The Jerome L. Greene Science Center, home to the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, is the first building to rise on Columbia University’s new 17-acre Manhattanville campus. The nine-story, 450,000-sq-ft center also is the largest research building that Columbia has ever built and the biggest academic science building in New York City.

Constructed in a top-down sequence, the project required a slurry wall and steel columns to be built before construction took place. To mitigate noise and vibration from the busy surrounding neighborhood, the team reinforced the foundation and implemented a double wall system throughout the building.

To ensure the safety of those working on the project, construction workers were tied off if exposed to a greater than a 6-ft fall hazard. The team also created a passive netting system that was awarded a Building Trades Employers’ Association construction safety award.

“Working with partners like Columbia University was a great experience for our team,” says Steve Sommer, principal-in-charge at Lendlease, the project’s contractor.

Building the project “provided the opportunity to create a place that will have the ability to change people’s lives and make a true difference in the world,” he says.

The center features four floors below grade. At the ground level, there is a health screening facility and neuroscience education center that is open to the public.

Laboratories and research facilities occupy the remaining nine above-grade floors.

Back to Ingenuity On Display Across the Region