Messenger October 2000 Table of Contents | Messenger Home

CCNY'S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER   OCTOBER 2000 VOLUME 3, NUMBER 1

Concrete City
By Bill Crain

The construction of the new NAC Plaza is finally nearing completion. For a few days last spring, when the machinery revealed soil beneath the old layer of concrete, some entertained the possibility that there would be grass and vegetation. City College, they thought, would finally acquire a softer, more natural ambiance.

But this didn’t happen. The old surface has been replaced with new concrete, brick, and granite. There are some trees in buckets, but hard, artificial surfaces—mostly concrete and asphalt—will continue to dominate the college campus.

Was the broad City College community involved in this decision? I don’t believe so. A small group of architecture students may have contributed to the design, but the decision to keep the area artificial seems to have been made by the physical plant and the New York State government.

The issue goes beyond aesthetics. There is a growing awareness of the need for a new respect for nature. Throughout the city, local residents are desperately trying to save community gardens from real estate development. Human societies have paved over enough of the earth. It is important for colleges, as enlightened centers of learning, to take a leadership role on environmental issues, and the best place to start is with their own environments.

Any new construction should replace substantial portions of concrete with natural earth and vegetation.

Messenger October 2000 Table of Contents | Messenger Home