Nussbaum - 113th St and Broadway | General Studies Lounge

Nussbaum - 113th St and Broadway

Nussbaum, a building located on 113th Street and Broadway. The building is a mix of tenants, Columbia College and General Studies students. It may also house SEAS students. The GS floors have been recently upgraded with dramatic results. Even though there has been recent renovation the GS floors still have dismal lighting, a number of kitchens that are out of use and wires running all over the walls along with unprotected lights.

A key feature of the building is that each unit shares a kitchen with a certain number of other units. On some floors where kitchens are not installed, the entire floor can share the same kitchen.

Some units have their own bathrooms. Others share bathrooms. The shared bathrooms can be single use or group use bathrooms. The largest group use bathroom I saw had two showers, two toilets, and two sinks. The student who gave us the tour said that due to the co-ed nature of the floor anyone using the double bathroom would lock the door(s), resulting in the bathroom being only usable by a single person at a time anyway.

One thing that is difficult to convey in these photos is the cramped and confused feeling of the layout of the building itself. Hallways fold back on themselves and/or run exactly parallel to other hallways. The overall effect was a sense of wasted space, unnecessary confusion and obfuscation.

Entry is through double doors past a security person. There are CCTV cameras all over the lobby and throughout the rest of the building, generally monitoring the elevators.

Trash piled on the sidewalk, business as usual in NYC.

What appear to either be three security personnel or possibly one security guard and two maintenance workers.

A newly refurbished kitchen. Our guide raved about them. This kitchen is shared among three to four apartments.

A good example of the depressing, glaring lighting in the GS halls. Lights were more often exposed than covered. Columbia College (CC) floors had drop ceilings and much warmer lighting so those floors were dramatically more "warm" feeling.

The sinks in a double bathroom. This is the bathroom mentioned above which is locked when a single user is occupying it because the floor is co-ed.

Tiny stall showers.

Another floor kithen. Generally surfaces are open since it isn't being over used. Trash in all kitchens was an open garbage can like this.

The view out of the window of this kitchen, there were no bars on the window so I could stick my camera straight out and shoot the street.

These are where the floor occupants place trash and recycling. Apparently only CC floors had these until very recently. Prior to this, GS students put their trash and recycling into trash cans like those in the kitchens.

Nice little mosaic work on the entryways by the elevators.

Cable boxes throughout the GS floors were open and exposed like this.

A reminder of the cultural richness of New York City.

Damaged tile in a bathroom.

Tiny sink with no mirror, next to a bathroom stall.

A tenant was making a delicous smelling curry.

Evidence of interdiction against roaches. Our tour guide said this entire wall was caving in prior to renovation a couple years ago.

Narrow hallways.

CC doors have number locks on them. All other tenants do not have this feature on their door.

CC floors have attempts at floor spirit, as evidenced by these posters. The floors also have residential assistants.

CC floor with nicely done drop-ceiling and recessed lights emitting warm and welcoming light. Note also the color-matched door and door frames. The overall effect of the CC hallway is totally different than the GS hallway seen above.