Columbia University won second place in the International Real Estate Federation U.S. Chapter’s (FIABCI-USA) annual Grand Prix of Real Estate Awards for the University’s development in Manhattanville. La-Verna Fountain, vice president for strategic communications and construction business initiatives at Facilities and Operations, accepted the award on behalf of Columbia at a ceremony in Chicago on November 1.
The organization’s Grand Prix of Real Estate Awards honor projects that help create communities where people can live, work and play. The Manhattanville campus development was nominated in the Master Plan category.
A panel of judges including visiting faculty at Yale, a New York City-based developer and a fellow of the Building Owners and Managers Association reviewed the entries.
Columbia University’s Manhattanville development creates a new kind of open, accessible university campus. The Master Plan for the new, modern-day campus – developed by renowned architects Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill – follows several purposeful design principles, including transparency that invites the community to explore; an open campus with no gates or walls that maintains the existing street grid; design elements incorporated from some of the neighborhood’s history; and more.
