on 25th Street. New York State acquired the Lexington Building through condemnation, and this former powerhouse for the Lexington Avenue cable car line underwent extensive alterations to open as Baruch’s Newman Library and Technology Center in 1994.
The situation involving the buildings on 24th Street was not as simple. Baruch and New York State had to overcome objections by members of the community who argued that two of the buildings slated for demolition were historic structures that should be protected as landmarks. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission chose not to designate them as landmarks, and the buildings were demolished along with eight others on the block in 1996. Construction then began on the new Baruch Academic Complex. Designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, the building holds forty percent of the College’s total campus area in a single structure and includes a thirteen-story central atrium that is meant to serve as an indoor quadrangle for this urban campus. The Baruch Academic Complex opened in September 2001.
