The Interchurch Center
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The Interchurch Center is a 19-story limestone-clad office building located at 475 Riverside Drive and West 120th Street in
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 ...
,
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 ...
. It is the headquarters for the international humanitarian ministry
Church World Service Church World Service (CWS) was founded in 1946 and is a cooperative ministry of 37 Christian denominations and communions, providing sustainable self-help, development, disaster relief, and refugee assistance around the world. The CWS mission is ...
, and also houses a wide variety of church agencies and ecumenical and interfaith organizations as well as some nonprofit foundations and faith-related organizations, including the
Religion Communicators Council The Religion Communicators Council is an American nonprofit organization representing marketing, communications and public relations officers from 60 different faith-based institutions in the United States. Founded in 1929 as the Religious Publicit ...
. The
National Council of Churches The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, usually identified as the National Council of Churches (NCC), is the largest ecumenical body in the United States. NCC is an ecumenical partnership of 38 Christian faith groups in the Uni ...
also occupied the building from its inception, but in February 2013, the NCC consolidated its offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and vacated its New York headquarters facilities. NCC's sister agency, Church World Service, remains a tenant in the building. Its concentration of religious organizations has led some to nickname the building the God Box.
Samuel G. Freedman Samuel G. Freedman is an American author and journalist and currently a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has authored six nonfiction books, including ''Who She Was: A Son's Search for His Mother's Life'', a ...
describes the building as "the closest thing to a
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
for America’s
mainline Protestant The mainline Protestant churches (also called mainstream Protestant and sometimes oldline Protestant) are a group of Protestant denominations in the United States that contrast in history and practice with evangelical, fundamentalist, and charis ...
denominations." The mainline churches include the Episcopal,
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
,
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
,
Reformed Church in America The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a Mainline Protestant, mainline Reformed tradition, Reformed Protestant Christian denomination, denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 152,317 members. From its beginning in 1628 unti ...
,
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
and
United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximately 4 ...
denominations. But across the years many of them moved their headquarters closer to the majority of their constituents, leaving only certain divisions or offices in the New York facilities. The Center benefits from a strong religious and educational environment. One of its tenants is the
New York Theological Seminary The New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) is a private non-denominational Christian seminary in New York City. It was founded in 1900 as the Bible Teacher's College. In 2019, Rev. LaKeesha Walrond was appointed as the first woman and the first Af ...
. The building is located immediately south of
Riverside Church Riverside Church is an interdenominational church in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Mornin ...
and west of Union Theological Seminary and
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 ...
, and is a short walk to Jewish Theological Seminary,
Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...
, the
Korean Methodist Church and Institute Korean Methodist Church and Institute (뉴욕한인교회), also known as KMCI, is a United Methodist Church established in 1921 located in New York City. The church is located at 633 West 115th Street. Beginning Korea was annexed by Japan in 19 ...
, and the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The building is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10115; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes .


History

The Center was built in 1958 with gifts by
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in ...
and other donors, together with a consortium of religious denominations, with the objective of encouraging cooperative work among such diverse religious groups as the Orthodox, African-American, and mainstream Protestant denominations and to foster the growth of ecumenical bodies such as the National Council of Churches. A condition of the Rockefeller gift was that the exterior of the structure had to be clad in the same color limestone as Riverside Church, across 120th Street, the Rockefeller's church home at the time. In the presence of a crowd of more than 30,000 gathered at the building site, the Center's cornerstone was laid by then-President
Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
, whose Secretary of State,
John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (, ; February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. He served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 and was briefly ...
, and Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare,
Arthur S. Flemming Arthur Sherwood Flemming (June 12, 1905September 7, 1996) was an American government official. He served as the United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1958 until 1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration ...
, were active in the work of the National Council of Churches.


Incidents

In 1969,
James Forman James Forman (October 4, 1928 – January 10, 2005) was a prominent African-American leader in the civil rights movement. He was active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panther Party, and the League of Revolutio ...
,
civil rights activist Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
and executive director of the National Black Economic Development Conference (NBEDC), led a series of sit-ins at denominational offices in the building, demanding that the denominations pay
reparations Reparation(s) may refer to: Christianity * Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation * Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin History *War reparations **World War I reparations, made from G ...
to black Americans. At the height of the protests, half of the Center's 2,000 employees stayed away from work in support of Forman. Tenants of the building eventually obtained an injunction from the
New York State Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
, barring Forman and the NBEDC from the building. Hands Around the God Box, an interfaith prayer vigil to end religious homophobia, was held at the Interchurch Center on June 24, 1994. More than 500 people from 15 LGBTQ religious groups joined hands and were linked by a rainbow ribbon that completely encircled the building.


Tenants

The Center's current occupants include mission boards, pension boards, and other agencies of several national denominations. Expanding on its original mission of providing a collaborative environment for a community of widely differing Christian denominations and their ecumenical activities, the Center now also houses a growing number of interfaith groups, including Odyssey Networks and The Interfaith Center of New York, plus several Jewish and Muslim organizations. Over the 50-year history of the facility, some national churches such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA), following mergers with sister churches, relocated their primary offices to cities nearer to the majority of their constituencies, but have continued to maintain significant operations in the Interchurch Center. Several city and state denominational offices, the
Council of Churches of the City of New York The Council of Churches of the City of New York (CCCNY) was established in 1815 as the Brooklyn Church and Mission Society. It is the oldest ecumenical council of churches in the United States.New York Theological Seminary The New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) is a private non-denominational Christian seminary in New York City. It was founded in 1900 as the Bible Teacher's College. In 2019, Rev. LaKeesha Walrond was appointed as the first woman and the first Af ...
, and offices of The Rockefeller Brothers Fund. National interfaith ministries in the building include
Religion Communicators Council The Religion Communicators Council is an American nonprofit organization representing marketing, communications and public relations officers from 60 different faith-based institutions in the United States. Founded in 1929 as the Religious Publicit ...
, Odyssey Networks (a religious media distribution agency of the
National Interfaith Cable Coalition National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...
), and the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility.


Architecture

The simplicity of the building's architecture, intended to complement rather than compete with the gothic architecture of surrounding institutional buildings, has caused some critics to disparage its design.
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 ...
architecture historian
Andrew Dolkart Andrew Scott Dolkart is a professor of Historic Preservation at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and the former Director of the school's Historic Preservation Program. Professor Dolkart i ...
calls the Center "an undistinguished, bulky, limestone building." Other critics have called it "clumsily articulated," and "a squat cube".


Facilities and services

Amenities provided to organizations and agencies who occupy the Center are: * ecumenical chapel, complete with a major pipe organ installation; * conference center with multiple breakout spaces, auditorium, boardroom; * wellness center, offering travel immunizations, and medical consultations to the general public; * ecumenical library, with 17,000 books and 55 periodical titles; * full-service cafeteria, buffet dining room, and catering operation; * art gallery where paintings, sculpture and photography exhibits are rotated throughout the year. * multi-level parking garage beneath the building. A Wednesday noontime concert series during the spring and fall features classical, gospel, jazz and choral music at no charge and open to the general public. The Interchurch Center Chorus and the Gospel Choir, both populated by tenant employees, present periodic concerts in the Center's chapel.


Transportation

The Interchurch Center is served by the bus on Riverside Drive, buses along Broadway, and the buses on Amsterdam Avenue. In addition, the of the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
stops at 125th Street and Broadway.


See also

*
Ecumenical Centre The Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, is located in the vicinity of the International Labour Organization, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and the World Health Organization and serves as the base for the following church ...
, another building complex for multiple religious organizations in Geneva, Switzerland


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Interchurch Center Christianity in the United States Office buildings in Manhattan Morningside Heights, Manhattan