Haaren Hall (New York City, New York)

7-story Flemish-Renaissance education building originally completed in 1903 as a 6-story building. Designed by Charles B.J. Snyder to house De Witt Clinton High School, the building was said to be the biggest high school building in the United States at the time. After the school moved to the Bronx in 1929, this building became Haaren High School, which closed in the late 1970s. It was acquired by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 1988 to become its main campus building, named Haaren Hall. It contains the Lloyd Sealy Library, a gymnasium, and a swimming pool, as well as housing the majority of the administrative departments and classrooms. Haaren Hall is now connected a 3-story podium (topped by a landscaped roof terrace known as the Jay Walk) to the New Building at the west side of the block.

The facades are clad in red brick and terra-cotta above a 2-story limestone base (although due to the slope of the site, the base at the east end has only one floor level). The building has north and south wings above the base that wrap around a raised courtyard, now topped by a glass atrium. The central, main entrance facing 10th Avenue is approached by a set of stone steps, bordered by stone side walls, narrowing inward toward the top; there is a smaller set of steps at the left, and a long ramp at the right. The landing is recessed behind a large stone arch, flanked by a pair of smaller arches, each topped by a cartouche. At the rear of the entry vestibule, the main arch conceals a pair of revolving doors, and the two flanking arches each have a set of glass double-doors; pointed-arched with friezes enframe each of these doorways. The vaulted ceiling of the vestibule has hanging light fixtures and a carved medallion at both of the side walls. In front, four columns frame the arches, topped with stylized capitals, and extending up as thinner octagonal pillars topped by elaborate finials. Between the middle two pillars is a wide entablature with a carved panel reading "JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE"; this top of the entablature has notched upper corners with "1903" and a pair of rosettes in between, and is surmounted by a gable featuring an eagle set in a wreath, its wings spread and uplifted, in front of a crowning urn. Between the end pillars are panels with elaborate shields and various foliate ornament. Four flagpoles rise up from behind the pillars. To the outside of the entryway arches there is an arched window on both sides. The center section is framed by paired pillars that are angled as the end wings jut slightly forward; these pillars are very similar to those in the center, but with differing obelisk-shaped finials on top. In between them and the center pillars is a section of stone balustrade on both sides.

The end wings are symmetrical. They have two bays of large, arched tripartite windows at the base, with beveled moldings. A stone cornice caps the base. The brick upper floors have two bays of square-headed tripartite windows in keyed terra-cotta surrounds. A bracketed terra-cotta cornice (with faces adorning the brackets) sets off the 6th floor, where the windows are topped by arched lintels with alternating splayed blocks of red and terra-cotta. The keystone of each arch has a carved bust over a shield, flanked by hanging pendants. At the end blocks of the arches, projecting, squared stone pillars have bases featuring carved figures holding books, and these extend up to frame the Flemish gables that erupt from each bay at the roof line.

The walls facing inward on the courtyard and atrium have matching tripartite bays at the east ends, complete with gables at the top; these are topped by copper roofs. Farther back, there is a bay of single-windows, and then three more bays of tripartite windows, arched at the top floor. The rear east-facing wall, above the courtyard, has two bays of double-windows in a projecting center section (with the same basic design elements as the rest of the bays), and a side bay of double-windows to either side topped by a gable. The two center bays have a steep-pitched attic level, with two narrow single-windows above the arches and a central single-window higher still (all surrounded by ornate terra-cotta detailing). An oversized Flemish gable forms the front of this attic, with steep copper roofs on the north and south sides. A newer glassed-in top floor is slightly set back from the original facades, and connects the steep copper roofs of the end gables on both wings and the central attic roof.

The north and south facades have slightly projecting pavilions at both ends, with tripartite window bays. In between there is a single-window bay framing the middle four main bays, also with tripartite windows and gables at the tops. As these facades make their way to the west, the low basement windows grow taller, becoming a full floor at the west end. The 2nd middle bay from the west on both facades have service entrances with metal doors, but still framed by limestone arches and ornament including owls in niches on either side, rosette panels, and crowning seashells.

The building was renovated and expanded to the west in 1988 by Rafael Viñoly when it was purchased by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The expansion (now connected to the podium and Jay Walk that links Haaren Hall with the New Building) is clad in red brick (and painted stone at the base), and incorporates the west end bay of the original facades into the expansion. The base is lightly rusticated; on the south facade it has a loading dock near the east end, and a trio of paired metal service doors at the west end. Two wide openings, set up high on the ground floor and filled with glass blocks, are located between the two ends. The 2nd floor has six single-windows and is topped by a small cornice. The 3rd floor has four bays of square 2-over-2 windows. The north facade has another loading dock at the ground floor, with various metal service doors to the west; there are no openings at the 2nd floor. The 3rd floor has a wide metal vent near the west end, and a square opening with green metal infill at the east edge of the 4th floor. At both the north and south facades of the Vinoly-designed extension, the double-height top floors is set off by a bracketed cornice. At the east end, the western gable of the original building is enveloped by the brick and modified into a triangular window, with short, stepped lintels above forming a peak. To the west are two large, recessed openings, and a single-window at the west end.

The new interior program was designed by Rafael Viñoly.

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