Since the water main break on 13th Street in January 2014, The New School has had to deal with repairs to the University Center and 72 Fifth Avenue due to flooding. The damage is still causing problems nine months later. Significant parts of both the University Center and 72 Fifth Avenue are still out of commission.

The main academic entrance to the University Center, at the corner of 13th and Fifth, was closed this summer from May 26 through August 8th as renovations and repairs were under way in Tishman Auditorium and classrooms 201 and 202. During that time, the entrance to the building was rerouted through Kerrey Hall on the west side of the building near 14th Street.

Recovering From the Flood

The basement of 72 5th Avenue, which was also affected by the flood,  has been under repair. This  has resulted in some office location shuffling recently in what Linda Reimer, Senior Vice President for Student Services calls a “domino effect.”

The basement of 72 5th Avenue, which was also affected by the flood,  has been under repair. This  has resulted in some office location shuffling recently in what Linda Reimer, Senior Vice President for Student Services calls a “domino effect.”

According to Reimer, ultimately the offices of Student Services, Enrollment and the Registrar will be located at 72 Fifth Avenue, but as a result of reconstruction from the water main damages, those offices, along with many others, have been temporarily relocated for the semester. The Offices of Housing, International Student Services, Athletics & Recreation, Higher Education Opportunity Program,  Rights & Responsibilities, and the Office of Student Development and Activities, will be located in 72 Fifth Avenue as well, but the space is not ready yet.

“What happened this summer is those offices moved to temporary spaces while waiting for 72 Fifth Avenue to be ready,” Reimer said, adding that the Student Services offices are no longer in their usual location on the fifth floor of 79 Fifth Avenue. “We’re planning  on being in these temporary spaces at least for this fall semester.”

The Housing Office is currently relocated to the 18th floor of 79 Fifth Avenue while International Student Services, Rights and Responsibilities as well as Recreation & Intramural Sports are at 2 West 13th Street on the 12th Floor. The Office of Student Development Activities and Higher Education Opportunity Program are on the 8th floor of 80 Fifth Avenue.

“It’s convoluted, confusing and cumbersome,” said Marjorie Chamberlain, a BFA student at Parsons. “I don’t think they sent out a mass email to students about the location changes.”

“We created these little postcards to give to people so that students would know where to go,” Reimer said. “As soon as 72 [Fifth Avenue] is ready, we will move again.”

Regarding the repairs of University Center, Reimer said that there will be a new fitness studio located in Kerrey Hall and that the fitness classes currently held at 80 Fifth Avenue will begin to take place there when the space is available.

According to Reimer, the Kerrey Hall basement on Level 2 is projected to be restored by the end of the Fall 2014 semester. The renewed space will feature a revised art studio with sink and equipment as well as music practice rooms and a resident advisors meeting area.

Level 1, however,  is not projected to be completed until the end of the Spring 2015 semester. This space will contain two lecture halls, a large multipurpose room and bicycle storage space.

Level 1 is also home to the Event Café, intended as the main student social space in the new building. “It’s going to be a space for student performances and student gatherings,” said Sam Biederman, Director of Communications at The New School, who is the primary public relations person at TNS.  “There’s going to be a coffee bar there. You could think of it as a little bit like the Lang Cafe.”

CVS Moves in to the University Center

Since the opening of the University Center in January, 2014, the retail space on the ground floor of the building has been empty. An email from President David Van Zandt on June 3rd announced that a CVS–part of the country’s second-biggest pharmacy chain–would fill that space.

Since the opening of the University Center in January, 2014, the retail space on the ground floor of the building has been empty. An email from President David Van Zandt on June 3rd announced that a CVS–part of the country’s second-biggest pharmacy chain–would fill that space.

Interior construction of the CVS  is currently underway and the store is expected to open on November 16, 2014, “provided their construction is on time,” said Howard Bressler, the Director of Real Estate at The New School.

According to Bressler, CVS approached TNS about the retail space. He believes it may be open 24 hours, and said it will have a full service pharmacy, and possibly a mini-clinic. “I am not aware of any student discounts, however we did ask that they give preference to any students who wish to work there,” he said.

“One of the major features we did like about their proposal to us was the fact that they will not be selling any tobacco products,” he added.

The CVS also plans to tap into Parsons talent to design window displays, according to Biederman and Reimer.

The Area Coordinator for Kerrey Hall, David Howe, welcomed the news of the CVS moving into the building.

“The nearby Duane Reade recently closed so it’s helpful to have a store like this that has utility for all students, staff, and faculty,” Howe said.

 

Housing Temporarily Spreads Out

Though The New School has long intended to centralize its dormitory operations by finding closer-to-class spaces, the increase in demand for student housing this fall has caused the  university to rent beds in various places around the city.

 “There was an overall increase of 50 students into housing over last year which is an increase of 2.8%,” said Robert Lutomski, Assistant Vice President on Student Housing and Residence Life “but what was most significant was that the number of students who returned to housing from the prior year increased 31%.”

When Kerrey Hall opened last year, the William Street residence hall down in the Financial District had just closed. William Street had 412 beds as compared to Kerrey Hall’s 617. “This added over 200 beds to our housing stock, and we thought we did not have enough demand to fill that many beds and we would gradually build the demand over time,” Lutomski explained. “But housing demand rose above normal rates in the Fall of 2013, and again in Fall 2014 as the NYC open housing market dried up and finding apartments became much more difficult and expensive.”

Lutomski has confirmed that 82 students are placed in the 92 Y residence hall located on 92nd and Lexington. Lutomski said Student Housing has also rented out 13 apartments at Stuyvesant Town with the same prices as dormitories on campus: $16,200 per person for a double and $19,760 for a single.

“We have always tried to house everyone who needs housing, so when demand exceeded supply, we found beds to offer at other institutions or locations,” Lutomski said. In past years when demand has exceeded supply, The New School had housed students at other locations before, and in years when supply exceeded demand, The New School has housed Pace University students in its former William Street residence hall.

Around the time that William Street closed and Kerrey Hall was expected to open,  The New School had begun renting out some of the space at Loeb Residence Hall to New York Institute of Technology. Five floors remained for New School residents and the other nine were occupied by NYIT residents and staff, though the building still operated under TNS  Residence Hall Director Chasity Wilson.

The New School has now reclaimed all 272 beds at Loeb and NYIT has since leased the 20th Street residence hall until the Fall of 2016.

Lutomski explains “the reason the switch happened was because by switching, we only had to give them 200 beds instead of 272. They liked it because 20th Street is closer to their school even though they got fewer beds.”