The Community
Located in the Hudson River Valley, Columbia-Greene Community College is surrounded by one of the Northeast’s most scenic and historic areas. Thirty miles south of Albany and 110 miles north of New York City, the landscape is dominated by the verdant Catskill Mountains to the west and the rolling Taconic and Berkshire Hills to the east. Being near the state capital and New York City, the area offers a wide variety of cultural opportunities.
It is an area rich in the history of the early settlement of America. The legends of the Native Americans and Dutch settlers of the region often find their way into history and literature courses at the college. Many of the residences in use today date back to the 1700s and early 1800s. Historical museums such as the Bronck House, the Van Alen House, Lindenwald, the Pratt Museum, the Durham Center Museum, the House of History, the Shaker Museum, and the American Museum of Fire Fighting are all within a short drive of the campus.
Olana, the Moorish castle-like dwelling of the renowned nineteenth-century artist Frederic Church and now a state-owned landmark, is adjacent to the C-GCC campus and only a brief walk away. There, students can view paintings by Church and his instructor, Thomas Cole, along with Church’s impressive collections gathered during his world travels.
Columbia and Greene Counties abound in outdoor recreational resources. North Lake, Devil’s Tombstone, Lake Taghkanic, and Bash-Bish Falls all offer public campgrounds and facilities. Three major ski areas – Hunter Mountain, Catamount, and Ski-Windham – are each within a thirty-minute drive from the campus. The Hudson River and more than twenty lakes provide excellent boating and fishing. Nearby golf courses, tennis courts, and athletic fields are also available to students.
College Campus
The Columbia-Greene campus includes five academic buildings – the Main Building, the Arts Center, the Technology Center, the Professional Academic Center, the Construction Technology Building – and the Day Care Center.
Main Building
The Main Building houses science and nursing labs, computer classrooms, and learning resource and student services centers. The facility also houses a library, gymnasium, student center, and faculty and administrative offices.
Arts Center
Built in the postmodern style, the Arts Center provides a creative setting in which to study the fine and performing arts. With a 450-seat theater at its core, the gabled building features sky-lit studio spaces for painting and sculpture as well as a ceramics studio. The airy structure also includes a dance studio, several teaching classrooms, and the Foundation Art Gallery. The theater, which is equipped with professional lighting and sound systems, is designed to accommodate full-scale dramas and musicals as well as live concerts.
Technology Center
The Technology Center, also of postmodern architecture, is the focal point of the College’s programs in automotive technology. While introductory courses cover all types of vehicles, specialized programs offer students a closer look at specific manufacturers, such as Toyota, Lexus and Subaru. This building is outfitted with appropriate tools and equipment to train our students to become certified entry- level technicians. The Technology Center is also home to the College's Medical Assisting program.
Professional Academic Center
The Professional Academic Center completes the campus quadrangle at C- GCC. A workforce-related facility, the PAC is home to the Columbia-Greene Workforce New York Career Center, which includes a New York State Department of Labor Resource Room. The two-story structure, which offers breathtaking views of the campus, also houses the Saland Forum – named in honor of former state Senator Stephen Saland, seminar rooms, classrooms, and the Alumni Gallery.
Construction Technology Building
In 2018, Columbia-Greene Community College broke ground on the Construction Technology Building as part of a larger, three- phase, $20 million capital expansion project, the College's first in over a decade. Completed in 2019, the Construction Technology Building is located just south of the Technology Center on campus and features architecture similar to the rest of the campus. The building houses the College’s Construction Technology/Preservation Carpentry Certificate program, which trains students to construct and renovate residential properties through valuable hands-on experience, using current and emerging practices in the field.
The Hudson River Environmental Field Station
The Hudson River Environmental Field Station at Cohotate Preserve, Greene County Environmental Education Center, is on the west bank of the Hudson River approximately two miles north of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. The field station serves as a college laboratory and classroom as well as a study and research center.
The purpose of the river field station is fourfold:
- Expand the laboratory resources and teaching capability of the Division of Math and Science
- Provide extracurricular study opportunities for area grade school and secondary school students
- Establish a river research facility for grant-funded projects, and
- Provide an ecological study and research center to support efforts to improve the Hudson River environment.
The field station serves as a laboratory annex for General Ecology, Hudson River Ecology, and Environmental Science classes on campus. The college offers an associate degree in environmental science. Groups of grade school children also take part in daylong workshops that introduce them to species in and around the waterway.
The college has participated in a research project involving the infestation of zebra mussels into the Hudson River water system and its effect on the river’s native macro- invertebrate populations.
Galleries
The college houses five art galleries: the Kaaterskill Gallery adjacent to the Library, the Blue Hill Gallery at the main entrance; the Belknap Memorial Gallery in the Administrative Wing; the Foundation Gallery in the Arts Center; and the Alumni Gallery in the Professional Academic Center.
Exhibits in the Kaaterskill Gallery and the Blue Hill Gallery are changed monthly; in the Foundation Gallery, three times a semester. All galleries contain a diverse mixture of works by area artists and students. The Belknap Gallery contains works from the college’s collection, which also appear at other locations on campus on a rotating basis.
Located in the Arts Center, the Foundation Gallery is a locus of discussion and enrichment. The gallery is the principal exhibition space of the Fine Arts Department, which is dedicated to the goal of excellence in the arts. Work from both professional artists and students are exhibited in the gallery, exposing the college community to a wide range of artistic endeavors.
Lastly, the Alumni Gallery houses special exhibits.
The college strives for diversity of exhibits as a part of its effort to provide cultural enrichment for the community.