Casa Italiana
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Casa Italiana
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(2014)
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| Location | 1151-1161 Amsterdam Ave., New York, New York |
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| Coordinates | 40°48′27″N 73°57′37″W / 40.80750°N 73.96028°WCoordinates: 40°48′27″N 73°57′37″W / 40.80750°N 73.96028°W |
| Built | 1926-27 |
| Architectural style | Italian Renaissance |
| NRHP Reference # | 82001188 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 29, 1982 |
| Designated NYCL | March 28, 1978 |
Casa Italiana is a building of Columbia University located at 1161 Amsterdam Avenue between West 116th and 118th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, which houses the university's Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America. It was built in 1926-27 and was designed by William M. Kendall of McKim, Mead & White in the Renaissance style, modeled after a 15th-century Roman palazzo. The building was restored, and the east facade completed, in 1996 by Buttrick, White & Burtis with Italo Rota as associate architect.
Casa Italiana originally opened as an outreach of the Italian government of Benito Mussolini in conjunction with then university President Nicholas Murray Butler. It eventually closed due to the controversy surrounding its connection with that Fascist government. The building reopened under the auspices of a later Italian government in 1991 and was restored in 1996. The restoration was financed by having the Italian government buy the building and lease it back to Columbia for 500 years. The structure is currently the home of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, the board of guarantors of which is half appointed by the university and half by the Italian government.
In 2012, a lawsuit filed by the Italic Institute, an advocacy group, claimed that Columbia had breached its responsibilities in regard to the building. It claimed that the collection of 200,000 books donated to the building's library by real estate developer Charles V. Paterno had been broken up and moved to various buildings on campus. In addition, the university's Italian Department is no longer located in the building.
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