That one building closest to the viaduct roadway is the stand-out nicest looking, most artful, architectural design on the entire campus. I like seeing the difference between the main campus with the Federal Style traditional architecture standing in contrast to this new Manhattanville Campus further uptown: the Modernist buildings are my personal preference in terms of Architectural Design. In terms of both form and function; the buildings on the two different campuses could not be more different - worlds apart in every way.
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Replying to infoshare: The style of the original campus is Beaux-Arts/Italian Renaissance Revival. The master planners were McKim, Mead, & White
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That particular style is beautiful: I generally use the term ‘traditional’ or ‘classical’ when not sure of the exact period/style. I thought it was Federal Style, but now know it is Beaux-Arts/Italian Renaissance Revival - that campus is a Classic Beauty.
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The best aspect of the Manhattanville development is the pending removal of the business school students from the glorious Morningside campus 
I am glad that the University is expanding its facilities but I cannot help but be disappointed in one element of this development: the preservation of the streets through the campus, a shortcoming worsened by the presence of the usual sidewalk concrete rather than the blocks used for the walkway between the Lenfest and Greene Science Centers. I do not understand why the desire for a campus more open and inviting to the neighborhood than that of the Morningside campus necessitates such a partitioning.
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I agree. The Columbia campus is tiny but gorgeous.
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This looks amazing.
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The main CU campus is all Traditional Architecture: very beautiful campus. I believe that they stayed with one type of Classical Architecture called ‘Federalist’ with a few variations mixing in other types of Classical Architectural designs. There is one or so modernist buildings on that campus that look totally out of context - literally - and seems to me an odd design decision for that campus.
I now look upon this new campus and see all Modernist Architecture and wonder what are the pro/con difference between the Architectural designs of the campus in Uptown Manhattanville and the Main Campus in Morning Side Heights.
I find both campuses to be beautifully designed and can not say one has any more ‘aesthetic’ merit than the other: but this Manhattanville campus in my opinion is a ‘Better’ design, and ‘improvement’ over the main campus.
What I find to be better is mostly the ‘feel factor’ of these new buildings at the Manhattanville campus. I have walked through many of the CU main campus buildings many times; and have recently toured a couple of the new buildings at the Manhattanville campus.
At the new uptown campus the interiors are spacious, with ample natural light and expansive views in every building. The interiors at the Main Campus ‘feel’ much different; when one takes notice of the scale/proportions of rooms, amount of natural light, and views to the outside, and general ‘user Experience’ - this new Uptown Manhattanville campus is just BETTER.
That being said, they are both great campuses in terms of Architectural Design - one is just a bit more “user friendly” IMHO. 
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The Morningside Heights campus is largely of (Italian) renaissance revival design and while federalist architecture related by being a variant of renaissance architecture, it is not of the same type as seen at Columbia.
The new campus will undoubtedly be nice, but I will always be disappointed by the partitioning of the campus by the streets.
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The Mckim Mead & White campus of Columbia is Italian Renaissance revival. Then Union Theological Seminary and Teachers College and Gothic Revival, with Teachers College a blend of Tudor Revival architecture. Then there’s Gothic Revival Riverside Church and Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and Grant’s Tomb, which is modeled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. There’s also the old St. Luke’s Hospital in the French Renaissance Revival style, which is next to the small Church of Notre Dame in the French Neo-classical style. Not to mention the great apartment buildings on Riverside Drive like the Paterno and the Colosseum, both designed by Schwartz & Gross in the Italian Renaissance Revival style.
Morningside Heights is easily one of the greatest and most concentrated collections of revival architecture in NYC. Most of Columbia’s latest contributions are bound to fall very short.
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The fact that the new uptown campus is all modern architecture and the original campus all classical is what I find interesting. I wonder if the general public would prefer the campus with modern architecture or the main campus with classical/traditional architecture. I would choose the campus with the modern architecture for all the reasons I stated above in my other post: my technical term is the “feel factor”.
We have the “wow factor” for the aesthetics, and the ‘feel factor’ for the general user friendliness of such things as interior room size/layout, natural light, views out - and other functional aspects of the campus building designs.
Here is my formula: Wow - Feel = No Deal 
In all seriousness, I think the new uptown campus is BETTER because of the “feel factor” of the modern architecture: but, both campuses are beautiful in terms of Architectural Design. That is my basic point of my original post on this thread: seeing this post by Waymond W was my inspiration. NEW YORK | Columbia University Manhattanville Campus | (15 Buildings) | FLOORS - #32 by Waymond_Womano
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I love the new Renzo Piano buildings, which are elegant, understated, and urbane in a way that only a Piano building can be, but the DSR buildings look a little awkward to me. I love what DSR did at the High Line and Lincoln Center, but these buildings look slightly clumsy, and the less said about their recent MoMa renovations, the better.
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The architecture is modernist, and the philosophy is socialist…
I tend to agree…