New Academic Building construction photographs
Scope and Contents
This collection contains photographs related to the construction of the New Academic Building (NAB) at 41 Cooper Square. Events documented by this collection include the installation of the Alumni Roof Terrace, the transfer of an eagle statue from the original Penn Station to the roof of the NAB, a donor event in the construction site, and the Rose Auditorium seat installation. Documentation of the Alumni Roof Terrace project includes a materials test (mayo, ketchup, wine, oil, graffiti) on a sample of the stone used for the Terrace. Documentation of the eagle statue move includes an image of David Morrison, a retired Long Island Rail Road branch line manager and author of "Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station: Statuary and Sculptures." This collection also includes photos of an unrelated event that occurred during construction: then-president Barack Obama speaking in the Great Hall during a 2008 lecture series. This collection was donated by former Cooper employee Claire Michie.
Dates
- Creation: 2008-07 - 2010-08
Creator
- Michie, Claire (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Open to researchers without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from The Cooper Union Archives and Special Collections. For more information please email archives@cooper.edu
Biographical / Historical
The New Academic Building, known as the NAB, opened at 41 Cooper Square in 2009 and was designed by Thom Mayne and his firm Morphosis. Several events were held to help raise money for the building's construction, including a 2011 alumni campaign for which donors received stone tributes that form the floor of the Alumni Roof Terrace on the roof of the NAB.
The eagle statue also located on the roof of the NAB was one of twenty-two eagle statues outside the original McKim, Mead and White Pennsylvania Station. A group of Cooper Union students led by Joe Zelvin (AR’65) and then Dean of Students Dr. Richard S. Ball petitioned the Pennsylvania Railroad when this original Penn Station was demolished, and as a result The Cooper Union acquired the eagle in 1965. A 2009 class gift helped to fund the move of the eagle from the former engineering building at 101 Astor Place to the NAB.
Extent
56 Photographic Prints (56 born-digital photographs in jpg format)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The photographs in this collection document construction of the New Academic Building (NAB) at 41 Cooper Square, and events related to said construction. A series of photographs within this collection document the move of an eagle statue that had been part of the original Penn Station to a garden adjacent to the Alumni Roof Terrace on the roof of the NAB.
Arrangement
This collection has been arranged in the order that it was received.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was donated by Claire Michie.
Subject
- Morrison, David D., 1945- (Person)
- Obama, Barack H. (Barack Hussein), 1936-1982 (Person)
- Author
- Mary Mann
- Date
- October 2021
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the The Cooper Union Archives & Special Collections Repository
Cooper Union Library
7 East 7th Street
New York New York 10003 United States
archives@cooper.edu
