Diller Scofidio + Renfro and FXCollaborative collaborated to design the Columbia Business School at Columbia University in New York City, New York.

Columbia Business School’s new home spans approximately 492,000 square feet across two buildings that reflect the fast-paced, high-tech, and highly social character of business in the 21st century. The two new facilities, Henry R. Kravis Hall and David Geffen Hall, double the School’s current square footage, creating multifunctional spaces that foster a sense of community—spaces where students, faculty, alumni, and practitioners can gather to exchange ideas. The design of both buildings recognizes that creativity, innovation, and communication—skills often nurtured in informal environments—are as crucial to business school pedagogy as the traditional, quantitative skills taught in a classroom. The building organization shuffles alternating floors of faculty offices with student learning spaces in the eleven-story Kravis Hall and floors for administrative offices and learning spaces in the eight-story Geffen Hall. The shuffled program is expressed in each building’s façade with systems tailored to the populations and uses. The school’s internal spaces are organized around intersecting networks of circulation and collaborative learning environments that extend up vertically through each building, linking spaces of teaching, socializing, and studying, to create a continuous space of learning and interaction that remains vibrant 24 hours a day.

Engagement with the city and surrounding West Harlem community is a fundamental aspect of the new Columbia Business School’s design. Kravis Hall offers 360 degrees of exposure and proximity to the Hudson River. At the same time, Geffen Hall establishes a strong connection to the urban fabric of the neighborhood and the mid-block pedestrian axis of the Manhattanville master plan. Every classroom provides a view of the city and landscape. The two buildings also welcome in the community, including a new dedicated space on the second floor of Geffen Hall for the Columbia-Harlem Small Business Development Center that will build on the school’s ten-year history of supporting local entrepreneurs. A 40,000 square-foot public park and new retail spaces—including a café featuring local products—also connect Columbia Business School more closely with the surrounding neighborhood.

Design: Diller Scofidio + Renfro and FXCollaborative
Contractor: Turner Construction
Photography: Iwan Baan, Timothy Schenck