NEW YORK—John Jay College got its first permanent address on Wednesday. The criminal justice-focused school is moving into a brand new, $600 million building on the corner of 11th Avenue and West 58th St.
“Today we have a campus to call our own,” said Jeremy Travis, president of John Jay College, at the new building dedication ceremony held on Wednesday.
The 13-story campus houses three lecture halls, 65 classrooms, forensic laboratories, a black box theater, high rise simulator labs and full wireless connectivity, among other features. Four floors of the new building are already in use with the rest to open by 2012.
John Jay College has not had a permanent home since it opened as the College of Police Science (COPS) in 1964. The first classes were held at the Police Academy building on East 20th Street. In 1988, the school moved to the De Witt Clinton High School building, which later became Haaren High School and is now called Haaren Hall.
Plans for a permanent campus were first made 15 years ago. City University of New York Chancellor Matthew Goldstein said that much of the credit for the final push goes to President Travis.
Construction on the new building began in 2008.
The building was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. A standout feature is a large, campus-like plaza two floors above ground level. Students named the plaza “Jay-walk.” At street level, a cascading staircase with a sitting area accommodates the steep slope of 11th Avenue.
John Jay College is the only liberal arts school offering degrees in criminal justice and forensic science in the United States. The school has 14,000 full-time students. The college was named after John Jay, a native New Yorker, a New York state governor, the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and a founding father of the United States.
On Wednesday, approximately 30 students gathered outside the new building to protest tuition increases, among other issues.
