Morningside Heights Campus Construction
As JTS looks to the future, we want to ensure that our campus continues to serve the growing and evolving needs of students, faculty, and the larger Jewish world. The reimagined Morningside Heights campus will fortify our role as a preeminent institution of Jewish higher education, integrating academic scholarship and teaching with a commitment to strengthening Jewish tradition, Jewish lives, and Jewish communities.
We recently completed the demolition of our library building ahead of schedule and are in the process of finalizing the design of the new campus. Renderings and a model of the new library, light court, and auditorium/performance space will be available for viewing at JTS in the next few weeks, and we will post the renderings on this website. Early construction work on the new campus has already begun with renovations to existing buildings adjacent to the main construction site. In addition, we are planning renovation work on the roof of our existing buildings to take place in the spring and summer of 2017.
A 21st Century Campus
The renovated JTS campus will be a unique center of Jewish learning, living, and inspiration, rooted in Torah and engaged with the issues of the contemporary world. It will be designed by the acclaimed architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, the team chosen to design the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago and who created the widely praised Barnes Foundation art museum in Philadelphia.
The JTS project will include:
- A new residence hall that will centralize and modernize our student housing, creating a place of intentional community for students of diverse Jewish backgrounds and animating a 24/7 campus.
- Advanced technology that will enable JTS to provide a 21st century education to its students and to bring its vision and teaching to communities throughout North America and the world.
- Improved conference facilities and an auditorium/performing arts space that will strengthen JTS as a hub of academic discussion and public programs on significant Jewish subjects and critical social issues.
- A new state-of-the-art library that will provide students, faculty, other scholars, and the public at large with collaborative learning and communal gathering spaces, and that will expand access to our unparalleled collection of Judaic and Hebraic books, manuscripts, and scrolls.
In the meantime, we will continue to educate and house students according to the same high standards we always have, providing a fully equipped Library, Beit Midrash, and upgraded residence hall.
JTS Announces New Phase of Major Multi-Year Reinvestment in Morningside Heights Campus
Statement of Community Principles
Update on 21st Century Campus Project (May 3, 2017)
How You Can Help
JTS is grateful to our community for their support. If you want to join us in this historic initiative to transform JTS, please contact the Development Office at (212) 678-8866.
JTS is working closely with its contractor to minimize construction noise, which should remain at average levels. Dust will be managed carefully, and the air will be monitored regularly for dust levels.
As we have until now, we will provide regular information to keep our community up-to-date on our progress. Please send questions or comments at any time to newjtscampus@jtsa.edu.
While we expect that any construction will proceed as-of-right—meaning no zoning change or outside discretionary approvals would be necessary—we have already started reaching out to neighbors, elected representatives, and the local community board to inform them of our plans.
As of January 2016, we no longer have access to the Mendelson Convocation Center, the Seminar Room, the Feinberg Auditorium, the Alperin Lobby, or the Berman Board Rooms. To ensure that the JTS campus continues to serve as a forum for the Jewish and academic communities, public events will be held in the Women’s League Seminary Synagogue (WLSS) and Unterberg Auditorium. In addition, we are actively exploring other potential event spaces to allow greater capacity and flexibility.
Yes. Our core library holdings—10,000 volumes retained on site during construction—are now housed on the seventh floor, where we have created a comfortable temporary Library and are providing full circulation services and reference support. JTS community members will have continued access to the remainder of the general collection through “next workday” retrieval from storage.
We remain committed to providing on-campus housing for all undergraduates and will continue to work with all graduate students to find appropriate housing throughout the construction process. For more information, please contact the Office of Residence Life.
Undergraduate students will be housed in Goldsmith Residence Hall, which has been recently upgraded. Graduate students will be able to live in Brush Hall and in the off-campus apartments at West 110th and Broadway.
