Columbia College Chicago is the largest arts and media college in the United States with over 12,500 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs. Founded in 1890, the school is located in the South Loop of Chicago.
It is organized into three schools: The School of Fine and Performing Arts is composed of nine departments: Art & Design; Arts, Entertainment & Media Management; Dance; Dance Movement Therapy & Counseling; Fiction Writing; Music; Photography; Sherwood Conservatory; and Theater. The School of Liberal Arts and Sciences is composed of six departments: ASL-English Interpretation; Education Department; English Department; Humanities, History and Social Sciences; New Millenium Studies; and Science and Mathematics. The School of Media Arts is composed of eight departments: Audio Arts & Acoustics; Film & Video; Interactive Arts & Media; Interdisciplinary arts; Journalism; Marketing Communication; Radio; and Television.
History
Columbia was founded in 1890 as a speech and teaching college for women. In the 1950s the college broadened its educational base to include television and other areas of communication and media arts. However, by 1962 Columbia had fewer than 200 students, a part-time faculty of 25, and no endowments, subsidies or visibility.
Mike Alexandroff became president in 1963, intent on fashioning a new approach to liberal arts education. He thought that many students had become disenchanted with the highly structured academic experience offered by most traditional universities. Columbia offered an affordable liberal education, as well as a faculty made up mostly of working professionals. He established an open-admissions policy so that any qualified high school graduate could have the opportunity to work toward achieving their educational and professional goals.
In 1964 the college moved into rented warehouse space at 540 N. Lake Shore Drive and by 1969 the college's enrollment had reached 700.
In 1974 Columbia won full accreditation as a four-year, undergraduate liberal arts school by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges. By 1976 enrollment had passed the 2,000 mark and the college purchased its first real estate, the 175,000-square-foot (16,300 m 2 ) building at 600 S. Michigan. At the time of Alexandroff's retirement in 1992, Columbia College served 6,791 students and owned or rented more than 643,000 square feet (59,700 m 2 ) of instructional, performance and administrative space.
John B. Duff, former commissioner of the Chicago Public Library and former chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education, succeeded Mr. Alexandroff as the college's president. During his tenure the school continued to expand educational offerings and community outreach, as well as adding to the physical campus.
Duff retired in August 2000 and was succeeded by Warrick L. Carter, an educator, jazz composer and performing artist. Dr. Carter joined Columbia from The Walt Disney Company, where he spent four years as director of entertainment arts.
Previously he spent 12 years at Berklee College of Music in Boston, the world’s largest independent school of music, where he served as dean of faculty and then provost/vice president of academic affairs.
In May 2001, Columbia reorganized its academic departments and programs under four schools: Fine & Performing Arts, Graduate and Continuing Education, Liberal Arts & Sciences, and Media Arts.
As of Fall 2006, enrollment topped 11,000. Currently, Columbia College Chicago owns more than 1,200,000 square feet (111,000 m 2 ) in Chicago's South Loop, with plans for much more expansion over the upcoming years including a building on Michigan Avenue, two buildings on Wabash Avenue, a Media Production Center on State Street. A campus center is expected to be built in the next decade as well. The college offers on-campus housing to more than 2,000 students in four facilities. Two more facilities will house students in the next two years.
The College has a growing program of international exchanges, including links with Dublin Institute of Technology and the University of East London.
Campus
Columbia has a nontraditional campus located in the South Loop of Chicago. Columbia's campus is composed of many buildings that were built in the early parts of the 20th century and were bought by the school as they expanded. Each building contains more than one academic department.
Alexandroff Campus Center
Located at 600 S. Michigan Avenue, Columbia College's Main Building was built in 1906-1907 by Christian A. Eckstorm, an architect popular for his industrial and warehouse designs, to serve as the headquarters of the International Harvester Company. 600 S. Michigan was a modern skyscraper of its era, built with a steel skeleton, high-speed elevators, electric light, the most advanced mechanical systems available and a floor plan designed to maximize natural light for all of its interior office spaces.The 15-story brick-clad building with classical stone detailing has an Art Deco lobby that retains much of its original marble. In 1937 the building was purchased by the Fairbanks-Morse Company, makers of railroad engines, farm equipment and hydraulic systems. It was acquired by Columbia College in 1974. In its early years as the home of Columbia, it was adaptively reused to house classrooms, the library, darkrooms, studios, and an auditorium. When the campus expanded through the acquisition of other buildings, especially after 1990, some of these functions, such as the greatly expanded library, were moved to other locations, and the spaces were again adapted for new uses. The building continues to serve as the administrative center of the college, and houses the Museum of Contemporary Photography on its first two floors, along with the 180-seat Ferguson Memorial Theater, photography darkrooms, three professional television studios, film/video editing facilities, and classrooms.
Congress Campus
The 33 East Congress Building was built in 1925-26 by noted Chicago architect, Alfred S. Alschuler, who designed the 1927 Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The seven-story brick and terra cotta “Congress-Wabash Building” was commissioned by Ferdinand W. Peck, Jr., a real estate developer, and initially housed a bank, offices, and recreation rooms that included dozens of pool tables. A national billiards championship was held here in 1938. By the 1940s, the building was known by the name of its major tenant, the Congress Bank. In the 1980s it became the home of MacCormac College. Columbia leased space in the building starting in 1997 and purchased the structure in 1999. It currently houses administrative offices, classroom space and the college’s radio station (WCRX 88.1 FM - received the 2009 Gold World Medal for Best College Radio Station in the country from the New York Festivals Radio Programming category) and is home to Columbia's Radio Broadcasting Department and Journalism Department.
Wabash Campus Building
623 S. Wabash Avenue was built in 1895 by Solon S. Beman, architect of the industrial town of Pullman, one of the nineteenth century’s largest, most complex, and globally famous planned industrial communities for the Pullman Palace Car Company. The ten-story 623 S. Wabash building was originally built for the Studebaker Brothers Carriage Company of South Bend, Indiana as its Chicago regional office and warehouse facility. It was later owned by the Brunswick Company, makers of wood furnishings and built-in furniture for libraries, universities and a variety of public commercial and governmental facilities. By the late 19th century Brunswick became specialists in designing such entertainment furnishings as bars, billiards tables, and bowling alleys for drinking establishments nationwide. Subsequent owners are unknown. The building was acquired by Columbia in 1983 and now houses classrooms, academic offices, a computerized newsroom, sciences laboratories, art studios, two public gallery spaces. The building is also home to Anchor Graphics and ShopColumbia, a retail venue that sells the work of Columbia students artists, musicians, filmakers etc. exclusively.
South Michigan Campus
624 S. Michigan Avenue was built by Eckstorm in 1908 as an eight story building to house the Chicago Musical College, a concern headed by Florenz Ziegfield Sr., father of Broadway Follies producer Flo Ziegfield, Jr. A seven-story addition was designed and built in 1922 by Alfred Alschuler. The building was renamed the Blum Building and housed the studios of a dance school and boutique women’s clothiers. Tenants in the building in the 1920s included Augustus Eugene Bournique’s dancing schools and two select women’s clothiers, Stanley Korshak’s Blackstone Shop and Blum’s Vogue. Brick clad with classical detailing, this 15-story building retains its stunning a marble and brass lobby. Columbia College acquired the building in 1990 and it now houses a five-story library, classrooms, departmental offices, student and faculty lounges and the col
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