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Father McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University, reminded the crowd in attendance at the groundbreaking that the University has been “embedded in the Bronx for almost 165 years, all the way back to when this was the Village of Fordham, in the Town of West Farms, within the County of Westchester.”
Photo by Chris Taggart
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Construction is under way on the Fordham Regional Parking Facility following a June 10 groundbreaking ceremony attended by dozens of elected and appointed officials, Fordham administrators and guests.
“This morning, we mark yet another milestone in Fordham University’s long and historic relationship with our beloved Bronx,” Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University, told the audience in Parking Lot H on the University’s Rose Hill campus, where the facility will be built.
The project, which was initiated in 1998, is the culmination of efforts by the University in collaboration with city, state and federal government officials. The parking facility is expected to open in 2006.
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who attended the groundbreaking and represents the Bronx, Westchester and Rockland counties, said the facility demonstrates Fordham’s commitment to the Bronx.
“Fordham University has been one of the treasures of this borough,” he said, “and we are fortunate to be led by leaders of true vision.”
When completed, the parking facility will serve as a hub for mass transit. After completion of the project, Fordham will provide shuttle service to and from the University, the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo, the Belmont-Arthur Avenue neighborhood and shopping district, and the Metro North Rail Line for parking facility patrons. The shuttle service will be financed through revenues generated by the parking facility.
“This is important to our future as a region and as a county,” said Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr., who attended the event. The new five-story structure will reduce parking and traffic congestion in the vibrant retail center in the Bronx, he added, and will be “a place of hope and a place of opportunity.”
The 1,546-space lot will be built under the supervision of Desman Associates, the project’s principal architect, on 4.6 acres at the southeastern tip of the Rose Hill campus. The new facility will provide both short-term and long-term paid parking, serving both the general public and University needs.
All of the additional surface parking lots on the Rose Hill campus will be decommissioned, providing open space and opportunities for future development.
The 477,000-square-foot lot originally was owned by Fordham, but was taken over by the city in the early 1900s to build the City Hospital of New York. The hospital was torn down and Fordham repurchased the land in 1977, turning it into the current Parking Lot H.
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