The Field Building at 17 Lex Gets a Makeover
LOOKING AHEAD
Frank Antonucci (’85), director, campus operations and administration, and project manager, Field Building Renovation: The renovation of the Field Building at 17 Lex is a major part of the Master Plan for our campus. It will be a re-building of history and grandeur for the world to see, a re-building of home for alumni to return to, and a building for the future for all students to be proud of.
David Birdsell, dean, School of Public Affairs: 17 Lex was where I had my first office and taught my first classes at Baruch. It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t comfortable. The rooms were too small, the radiators too hot, and the elevators took an eternity. But the students were always incredible.
When the renovation is complete, students will have the building they have always deserved, and new generations will earn their own fond memories of this remarkable college.
John Elliott, dean and vice president, Zicklin School of Business: When I speak to our alumni, they recall 17 Lex fondly, because of the great education they received there and the great friendships and marriages that emerged from there.
The plans for the renovation are excellent, ambitious, and above all, necessary. Other than replacing the elevator operators with buttons, we have done little to maintain the quality of the space. It will soon be a state-of-the-art educational facility again.
Of course, we at the Zicklin School are additionally excited that the renovated 17 Lex will be a LEED-certified building. Zicklin is committed to incorporating sustainability into our curricula.
Jeffrey Peck, dean, Mildred and George Weissman School of Arts and Sciences: 17 Lex is a living monument to the history of Baruch. Departments and classes, as well as romances and marriages, came to life in these corridors. So it is fitting that the building, which houses Weissman’s natural sciences department, should be refitted and groomed for the future.
We can look forward to more modern and comfortable facilities and the inclusion of the Departments of Psychology and Mathematics. The building, like Baruch, continues to produce opportunities for new generations of students.
Ben Corpus, vice president for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management and dean of students: Renovations to this beloved, historic building will only add to Baruch’s ability to competitively recruit the best, brightest, and most sought-after students.
J. Gary Pretlow (’78, D-87th AD) and Carl E. Heastie (MBA ’07, D-83rd AD): We have firsthand knowledge of Baruch’s successes and the challenges presented by the physical plant at 17 Lex. That’s why for years we have supported funding for the renovation in the state assembly.*
*From a Mar. 6, 2008, letter to State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
Luz Vargas Liebeskind (’85, EMSF ’08): Now that we have the beautiful Newman Vertical Campus and the library building we forget that 17 Lex was the hub of Baruch College life as late as the ’80s, when we had to walk from rental properties on 18th Street to 26th and Park to get from class to class. The renovation will make 17 Lex the nucleus of campus activity once again.
Teri Maiorca Wade (MA ’05): I’m very glad that 17 Lex is being preserved. It has always seemed to me that 17 Lex represents the heart and soul of Baruch. It’s a symbol of the College’s long legacy of providing educational opportunity and access to so many. Generations of people have entered 17 Lex with hopes for the future and left it with the knowledge and tools to embark on new paths and make those hopes a reality.
ALUMNI:
Consider adding your own 17 Lex memories below.
Last Friday, I happened across a reprint of distinguished alumnus George Weissman’s acceptance speech in June 1982, when the College honored him with a Doctor of Laws degree. His words about 17 Lexington Avenue were so inspiring that I decided to add them here:
“In that Baruch building on 23rd Street, on that gray cement campus, we learned we are in this world together. Together we can keep changing it bit by bit. At times that may seem an overwhelming prospect. In this day, when everything seems supersized, superpowerful, superslick, many people feel individually dwarfed and impotent. But you, as individuals, have more strength than you realize in shaping our political, business, social, and communal affairs.”
Graduate of the Class of 1939 George Weissman—for whom the College’s George and Mildred Weissman School of Arts and Sciences is named—was truly a great man, a visionary.
—BCAM editor in chief