Columbia’s Manhattanville Campus Receives $100 Million Donation

NEW YORK — Columbia University in New York City has been working on a massive project since 2006 and recently received a major boost in funding for the 17-acre campus.

The university’s new Manhattanville campus will encompass 6.8 billion square feet and recently earned LEED Platinum in the Neighborhood Development (ND) category. The project is being completed in several phases, with the entire campus completed in the next 30 years. The first phase of construction is slated for completion in 2016 and will include the Jerome L. Greene Science Center.

In 2007 the project was estimated to cost $6 billion and has received extremely generous donations from Columbia alumni. The most recent donation comes from Ronald O. Perelman, chairman and CEO of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. and a member of the university’s Board of Overseers. His $100 million donation is to the new Columbia Business School, which will be located on the Manhattanville campus. His large donation positions him in the category of largest donation in school history, along with the previous single donation of $100 million back in 1969 by Columbia-alum Henry R. Kravis.

The donation will be used to help fund construction of the new business school, and one of the two buildings at the new school will be named the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Business Innovation.

“Ronald O. Perelman has long valued and supported business education and innovation in New York City,” said Columbia Business School Dean Glenn Hubbard, in a statement. “We are extremely grateful for his vision and generosity, and this gift will allow us to reach a new phase in the school’s expansion into Manhattanville. We are building more than facilities: we are enabling the greatest business minds of our time to work together in a forward-looking, collaborative space that will spur the ideas that will shape business for decades to come.”

The business school, designed by New York architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, will span more than 450,000 square feet. The building will be equipped with the most up-to-date and state-of-the-art technology, according to Hubbard.

“Columbia Business School has its finger on the pulse of changing nature of business education,” said Perelman in a statement. “The school’s commitment to developing transformative business thinkers is unparalleled, and I am pleased to pledge this gift to help them prepare the next generation of business leaders.”

Along with Perelman’s donation to the business school, Columbia University Trustee Gerry Lenfest has pledged $30 million to support the construction of a multi-arts venue at the Manhattanville campus. Lenfest’s gift was announced in November 2012 and is the largest gift ever made for the arts at Columbia. In his honor, the new facility will be named the Lenfest Center for the Arts.