Metropolitan College of New York will be at 40 Rector.
By AMANDA WOODS
A small college with a 50-year history in Lower Manhattan is moving next year to 40 Rector St.—with a complete renovation to the long-closed main entrance and lobby of the 95-year-old building.
Metropolitan College of New York is moving fro 431 Canal St. (also known as 75 Varick), its home for the past 20 years. The school will take over three full floors and some lobby space in the 19-story new building, Vinton Thompson, the president of the school, told Community Board 1’s Financial District Committee this month.
The sixth floor of the building will be devoted to classrooms and a student support area, Thompson said. The seventh floor will accommodate more classrooms, a large library, faculty offices and academic administration services. Still more classrooms as well as administrative support areas will be located on the eighth floor. The ground floor on the West Street side will be used as what Thompson called a “public assembly area” that could hold up to 186 people “for outreach of various kinds for the community.”
The school offers associate, bachelor’s and master’s level-level programs for three full semesters each year, with two-thirds of its classes on evenings and weekends to accommodate working students.
“Our typical student is a woman who works full time, goes to school full time, has kids and is juggling all these things,” Thompson said, adding that there will be no student housing.
“These are not going to be people who are actively partying in the neighborhood,” Thompson said. “They come, get whatever they need to get done and go.”
Metropolitan College purchased the building last December and began renovating it in April. By next February, the renovation is expected to be complete. The college will move into the building next April, and classes are expected to begin for the summer term in May, Thompson said.
The committee passed a resolution supporting the college’s move, coupled with a push to the city’s Landmarks Preservation to consider landmarking the building.
Forty Rector Street is home to several other public service organizations, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, the Urban Justice Center, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund National Office and Grace Institute, a job training program for women in poverty.