Earlier this week, Spectator sat down with Joe Ienuso, executive vice president of facilities. Ienuso oversees every construction and renovation project at Columbia—from the new campus in Manhattanville to that new vinyl flooring you hope your Schapiro single gets next year.
We asked him to update us on a handful of projects going on around the Morningside campus.
- Renovations in Pupin are currently underway and should be complete by summer 2013. Administrators are also looking to repurpose the former physics library in the hopes of creating a “theory center” in its place—a research center where undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, and faculty can share their ideas. Ienuso said that physics department chair Bill Zajc has been pushing for this.
- Progress on utilizing and furbishing all of the available space in the Northwest Corner continues. The 10th and 11th floors of the building, which were "shelled," or left empty by design to allow faculty to adjust the space after hiring new recruits, are in the process of being assigned to departments. The 10th floor will likely go the physics department and the 11th to the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
