Thursday, November 28, 2013
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Los Angeles operations
Since 1999, the college has operated the Semester in Los Angeles program which recently moved onto the premises of Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, California. The program offers highly intensive coursework for television, arts, entertainment and media management, journalism, music and film majors.
The Dance Center
The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago is one of the region's leading education centers offering programs to encourage the development of professionals in dance, and is also one of Chicago's leading presenters of world-class dance companies.
Presenting companies have included: Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Lucky Plush Productions, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Koosil-ja/danceKUMIKO, JUMP RHYTHM Jazz Project, Troika Ranch, Wayne McGregor Random Dance, and Hedwig Dances.
1306 S. Michigan Avenue, the Dance Center Building, was built in 1930 by architect Anker S. Graven.This sleek four-story Art Deco building, clad in limestone, was erected as the Paramount Publix Corporation as a film exchange, a venue for the presentation of films to the independent cinema operators throughout the Midwest who could rent them for exhibition at their theaters. The studio occupied the building up to about 1950, when it was taken over by the Equitable Life Assurance Company. In the 1970s it was known as the Seafarers International Union Building. The City of Chicago took possession of it in a tax sale in 1984, and used it for the Health Department's Environmental Health Clinic. The building was acquired by Columbia College in 1999 for use as the school's Dance Center. After extensive interior renovation and adaptation, the Dance Center opened its state-of-the-art educational and public performance facilities in the fall of 2000.
Prior to the relocation to Michigan Avenue, the Dance Center was located at 4730 North Sheridan Road in a former movie theater in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. The first floor housed the department office, lobby, dressing rooms, and the "main space", the primary dance studio. The second floor, accessed via a metal staircase in the back of the main space, held the ballet studio, the T'Chi room and music recording rooms.
Presenting companies have included: Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Lucky Plush Productions, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Koosil-ja/danceKUMIKO, JUMP RHYTHM Jazz Project, Troika Ranch, Wayne McGregor Random Dance, and Hedwig Dances.
1306 S. Michigan Avenue, the Dance Center Building, was built in 1930 by architect Anker S. Graven.This sleek four-story Art Deco building, clad in limestone, was erected as the Paramount Publix Corporation as a film exchange, a venue for the presentation of films to the independent cinema operators throughout the Midwest who could rent them for exhibition at their theaters. The studio occupied the building up to about 1950, when it was taken over by the Equitable Life Assurance Company. In the 1970s it was known as the Seafarers International Union Building. The City of Chicago took possession of it in a tax sale in 1984, and used it for the Health Department's Environmental Health Clinic. The building was acquired by Columbia College in 1999 for use as the school's Dance Center. After extensive interior renovation and adaptation, the Dance Center opened its state-of-the-art educational and public performance facilities in the fall of 2000.
Prior to the relocation to Michigan Avenue, the Dance Center was located at 4730 North Sheridan Road in a former movie theater in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. The first floor housed the department office, lobby, dressing rooms, and the "main space", the primary dance studio. The second floor, accessed via a metal staircase in the back of the main space, held the ballet studio, the T'Chi room and music recording rooms.
Getz Theater
72 East 11th Street was built in 1929 by Holabird & Root, architects of notable Chicago skyscrapers such as the Chicago Board of Trade, the Palmolive Building and the 333 North Michigan Avenue Building. 72 East 11th Street, a six- story, limestone-clad Art Deco building, was originally owned by the Chicago Women's Club and housed the organization's meeting rooms, offices and a theater. Rich in history, it was the site for rallies in support of women's voting rights, efforts on behalf of compulsory education laws and fund raising for scholarships at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a women's dormitory at the University of Chicago. Subsequent owners and uses are unknown. Acquired by Columbia in 1980 as the school's Theater Center, it currently houses a renovated 400-seat theater, classrooms, and space for film and photography studios.
Music Department
1014-16 South Michigan Avenue was built in 1912 by Christian A. Eckstorm A red brick 4-story building with terra cotta detailing, this structure was erected by a developer as a speculative commercial building. During its first 30 years, it housed offices for a shingle distributor, a lumber company and an electrical parts manufacturer. In 1941, the building was rehabilitated for the Sherwood Conservatory of Music, founded in 1895 by William H. Sherwood, a piano virtuoso, teacher and composer.The school's most famous alumna may be the comedienne Phyllis Diller, who was a piano student at the Sherwood School in the 1930s but did not graduate. The building was acquired by Columbia College Chicago in 1997 and now houses the school's music department. The artistic, cultural and performance education tradition of this building, as it was adaptively reused since the 1940s, is continued today in the programs of the Music Center of Columbia College.
1104 Wabash Campus
1104 South Wabash Avenue, built in 1891, is on the City of Chicago Landmarks (1996) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1980). Built by William LeBaron Jenney, acknowledged as the inventor of the skyscraper for his fire-proofed metal skeleton-frame designs, the Ludington Building represents his continuing experimentation as the first entirely terra cotta-clad skyscraper. The Ludington Building is also a rare survivor, one of only two extant loft buildings in Chicago built by Jenney.
This eight-story, steel-frame building, boasting one of the finest examples of a terra-cotta clad façade, was commissioned by Mary Ludington Barnes for the American Book Company (1890), which was owned by her husband, Charles Barnes. At the time, Chicago was a national center for the publishing industry, as demonstrated by this building and many others, particularly those on Chicago's Printers Row, and including the former Lakeside Press Building owned by Columbia College. The American Book Company built the building to house its offices, printing presses, packaging and shipping operations. Its frame was built to withstand the weight and vibrations of the presses, which were originally located on the fourth through sixth floors, and to accommodate the anticipated eight-story addition that was never built. Its status as a manufacturing facility determined its form as a loft building, with a practical and efficient interior that had few elegant original elements. Its location, between the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Grand Central Station at Harrison and Wells Streets and the Illinois Central Railroad's Central Station at Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Road, made it ideal for the distribution of the company's products.
The Ludington Building was owned by descendents of its original owners until 1960, although it was occupied by many different tenants, including the Pepsodent toothpaste company in the 1910s and 1920s. In 1960, it was sold to Warshawsky and Company, an autoparts firm, for use as a storage facility. The college purchased the building from Warshawsky in 1999. The Ludington currently houses the school's Center for Book and Paper Arts, a portion of the Film and Video Department, the Glass Curtain Gallery and the Conaway Multicultural Center.
This eight-story, steel-frame building, boasting one of the finest examples of a terra-cotta clad façade, was commissioned by Mary Ludington Barnes for the American Book Company (1890), which was owned by her husband, Charles Barnes. At the time, Chicago was a national center for the publishing industry, as demonstrated by this building and many others, particularly those on Chicago's Printers Row, and including the former Lakeside Press Building owned by Columbia College. The American Book Company built the building to house its offices, printing presses, packaging and shipping operations. Its frame was built to withstand the weight and vibrations of the presses, which were originally located on the fourth through sixth floors, and to accommodate the anticipated eight-story addition that was never built. Its status as a manufacturing facility determined its form as a loft building, with a practical and efficient interior that had few elegant original elements. Its location, between the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Grand Central Station at Harrison and Wells Streets and the Illinois Central Railroad's Central Station at Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Road, made it ideal for the distribution of the company's products.
The Ludington Building was owned by descendents of its original owners until 1960, although it was occupied by many different tenants, including the Pepsodent toothpaste company in the 1910s and 1920s. In 1960, it was sold to Warshawsky and Company, an autoparts firm, for use as a storage facility. The college purchased the building from Warshawsky in 1999. The Ludington currently houses the school's Center for Book and Paper Arts, a portion of the Film and Video Department, the Glass Curtain Gallery and the Conaway Multicultural Center.
South Michigan Campus
624 South Michigan Avenue was built by Christian A. Eckstorm in 1908 as an eight-story building to house the Chicago Musical College, a concern headed by Florenz Ziegfeld Sr., father of Ziegfeld Follies producer Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. A seven-story addition was designed and built in 1922 by Alfred Alschuler. The building was renamed the Blum Building and housed the studios of a dance school and boutique women's clothiers. Tenants in the building in the 1920s included Augustus Eugene Bournique's dancing schools and two select women's clothiers, Stanley Korshak's Blackstone Shop and Blum's Vogue. Brick clad with classical detailing, this 15-story building retains its period marble and brass lobby. Columbia College acquired the building in 1990 and it now houses the College's five-story library, classrooms, departmental offices, student and faculty lounges and the College's bookstore
Wabash Campus Building
623 South Wabash Avenue was built in 1895, designed by Solon S. Beman, architect of the industrial town of Pullman, one of the 19th century's largest, most complex, and globally famous planned industrial communities for the Pullman Palace Car Company. The ten-story 623 South Wabash building was originally built for the Studebaker Brothers Carriage Company of South Bend, Indiana as its Chicago regional office and warehouse facility. It was later owned by the Brunswick Corporation, makers of wood furnishings and built-in furniture for libraries, universities and a variety of public commercial and governmental facilities. By the late 19th century Brunswick became specialists in designing such entertainment furnishings as bars, billiards tables, and bowling alleys for drinking establishments nationwide. Subsequent owners are unknown. The building was acquired by Columbia in 1983 and now houses classrooms, academic offices, a computerized newsroom, sciences laboratories, art studios and two public gallery spaces. The building is also home to Anchor Graphics and ShopColumbia, a retail venue that sells the work of Columbia students and alumni artists, musicians, filmmakers etc. exclusively.
Congress Campus
The 33 East Congress Building was built in 1925-26 by noted Chicago architect Alfred S. Alschuler, who designed the 1927 Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The seven-story brick and terra cotta "Congress-Wabash Building" was commissioned by Ferdinand W. Peck, Jr., a real estate developer, and initially housed a bank, offices, and recreation rooms that included dozens of pool tables. A national billiards championship was held here in 1938. By the 1940s, the building was known by the name of its major tenant, the Congress Bank. In the 1980s, it became the home of MacCormac College. Columbia leased space in the building starting in 1997 and purchased the structure in 1999. It currently houses administrative offices, classroom space and the college's radio station (WCRX 88.1 FM). The building is home to Columbia's American Sign Language-English Interpretation, Arts and Acoustics, Journalism and Radio departments.
Alexandroff Campus Center
Located at 600 S. Michigan Avenue, Columbia College's Main Building was built in 1906-1907 by Christian A. Eckstorm, an architect popular for his industrial and warehouse designs, to serve as the headquarters of the International Harvester Company. 600 S. Michigan was a modern skyscraper of its era, built with a steel skeleton, high-speed elevators, electric light, the most advanced mechanical systems available and a floor plan designed to maximize natural light for all of its interior office spaces.The 15-story brick-clad building with classical stone detailing has an Art Deco lobby that retains much of its original marble. In 1937 the building was purchased by the Fairbanks-Morse Company, makers of railroad locomotives, farm equipment and hydraulic systems. It was acquired by Columbia College in 1975. In its early years as the home of Columbia, it was adaptively reused to house classrooms, the library, darkrooms, studios, and an auditorium. When the campus expanded through the acquisition of other buildings, especially after 1990, some of these functions, such as the greatly expanded library, were moved to other locations, and the spaces were again adapted for new uses. The building continues to serve as the administrative center of the College, and houses the Museum of Contemporary Photography on its first two floors, along with the 180-seat Ferguson Memorial Theater, photography darkrooms, three professional television studios, film/video editing facilities, and classrooms.
About Columbia College
Columbia College Chicago was founded in 1890 as the Columbia School of Oratory by Mary A. Blood and Ida Morey Riley, both graduates of the Monroe Conservatory of Oratory (now Emerson College), in Boston, Massachusetts. Blood became the College's first president, serving in this capacity until her death in 1927. The women established a co-educational school that "should stand for high ideals, for the teaching of expression by methods truly educational, for the gospel of good cheer, and for the building of sterling good character" in the Stevens' Art Gallery Building, 24 East Adams Street.
After Riley's death in 1901, the school changed its name to the Columbia College of Expression in 1905, adding coursework in teaching to the curriculum. In 1928, the college was associated with the Pestalozzi-Froebel Teachers College, a family-run school centered on training its students for teaching kindergarten. By 1934, Columbia College curriculum also focused on the growing field of radio broadcasting.
In 1944, the college left its partnership with the Pestalozzi-Froebel school and changed its name to Columbia College with Norman Alexandroff as its president. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the college broadened its educational base to include television, journalism, marketing, and other mass-communication areas. Prosperity was short lived, however, and by 1961, the college held fewer than 200 students and a part-time faculty of 25.
In 1961, Mirron (Mike) Alexandroff, son of Norman Alexandroff, who had worked at the school since 1947, became president, and created a liberal-arts college with a "hands-on minds-on" approach to arts and media education with a progressive social agenda. He established a generous-admissions policy[9] so that qualified high school graduates could attend college courses taught by some of the most influential and creative professionals in Chicago. For the next thirty years, Alexandroff worked to build the college into an urban institution that helped to change the face of higher education.
With this renewed focus on building its academic program, the institution was awarded full accreditation in 1974 from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and in 1984, received accreditation for its graduate programs. In 1975, when the college's enrollment exceeded 2,000, it purchased its first real estate, the 175,000-square-foot (16,300 m2) building at 600 South Michigan Avenue (the building is now known as the Alexandroff Campus Center). At the time of Alexandroff's retirement in 1992, the college served 6,791 students and owned or rented more than 643,000 square feet (59,700 m2) of instructional, performance and administrative space.
From 1992 until 2000, John B. Duff, former commissioner of the Chicago Public Library and former chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education, served as the college's president. During his tenure, the college changed its name to Columbia College Chicago[when?] and the institution continued to expand its educational programs and add to its physical campus by purchasing available buildings in the South Loop. This played a significant part in its presence in the South Loop and downtown Chicago. Today, the college's campus occupies almost two dozen buildings and utilizes over 2.5 million square feet.
In 2000, Dr. Warrick L. Carter became the college's president. An educator, jazz composer and performing artist, Carter joined the college from The Walt Disney Company, where he spent four years as director of entertainment arts. Previously, he had spent 12 years at Berklee College of Music in Boston, one of the world's-largest independent schools of music, where he served as dean of faculty and then provost and vice president of academic affairs.
Through 2010, under his leadership, the college created new student-based initiatives such as Manifest,the annual urban arts festival celebrating Columbia's graduating students, and ShopColumbia a store where students can showcase and sell their work on campus; partnered with local universities to construct the University Center; purchased new campus buildings; added new curricula; and oversaw the college's first newly constructed building, the Media Production Center.
Recently, the college has continued forth with its mission of providing a strong arts and media education and has a growing program of international exchanges, including associations with Dublin Institute of Technology and the University of East London. Through the vast diversity of students and graduates, the school brings a rich vision and a multiplicity of voices to American culture, encouraging students to "author the culture of their times".
However, Columbia has not been exempt from internal and external criticism in recent years. During the 2011-2012 school year, the college administration attempted to implement a set of sweeping changes to the college's curriculum, staffing policies, and overall institutional structure, through an initiative dubbed Blueprint | Prioritization. As the specifics of the changes and cutbacks came to light over the course of the school year, students and faculty from affected departments and majors vocalized their opposition to the cutbacks by staging protests during administrative meetings, mic-checking Interim Provost Louise Love during an open hearing about the proposed cutbacks, and circulating petitions calling for certain decisions, and even the entire process, to be reversed, citing "union busting" practices, consistent tuition hikes, and frequent, unexplained personnel changes across the college.
Press coverage and local awareness of the college's troubles surrounding Prioritization increased rapidly after Deanna Issacs, a reporter for the Chicago Reader, was shut out of President Warrick Carter's annual State of the College Address to the student body, which had been advertised as "open to the public." [18] During the meeting, at which the President had been questioned extensively by students about cutbacks and tuition hikes, Carter appeared to lose his temper at one point, aggressively telling a student to "shut up," in his response to a question about his salary, which exceeds $400,000 per year. In addition to the Reader, the grievances voiced over the Blueprint | Prioritization cutbacks received coverage in the Chicago Tribune, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Time Out Chicago.
As of September 2012, most of the proposed changes from Prioritization have yet to be implemented. Programs and departments that were at one point or another slated for cuts include the Center for Black Music Research, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media the Fiction Writing Department (whose Chair was let go without explanation after 20+ years of service in April 2011, only to be reinstated just months later after a student uproar over the firing), the college's recycling program, which employed student workers to collect refuse, and the top-10 ranked Cultural Studies program,one of the few standalone undergraduate programs of its kind in the nation.
On May 9, 2012, President Warrick Carter announced he would retire a year earlier than expected, stepping down at the end of the 2012-13 academic year.
On July 1, 2013, Dr. Kwang-Wu Kim became Columbia College's 10th president.
After Riley's death in 1901, the school changed its name to the Columbia College of Expression in 1905, adding coursework in teaching to the curriculum. In 1928, the college was associated with the Pestalozzi-Froebel Teachers College, a family-run school centered on training its students for teaching kindergarten. By 1934, Columbia College curriculum also focused on the growing field of radio broadcasting.
In 1944, the college left its partnership with the Pestalozzi-Froebel school and changed its name to Columbia College with Norman Alexandroff as its president. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the college broadened its educational base to include television, journalism, marketing, and other mass-communication areas. Prosperity was short lived, however, and by 1961, the college held fewer than 200 students and a part-time faculty of 25.
In 1961, Mirron (Mike) Alexandroff, son of Norman Alexandroff, who had worked at the school since 1947, became president, and created a liberal-arts college with a "hands-on minds-on" approach to arts and media education with a progressive social agenda. He established a generous-admissions policy[9] so that qualified high school graduates could attend college courses taught by some of the most influential and creative professionals in Chicago. For the next thirty years, Alexandroff worked to build the college into an urban institution that helped to change the face of higher education.
With this renewed focus on building its academic program, the institution was awarded full accreditation in 1974 from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and in 1984, received accreditation for its graduate programs. In 1975, when the college's enrollment exceeded 2,000, it purchased its first real estate, the 175,000-square-foot (16,300 m2) building at 600 South Michigan Avenue (the building is now known as the Alexandroff Campus Center). At the time of Alexandroff's retirement in 1992, the college served 6,791 students and owned or rented more than 643,000 square feet (59,700 m2) of instructional, performance and administrative space.
From 1992 until 2000, John B. Duff, former commissioner of the Chicago Public Library and former chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education, served as the college's president. During his tenure, the college changed its name to Columbia College Chicago[when?] and the institution continued to expand its educational programs and add to its physical campus by purchasing available buildings in the South Loop. This played a significant part in its presence in the South Loop and downtown Chicago. Today, the college's campus occupies almost two dozen buildings and utilizes over 2.5 million square feet.
In 2000, Dr. Warrick L. Carter became the college's president. An educator, jazz composer and performing artist, Carter joined the college from The Walt Disney Company, where he spent four years as director of entertainment arts. Previously, he had spent 12 years at Berklee College of Music in Boston, one of the world's-largest independent schools of music, where he served as dean of faculty and then provost and vice president of academic affairs.
Through 2010, under his leadership, the college created new student-based initiatives such as Manifest,the annual urban arts festival celebrating Columbia's graduating students, and ShopColumbia a store where students can showcase and sell their work on campus; partnered with local universities to construct the University Center; purchased new campus buildings; added new curricula; and oversaw the college's first newly constructed building, the Media Production Center.
Recently, the college has continued forth with its mission of providing a strong arts and media education and has a growing program of international exchanges, including associations with Dublin Institute of Technology and the University of East London. Through the vast diversity of students and graduates, the school brings a rich vision and a multiplicity of voices to American culture, encouraging students to "author the culture of their times".
However, Columbia has not been exempt from internal and external criticism in recent years. During the 2011-2012 school year, the college administration attempted to implement a set of sweeping changes to the college's curriculum, staffing policies, and overall institutional structure, through an initiative dubbed Blueprint | Prioritization. As the specifics of the changes and cutbacks came to light over the course of the school year, students and faculty from affected departments and majors vocalized their opposition to the cutbacks by staging protests during administrative meetings, mic-checking Interim Provost Louise Love during an open hearing about the proposed cutbacks, and circulating petitions calling for certain decisions, and even the entire process, to be reversed, citing "union busting" practices, consistent tuition hikes, and frequent, unexplained personnel changes across the college.
Press coverage and local awareness of the college's troubles surrounding Prioritization increased rapidly after Deanna Issacs, a reporter for the Chicago Reader, was shut out of President Warrick Carter's annual State of the College Address to the student body, which had been advertised as "open to the public." [18] During the meeting, at which the President had been questioned extensively by students about cutbacks and tuition hikes, Carter appeared to lose his temper at one point, aggressively telling a student to "shut up," in his response to a question about his salary, which exceeds $400,000 per year. In addition to the Reader, the grievances voiced over the Blueprint | Prioritization cutbacks received coverage in the Chicago Tribune, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Time Out Chicago.
As of September 2012, most of the proposed changes from Prioritization have yet to be implemented. Programs and departments that were at one point or another slated for cuts include the Center for Black Music Research, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media the Fiction Writing Department (whose Chair was let go without explanation after 20+ years of service in April 2011, only to be reinstated just months later after a student uproar over the firing), the college's recycling program, which employed student workers to collect refuse, and the top-10 ranked Cultural Studies program,one of the few standalone undergraduate programs of its kind in the nation.
On May 9, 2012, President Warrick Carter announced he would retire a year earlier than expected, stepping down at the end of the 2012-13 academic year.
On July 1, 2013, Dr. Kwang-Wu Kim became Columbia College's 10th president.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
