Future of BMCC’s Fiterman Hall still uncertain

by Ronald Drenger

When 7 World Trade Center collapsed on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, it took with it an entire corner of Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Fiterman Hall. Damage to the 15-story building, which had just undergone a six-year, $64-million renovation, was so severe that it was unclear whether it would be worth repairing.

Twenty one months later, as a new 7 World Trade steadily rises, Fiterman Hall, just across Vesey Street, is still a devastated, shrouded hulk, untouched by demolition or repair crews. The building’s future remains in limbo, while the college, with a record-high enrollment despite the impact of Sept. 11, is desperate for classroom space.

“We need to move forward as quickly as possible to recreate Fiterman Hall for our students,” said Antonio Perez, president of BMCC, which has its four-block-long main campus at 199 Chambers St. “We cannot survive as an institution without Fiterman Hall.”

BMCC and the City University of New York (CUNY), of which the college is part, want to demolish Fiterman Hall and rebuild. And in late June, officials of the two institutions said they were optimistic that they would get their wish. Jennifer Falk, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bloomberg, said that the city supports their position.

But the building’s fate remained ensnarled in negotiations over who will pay how much for the damage, and whether the building, at 30 West Broadway, is salvageable. So far, the New York State Dormitory Authority, which owns the building, has not received a dime from its insurance company, FM Global, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the damage. (FM Global did pay $12.5 million for temporary classrooms and other 9/11-related expenses.)

Claudia Hutton, a spokeswoman for the Dormitory Authority, estimated that it would cost about $100 million to repair the building and about $160 million to tear it down and rebuild. She said the decision will largely hinge on the amount of the insurance settlement.


“It’s a hugely complicated claim,” Hutton said, noting that the Dormitory Authority submitted 29 binders of documents, stacking 10 feet high, to the insurance company in January, after a year of consultations about the claim. The company demanded more documentation, which the Dormitory Authority provided in mid-June.

“We’re certainly disappointed in the amount of time it’s taking,” Hutton said. But, she added, “We’ve never had the face of a building torn off by a terrorist attack before, so this is new territory for all of us.”

Perez said he recognized that FM Global and other insurance companies facing large 9/11 claims “are not in a pleasant position,” but that “sooner or later they will have to come to the table and respond to what their obligations are.”

Steve Zenofsky, an FM Global spokesman, would not comment on Fiterman Hall, saying the company does not discuss clients’ claims.

School and Dormitory Authority officials have also been negotiating with the city and state over how much FEMA disaster money will be allocated for Fiterman. And CUNY is urging the city to advance it money to rebuild Fiterman

A nursing class is held in one of the BMCC trailers on West Street, near Harrison Street, that was installed shortly after the terrorist attack rendered Fiterman Hall unusable. Photo by Carl Glassman.
while the insurance claim is under review, according to Jay Herschenson, CUNY’s vice-chancellor for community relations. He declined to say how much the university was requesting.

At the time of the terrorist attack, Fiterman Hall was serving 6,000 full-time students a day and the school’s business, technology and continuing education programs were due to move the following month. New classrooms, and a virtual library for students and Downtown residents and workers, were also set to open.

To make up for the lost space, classrooms have been carved out of the cafeteria, dance studio and fitness center in the school’s main building. The faculty lounge is now a computer lab, students attend classes in eight trailers on West Street and about 1,000 students learn in 23 trailers set up at City College in Harlem.

The college has leased space at St. John’s University at Murray and West streets, and at 45 John Street, and it is looking for yet more space.

BMCC has also raised $1.3 million, and seeks $2 million more, to build a new student commons on a second-floor courtyard next to its campus.

With the two-year anniversary of the terrorist attack approaching, pressure is mounting for Fiterman Hall’s fate to be resolved. The only other building damaged on Sept. 11 whose future was similarly uncertain, the Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street, is expected to be demolished, according to a June 20 New York Times report.

Councilmen Alan Gerson and Charles Barron co-chaired a hearing on Fiterman in April, and Gerson and Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields said they were urging city and state officials to get a plan on track.

“We’ve seen the impact that not making a decision has had on BMCC,” Fields said. “We need to raise it to a level of consciousness so that it gets the focus of the governor and the mayor, because that’s where it has to go at this point and then it will get done.”

Another option that has been discussed is to rebuild Fiterman Hall at another site. Gerson said he had even raised the possibility of swapping development rights between the Fiterman lot and Site 5C, behind P.S. 234 and across the street from BMCC, where community leaders are fighting the city’s plan to build a 40-story residential tower. (See story page 7.)

But that would be a complicated deal to swing, and it appears likely that Fiterman will remain where it is. Falk, the spokeswoman for the mayor’s office, said that the administration supports “the continued exsitence of Fiterman Hall at that location.”

Perez, BMCC’s president, said he hoped that greater attention would finally lead to a resolution of the Fiterman Hall saga. “Our faculty and students have been very gracious,” he said. “They’ve subjected themselves to a crowded environment. But we desperately need Fiterman.”