Black architects claim that they were passed over for Manhattanville

University administrators are under fire from a group of Harlem-based black architects that claims that Columbia unfairly shut its members out of a job on the Manhattanville campus because of their race, despite their high qualifications.

After receiving the go-ahead to construct the new campus in 2009, administrators signed the Community Benefits Agreement with neighborhood residents. The agreementin addition to promising $76 million for economic development and community projectsmandated that 35 percent of all non-construction contracts go to minority-owned firms.

Administrators maintain that they are working toward that goal, but the architects group, Arch527, claims that minorities have not been given sufficient opportunities to participate in the expansion.

Its a not-so-subtle, insulting slap in face, Zevilla Jackson Preston said. Preston, a member of Arch527, is a licensed architect with almost 20 years of experience. The project administrators had a lot of nerve to tell us that they were flying architects down from Europe to work on the project when there were equally qualified Harlem architects right down the street.

Although Arch527 architects did not receive contracts for larger projects on the Manhattanville campus, Kevin Barnes, another Arch527 member, said he was offered a variety of smaller projects, all of which were on sites smaller than 200 square feet.

Despite feeling snubbed, Barnes said he then submitted another proposal to renovate a Manhattanville storefront, but never heard back from administrators.

According to Preston, the pattern of offering these smaller projects began when Arch527 started collectively lobbying for Manhattanville contracts in 2011. After University administrators told a group of her colleagues that they would not participate in the expansions more lucrative projects, Preston said they were offered a number of smaller projects between 500 and 550 square feet.

They offer a project on Broadway that is worth $20,000, which is a drop in the bucket for professional architects like us, Preston said. Even after we have offered to work collectively and pair up with architects already hired for the project, the administrators still turned us down.

Both Barnes and Preston also accused Columbia of having them think they would be working collectively with other black architects, while secretly pitting them against one another.

Barnes said he was never told that only one architect would be selected for each smaller project, and called the hiring process exclusionary. Columbia spokesperson Victoria Benitez said in an email that the University was building robust commitments with firms owned by minorities, women, and locals, which Columbia abbreviates to MWL.

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Black architects claim that they were passed over for Manhattanville