrative functions, and undoubtedly the source of various administrative mailings, is there to answer the recipient's lament, "whY am I here?" The tennis courts we used to pass on our right on the way to Finley Hall are replaced by the Aaron Davis Center of the Arts, a state of the art theater complex for the dramatic arts.
The main floor of the Center served as the Class of '62 staging area where we were given our official picture button and tour (For those in Chemistry, Rhoda Weinberg has her back to the camera, as does Barbara Blumenstein. These are the '60s names, I don't remember their current surnames.)
The remainder of South Campus is a mélange of athletic field and temporary buildings. All of us on the tour were totally disoriented with respected to our memories; it was virtually impossible to map out the college of the old days.
By the way, President Gallagher's house is now a day care center!
The High School of Music and Art changed to the High School of Performing Arts is now the Randolph High School. The reason this shot doesn't look familiar is that it is NOT the Convent Avenue side.
Jasper Oval, home of the ROTC parade, is buried under the Marshak Science Building. As our guide explained, the money for the building was a long time coming. Various compromises and additions were included e.g. the Nat Holman Gym and a swimming pool. An entrance to the rear of the building was omitted and was added after the building was up.
40th Reunion Events