Borough of Manhattan Community College (New York City, New York)

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Founded in 1963, Borough of Manhattan Community College, or BMCC is one of six two-year colleges within the City University of New York (CUNY) system and the only one in Manhattan. Originally, BMCC offered business-oriented and liberal arts degrees for those intending to enter the business world or transfer to a four-year college. Its original campus was scattered all over midtown Manhattan, utilizing office space wherever available. In the mid-1970s CUNY began scouting for suitable property on which to erect a new campus of its own.

The current campus has been in use since 1983. The exceptionally long 7-story brutalist main building on the West Side Highway spans 4 city blocks in length. Designed by the Caudill Rowlett Scott Partnership, it is clad in reddish-brown square brick tiles, concrete and stone, a portion of the building actually passes over Harrison Street. The 3rd floor has a recessed ribbon of windows, with round white columns supporting the floors above. At one section of the west facade, near the south end, the 4th & 5th floors have recessed bays angling 45 degrees inward. At the far north end of the building, the top four floors are cantilevered out, supported by further tall, white columns. The massive building houses 79 classrooms and seminar rooms, numerous laboratories, and three lecture halls, the campus library, a 913-seat auditorium, a 262-seat theater, and a 99-seat drama workshop.

Currently, with an enrollment of over 19,000 students[1], BMCC grants associate's degrees in a wide variety of vocational, business, health, science, and continuing education fields. As with all schools in the City University system, students must complete the CUNY Proficiency Exam (CPE) upon completing their second year in order to either obtain the associate's degree or transfer to a baccalaureate program at one of CUNY's four-year colleges.

Advertising itself to potential students under the motto, "Start Here. Go Anywhere," its student body is nearly two-thirds female and boasts a median age of 24 with attending students hailing from over 100 different countries, and a faculty of nearly 1,000 full-time and adjunct professors. Another 10,000 students are enrolled in BMCC's distance learning programs.

Borough of Manhattan Community College
The City University of New York
199 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007
212-220-8000

www.bmcc.cuny.edu/about_bmcc/page.jsp?pid=1004&n=Campus...
www.bmcc.cuny.edu/floorplan/index.html