[lazerpants]

The Chemistry Department specifically has horrible infrastructure and a huge part of the problem is that construction is very difficult. NYC isn't a college town like Cambridge or New Haven and Columbia has to pay more to get stuff built and on top of that it's a long process involving multiple constituencies. Just look at how long it took for Columbia's Manhattanville campus to come together.

There are plans in the works to fix these infrastructure issues but the timeline is frustratingly long.

[lofatdairy]

Yeah, on one hand I don't think admin are to blame for the delays in acquiring space and development. They have to compete against the enormous cost, enormous time delays, and even their student body who despise gentrification. That said, these delays have definitely contributed to the tensions, as we can see in the difference in relationships with admin held by BME, neuro, and CBS, who were granted space in Manhattanville, vs everyone else.

I don't know too much about NYC development, but Manhattanville seems somewhat unambitious in height, I don't know if that was the limit to Columbia's air rights or what, but it seems like a waste of limited footprint.