McMahon Residential Hall | dormitory, high-rise, 1992_construction

 dormitory, high-rise, 1992_construction

222-foot, 20-story modernist residential building completed in 1992. Designed by Schuman, Lichtenstein, Claman & Efron, McMahon Hall is a Fordham University dormitory for its Lincoln Center campus. It exclusively houses Fordham students, the vast majority of which are undergraduates, though about 10% of the residents are graduate students (mostly from the Fordham University School of Law, located on 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues). Being predominantly an undergraduate dorm, it is seen as the crucible of much of Fordham at Lincoln Center's social life; as such, all freshman are required to live there and most reside there through all four of their years at Fordham.

It is clad in beige brick with darker grey brick accents. The main south facade is symmetrical, with a central entrance that has glass-and-metal doors framed by a grid of glass, below a peaked metal canopy. On either side, a low retaining wall with a granite cap holds shrubbery. To either side of the entrance are four bays of large openings with grids of light-blue glass in metal framing; the 3rd bay to either side is wider than the others, and projects slightly forward, along with the center entry bay, and the wider end wings, the west one having a pair of metal vents, and the east one having a 1-story section projecting out to the sidewalk with a trio of loading docks.

At the upper floors the projecting end sections both have two bays of single-windows. There are three 2-bay projecting sections across the middle of the facade, each with a pair of asymmetrical double-windows with separate lower panes; these windows wrap around the outer corners of the projecting sections to narrow side panes. Most of these windows have black metal air-conditioning vents built into their inner-lower panes, while all the other windows have vents below the actual windows. Between the three middle projecting sections, there are two 2-bay sections, each with single-windows. A final bay of single-windows is located between the projecting end wings and the outer of the three projecting middle sections. Bands of grey brick run across each floor, and between the bays at the end wings there are small accent squares of grey brick at the level of the vents. The end wings terminate at the 18th floor, while the rest of the facade continues up to the main roof line.

The north facade has two wings enclosing a courtyard. The north end of both wings have two bays of single-windows. The rear, north facing wall of the courtyard has a projecting center section with two bays of double-windows, and projecting end bays of double-windows, each of which wraps around the respective corners. In between are two recessed bays of single-windows on both sides. The north wings end at the 17th floor, with a narrow, windowless outer section extending up to the main roof line. The east and west facades have a projecting south section with a bay of tripartite windows at its north end. Farther north, a recessed section has double-windows, and a wider projecting section has four bays of single-windows. The building contains 532 dormitory rooms.