City breaks ground on replacement for academic building destroyed on Sept. 11

City officials held a groundbreaking ceremony today for the new Fiterman Hall, the Borough of Manhattan Community College building destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks. The original 15-story academic building, which was unoccupied at the time of the attacks, was condemned after neighboring 7 World Trade Center collapsed on top of it. Demolition was completed last week. It will be replaced with a $259 million, 14-story project that Mayor Bloomberg called “an investment not only in the Borough of Manhattan Community College, but in the students and faculty that will occupy the building and the people that live and work in Lower Manhattan.” When the new facility opens in 2012, it will house 96 classrooms, office space, a conference center, art gallery and café. [GlobeSt] and [AP via Crain’s]