This 720-seat auditorium is the largest assembly space at the Irving Medical Center, Columbia University's health sciences campus in upper Manhattan. BFA was commissioned to renovate the space with the requirement that it serve a dual purpose--accommodating lecture classes by day, and transforming into a performing arts stage at night.

The firm achieved this goal by creating a split stage on lifts, a 35-foot-wide chalkboard that dropped on cables from the fly space, and highly advanced A/V capabilities. Prior to a subsequent building renovation, Alumni Auditorium was heavily used for classes, conferences, community gatherings, and productions staged by the medical school's celebrated student theatrical troupe, the Bard Hall Players.