Lamont Hall
Palisades, NY
Lamont Hall, constructed in 1929, was designed by Walker & Gillette as the country home for the American financier Thomas Lamont. Donated to Columbia University in 1948, Lamont Hall was the first building on the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory’s (LDEO), a research facility that forms a key part of Columbia’s Earth Institute’s mission to address global sustainability. Over its 70 years of use, Lamont Hall had deteriorated.
Columbia University retained Li · Saltzman Architects and its team of consultants to develop a plan to transform Lamont Hall into the campus hub, serving as an administrative and conference center. The restoration and modernization program will restore the building’s historic character and features, and provide state of the art meeting rooms, barrier-free accessibility, code-compliant egress, and sustainable building systems, i.e., geothermal HVAC. Environmentally sensitive landscaping will respect the original Olmsted Brothers’ site plan. The redesigned Lamont Hall will foster interaction, collaboration, and scholarship in a welcoming environment.
