| Wallach Hall | |
|---|---|
Wallach Hall in 2016, withJohn Jay Hall to the right. | |
![]() Interactive map of Wallach Hall | |
| Former names | Livingston Hall |
| General information | |
| Location | 1116 Amsterdam Avenue,New York City,New York |
| Named for | Ira Wallach |
| Opened | 1905 |
| Owner | Columbia University |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 9 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | McKim, Mead & White |
Wallach Hall is the second oldest residence hall (ordormitory) on the campus ofColumbia University, and currently houses undergraduate students fromColumbia College as well as theFu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
It opened in 1905 asLivingston Hall afterRobert Livingston, aFounding Father of the United States and alumnus of King's College, Columbia's predecessor, but its name was changed in 1979 afterIra D. Wallach donated approximately $2 million towards its renovation.[1] This gave rise to the joke, "Livingston signed theDeclaration of Independence, Wallach signed a check."[2] Although a member of the committee of theContinental Congress that drafted the Declaration, Livingston did not actually sign the historic document.
Wallach Hall was home toBeat Generation authorJack Kerouac. In his autobiographyVanity of Duluoz he expressed his satisfaction with the move from neighboringHartley Hall:[3]
One great move I made was to switch my dormitory room from Hartley Hall to Livingston Hall where there were no cockroaches and where b'God I had a room all to myself, on the second floor, overlooking the beautiful trees and walkways of the campus and overlooking, to my greatest delight, besides the Van Am Quadrangle, thelibrary itself, the new one, with its stone frieze running around entire with the names engraved in stone forever: "Goethe ...Voltaire ...Shakespeare ...Molière ...Dante." That was more like it. Lighting my fragrant pipe at 8 P.M., I'd open the pages of my homework, turn on stationWQXR for the continual classical music, and sit there, in the golden glow of my lamp, in a sweater, sight and say, "Well, now I'm a real collegian at last."
Overhauled during the early 1980s, Wallach is currently, with Hartley, part of the Living and Learning Center (LLC), home to suite-style housing that intermingles all class levels and features interactive events designed to draw them together. An application process is required to obtain housing in either of the LLC dormitories.[4]
40°48′21.87″N73°57′43.02″W / 40.8060750°N 73.9619500°W /40.8060750; -73.9619500