THE NEW BUILDING
Trustees Name Student Forum in New Building After John Sexton The Law School Board of Trustees surprised NYU President-Designate John Sexton at a dinner by announcing that the Student Forum in the new building would be named the John Sexton Student Forum. “For the first time in anyone’s memory, I literally was reduced to silence,” Sexton said. “For nearly two minutes, to the delight of many, I was unable to speak.” Members of the Board of Trustees personally donated more than $1 million in new money to name the Student Forum for Sexton, who was presented with a fake
check and a mock issue of the Commentator by Law School Trustees Lester Pollack (’57), Tom Brome (’67), and Bonnie Reiss (’69). After thanking Sexton for his achievements in fund-raising, academic vision, and building community spirit at NYU Law, Pollack told Sexton that the trustees picked the student forum as his namesake “since the space is for students, for whom you have dedicated much of your life, and who ultimately will benefit from the strides made under your leadership.”
Sexton said he was “honored, moved, humbled beyond belief, and elated” and went on to say that “for those of us for whom education is a vocation, students are the lifeblood of our professional lives. I could not imagine a selection which would have made me as happy.” Pollack said that a plaque will hang in the John Sexton Student Forum and will read, “Dean John Sexton, through tireless efforts, forged NYU Law into one of the leading educational centers in the world. In doing so, he created a true community of faculty, students, administrators, and alumni. In recognition of his love for students, the members of the Board of Trustees are proud to name this the John Sexton Student Forum. His legacy will long resonate in academia, in the profession, and in the lives of countless individuals.” ■
The Building Classrooms, seminar rooms, moot courtrooms, student meeting areas, and group study rooms will occupy the lower floors of the new building. A café and student lounge will face Third Street at street level. The building will be connected by a belowstreet-level walkway to Vanderbilt Hall, which it will face across Sullivan Street. The Hauser Global Law School Program will be located on the third floor. Upper floors will house administrative and faculty offices, clinics, and faculty housing. NYU Law worked with the Greenwich Village community and citywide preservation groups to achieve a design that integrates the new academic building with the surrounding community. Specifically, the profile of the new building is maintained at a low-enough height— 128 feet from street level to the last occupied floor—so that the sky will continue to be visible behind the campanile of the historic Judson Hall, which is owned by NYU and houses the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center. At Thompson Street, the building will rise only 38 feet from street level and then be set back 20 feet, in order to harmonize with the street wall.
The reconstructed elements of two historic buildings that previously occupied the building site also will be incorporated into the new building’s facade: the front of the Judson House, renovated by the renowned architectural firm of McKim Mead and White in 1899; and the facade of a typical row house from the 1830s that is located on West Third Street and noted for being
occupied by the writer Edgar Allan Poe during approximately six months in 18451846. Some Poe artifacts will be incorporated into the new building, and NYU Law will permit public access to this commemorative space on a regularly scheduled basis. The architects for the building are Kohn Pederson Fox Associates PC, a firm with offices in New York and London. ■
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