Muneer Khan

cially named the Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir – is located between 86th and 96th and covers a full one eight of the park’s surface. The 106-acre water body is 40 feet deep and holds over a billion gallons of water. Once a critical part of the city’s fresh water system it was disconnected as an active component since the new water tunnel was opened in 1991. It is probably best known now as home to the 1.58 mile running track that surrounds it. The reservoir is also currently the subject of a very public debate as several different plans are considered for its future; these include fishing piers, a marina, ball fields, restaurants and beaches. Hopefully the debate will rage on indefinitely and the current configuration will remain as it is. Built between 1858 and 1862 the current reservoir formed part of a system that included a colossal holding basin at 5th Ave. and 42nd St. (site of the present library) and a smaller body of water that existed just to the south on what is now the Great Lawn (the only part to still exist forms Turtle pind, at the foot of Vista Rock.)

Columbia’s Alma Mater became a much more prominent visual symbol in the early twentieth century, when famed sculptor Daniel Chester French began work on a large bronze statue of the university’s beloved symbol. At the time that French was contracted to build the statue, Columbia was entering into a period of significant growth. In the 1890s, under the leadership of President Seth Low, the university moved from its cramped quarters in midtown Manhattan to the more spacious Morningside Heights location, where the school remains today. Built in 1895, Low Library, with its stunning rotunda, served as the centerpiece of the new, modern campus.