Casa Italiana is a building at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

located at 1161 Amsterdam Avenue between West 116th and 118th Streets in the

Morningside Heights Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

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, which houses the university's Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America. It was built in 1926–27 and was designed by William M. Kendall of

McKim, Mead & White McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm that came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in fin de siècle New York. The firm's founding partners Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), Wil ...

in the

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

, modeled after a 15th-century

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

palazzo A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

. The building was restored, and the east facade completed, in 1996 by Buttrick White & Burtis with

Italo Rota Italo Rota (Milan, 2 October 1953) is an Italian architect. Biography Born in Milan in 1953, he obtained a degree in Architecture at Milan Polytechnic University in 1982. Before that, he had started off in the architecture firms of Franco Alb ...

as associate architect.

History

In the 1920s, Italian student clubs ''il Circolo Italiano'' at Columbia and Barnard mobilized support for a Casa Italiana project. Columbia President

Nicholas Murray Butler Nicholas Murray Butler () was an American philosopher, diplomat, and educator. Butler was president of Columbia University, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the deceased Ja ...

embraced the idea. The Casa campaign was led in New York by the students and by Judge John J. Freschi (who helped raise money). They reached out to New York developers Joseph Paterno, Anthony Campagna and Michael Paterno, who erected the building and covered all costs beyond contributions. Some support came from abroad: Italy’s Fascist leader Benito Mussolini expressed enthusiasm, but he promised more than he gave. Records show only some scholarship funding from the Fascist government, and a pledge of antique furniture “to be obtained in Italy through the help of Mussolini”—but this donation never materialized, and the furnishings and artwork came instead from domestic patrons.

, the firm responsible for the layout of Columbia's campus, created an impressive neo-Renaissance design for the Casa Italiana with limestone cladding all over, which set it apart from all other buildings on campus except for the imposing Low Library. Modeled on Roman ''palazzi'' of the Renaissance, the building opened in 1927. Dr. Charles Paterno generously gave 20,000 leather-bound books and funding for the Casa's original library. In 1991, the Italian Republic purchased the property for $17.5 million and leased it back to Columbia for 500 years. Renovations were undertaken, the remaining Paterno collection of books was moved to the

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...

Library (many books had gone to Butler over the decades already, as the collection outgrew the Casa's Library early on), and the Italian Department was relocated from the Casa Italiana to its current home in Hamilton Hall, and The Casa building became the seat of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, a center for research in the humanities and sciences. A new mission was proclaimed in its Charter: “to offer a privileged vision of Europe from an Italian perspective.” Overseeing the Italian Academy is a board of guarantors, half being appointed by the university and half by the Italian government.Newcomer, Eric P
"Italian-American Group Suing Columbia for Misuse of Building Development Gift"
''

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'' (August 23, 2012) In 2012, a lawsuit filed by the Italic Institute, an advocacy group, in conjunction with the surviving Paterno Family, claimed that Columbia had breached its responsibilities in regard to the building's use. It claimed that the University violated the donative intent of 1927 by converting the building from a cultural center opened to the students of Columbia and the seat of the Department of Italian to a restricted research facility. The New York State Supreme Court dismissed the suit for “lack of standing" and did not rule on the substance of the complaint. Casa Italiana is one of three buildings on Columbia's campus that is designated by the

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

, having achieved that status in 1978. It was also added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1982.

References

External links

''In The Italian American experience: an encyclopedia''

The Italian Academy
{{National Register of Historic Places in New York, state=collapsed Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan Buildings and structures completed in 1927 Columbia University campus University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Morningside Heights, Manhattan McKim, Mead & White buildings 1927 establishments in New York City

History

See also

References

External links