Pace opens new residential hall and science center

The first phase of a $100 million master plan to revitalize Pace University’s Pleasantville campus inched closer to completion this week as the grand opening of the new Alumni Hall residential building and Environmental Center Complex was held Oct. 15.

University, county and local officials welcomed more than 200 attendees to the ribbon-cutting event, which marked the completion of the 125,000-square-foot Alumni Hall, which houses primarily first-year students.

The four-story hall, which opened to students in September, houses 540 students in suite-style dorms and includes two classrooms, study areas, lounges and a coffee shop on the first floor scheduled to open next month. Each suite houses four students and includes dry-erase walls in its hallways.

The Environmental Center Complex includes a classroom building, a replica of the school’s former farmhouse building and a museum featuring various animals.

Pace University President Stephen J. Friedman said the new additions are meant to create a “new sense of student life” at the 200-acre Pleasantville campus, adding he is excited to complete the school’s master plan in the coming years.

“This is symbolic of the new Pace,” Friedman said. “This area used to be roads and parking lots. Now it’s filled with students and classrooms. The buildings are truly extraordinary.”

A second residence hall adjacent to Alumni Hall currently under construction is expected to be completed by next summer and will open to students in fall 2016. The new dorms will allow students living at the school’s Briarcliff Manor campus who commute to Pleasantville after classes to remain on the same campus.

The 125,000-square-foot Alumni Hall opened for students last month.

 

The second dorm will mark the completion of the first phase of the master plan, after which the plan’s focus will shift away from the 861 Bedford Road campus in Pleasantville. The next phase will focus on Pace’s Manhattan campus at 1 Pace Plaza.

In June, Pace announced it was selling its 37-acre, nine-building campus at 235 Elm Road in Briarcliff Manor as well as its 82,000-square-foot, five-floor Lubin Graduate Center space at 1 Martine Ave. in White Plains as part of a plan to consolidate its campuses and create a central, expanded campus in Pleasantville.

The opening of Alumni Hall and the Environmental Center Complex follows the April reopening of the renovated Jeanette and Morris Kessel Student Center and the recently completed Peter X. Finnerty baseball field and the new Pace Stadium. University officials said the new 14,000-square-foot Ianniello Field House, named after CBS Corp. COO and Pace Trustee Joseph Ianniello ”” who donated $2 million for its construction ”” is scheduled to be completed in November.

Pace Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Westchester William J. McGrath said the new Pleasantville buildings were designed around creating a sense of community in the center of campus.

The school added 40 more students this fall than it did last year.

“We’ve gone from being way behind the pack to having world-class facilities,” he said of the recent improvements.

Mount Pleasant Town Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi called the university’s master plan a “positive development” for Mount Pleasant, adding he was “ecstatic” to see the completion of Alumni Hall.

Those who attended Thursday’s event also included Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences Dean Nira Herrmann and Pace Trustee Mark M. Besca.

In remarks to those attending event, Astorino called Westchester the “intellectual capital” of New York due to its number of degree holders and joked that, due to the recent campus revitalization, he would attend Pace over Fordham if he had to do college all over again. He said the county’s Local Development Corporation provided Pace with $98 million in tax-exempt bonds to finance the project.

“I’m just happy Westchester County could play a small role in this,” Astorino said. “This is what 21st century education is all about.”

Herrmann said the new environmental complex allows the school to expand its programs, including a new Master’s degree offering in environmental policy, as well as its faculty. The new institute will oversee all environmental programs, she said, and honey and eggs will be produced at the new replica farmhouse. First-year students will take “University 101,” a required freshman seminar, at one of Alumni Hall’s two classrooms.

“This is the first time we’ve had all of our environmental programs contiguous,” Herrmann, who has been on the Pace faculty for a decade, said. “Everyone here is just really excited.”