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Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, officially known as Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at Baker Athletics Complex, is a stadium in the Inwood neighborhood at the northern tip of the island 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 ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Part of
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 ...
's Baker Athletics Complex, it is primarily used for
American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
,
lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...
, and
track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...
events. The stadium opened in 1984 and holds 17,100 people.


Baker Athletics Complex history

The Baker Athletics Complex, originally Baker Field, is Columbia's outdoor athletic complex. Previously, all outdoor teams had played on South Field, across 116th Street from Low Memorial Library, the field where
Lou Gehrig Henry Louis Gehrig (born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig ; June 19, 1903June 2, 1941) was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig was renowned f ...
played for the Lions; it is now partially covered by
Butler Library Butler Library is located on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University at 535 West 114th Street, in Manhattan, New York City. It is the university's largest single library with over 2 million volumes, as well as one of the larges ...
. The athletic complex is located between the corner of Broadway and West 218th Street and Spuyten Duyvil Creek – the confluence of the
Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...
and Hudson rivers – in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, at the northern tip of Manhattan Island. It was purchased for the university by financier George Fisher Baker for $700,000 in December 1921. It was dedicated the following April, but it was not until 1923 that the team began playing there. A 32,000-seat wooden stadium was built on the site in 1928; this was in use until 1982, when it was demolished to make room for the current Wien Stadium.


The "new" stadium

Wien opened on September 22, 1984, with a game that ended in a loss to
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. The first home win at the stadium came on October 8, 1988, over
Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
. The 10,500-seat southeast (home side) stands were built first; the 6,500-seat northwest stands opened two years later. The stadium is named for
Lawrence Wien Lawrence Arthur Wien (May 30, 1905 – December 10, 1988) was an American lawyer, philanthropist, and real estate investor.Robert Kraft Robert Kenneth Kraft (born June 5, 1941) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Kraft Group, a diversified holding company with assets in paper and packaging, sports and entertainment ...
, class of 1963, the field was named in his honor on October 13, 2007. For the first 11 seasons, Wien Stadium had grass and then
AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has ...
from 1995 to 2004 but as of 2005 has since switched to FieldTurf.


Possible replacement

In April 2015,
New York City FC New York City Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in New York City that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), the highest level of American soccer, as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. The club is co-owned b ...
of
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...
was reported to be considering building a new stadium at the Baker Athletics Complex. The Lawrence A. Wien Stadium would be demolished and replaced by a 25,000-seat stadium to be used by both NYCFC and the Columbia Lions.


Transformation to COVID field hospital

In response to the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirme ...
,
NewYork-Presbyterian The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New Y ...
/
Columbia University Irving Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC), also known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), is an academic medical center and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. It includes ...
turned Robert K. Kraft Field and
Columbia Soccer Stadium The Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium is a 3,500 seat soccer-specific stadium located in Inwood, on the northernmost tip of the island of Manhattan, New York City, within the Baker Athletic Complex. The stadium is named in honor of Rocco B. Comm ...
into a 288-bed field hospital. The field hospital is named for decorated US Navy SEAL Ryan F. Larkin (1987–2017), who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kate Kemplin, head nurse of the operation, described Larkin as "exactly the kind of person who would have set up a tent to treat patients, if he were alive today." The care center was staffed primarily with former US military personnel in conjunction with NewYork-Presbyterian's frontline staff.


See also

*
List of NCAA Division I FCS football stadiums The following is a list of current National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) football stadiums in the United States. Conference affiliations reflect those for the comi ...


References


External links


Columbia Athletics Facilities: Lawrence A. Wien Stadium

Baker Field history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robert K. Kraft Field At Lawrence A. Wien Stadium Columbia Lions football Columbia University Inwood, Manhattan U.S. Route 9 College football venues College lacrosse venues in the United States College soccer venues in the United States College track and field venues in the United States
Giants A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore. Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to: Mythology and religion *Giants (Greek mythology) *Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'gi ...
Athletics (track and field) venues in New York City Lacrosse venues in New York City Soccer venues in New York City Sports venues in Manhattan Sports venues completed in 1984 1984 establishments in New York City