Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, officially known as Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at Baker Athletics Complex, is a stadium in the Inwood neighborhood at the northern tip of the island of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Part of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

's Baker Athletics Complex, it is primarily used for

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

, and

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

events. The stadium opened in 1984 and holds 17,100 people. The stadium is about 200 feet from the

Spuyten Duyvil Creek Spuyten Duyvil Creek () is a short tidal estuary in New York City connecting the Hudson River to the Harlem River Ship Canal and then on to the Harlem River. The confluence of the three water bodies separate the island of Manhattan from ...

banks. Seats have views of the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

, Henry Hudson Bridge, and Broadway Bridge. The location at 218th Street is more than 5 miles north of Columbia's main campus at 116th Street.

History

Until the 1920s, Columbia's outdoor athletic teams played on South Field, across 116th Street from Low Memorial Library, a site now partially covered by Butler Library. In December 1921, financier George Fisher Baker purchased a new site for the university's athletics complex for $700,000. The site is at the corner of Broadway, West 218th Street, and

. Originally named '' Baker Field, '' the facility was dedicated the following April, and the football team began playing there in 1923. It was eventually renamed Baker Athletics Complex. A 32,000-seat wooden stadium was built on the site in 1928; it was in use until 1982 when it was demolished to make room for the current Wien Stadium.

Wien Stadium

The stadium is named after Lawrence Wien, class of 1925, a former trustee, philanthropist, lawyer, and entrepreneur. The 10,500-seat southeast (home side) stands were built first; the 6,500-seat northwest stands opened two years later. For the first 11 seasons, Wien Stadium had grass; it would switch to

AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for pitch (sports field), playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a pile (textile), short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Si ...

in 1995 and to FieldTurf in 2005. Wien opened on September 22, 1984, with a game that ended in a loss to

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

. Columbia did not win a game at home until October 8, 1988, over Princeton. Columbia was amid a 44-game losing streak from 1983 to 1988, the longest in NCAA records at the time. In

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

while the stadium was being built the Lions played 7 road games and 3 games in the New York City area (2 at

Giants Stadium Giants Stadium (sometimes referred to as Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands) was a stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The venue was open from 1976 to 2010, and primarily hosted sporting events and ...

and one at Hofstra Stadium). The field was named for

Robert Kraft Robert Kenneth Kraft (born June 5, 1941) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Kraft Group, a diversified holding company with assets in paper and packaging, sports and entertainmen ...

, class of 1963, on October 13, 2007, after he gave the school $5 million. In April 2015,

New York City FC New York City Football Club (often referred to as NYCFC) is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in New York City. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern C ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

briefly considered building new stadium at the Baker Athletics Complex. The Stadium was to be demolished and replaced by a 25,000-seat stadium to be used by NYCFC and the Columbia Lions. In 2024 the soccer team began construction of its new $780 million facility at

Willets Point, Queens Willets Point, also known locally as the Iron Triangle, is an industrial neighborhood within Corona, in the New York City borough of Queens. Located east of Citi Field near the Flushing River, it has been known for its automobile shops and ...

without involving Columbia. 2015 saw the installation of a new turf field, and on November 20, 2015 Columbia played its first-ever Friday night home game under lights.

Use as COVID field hospital

In early 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center turned Robert K. Kraft Field and

Columbia Soccer Stadium The Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium is a 3,500 seat soccer-specific stadium located in Inwood, Manhattan, Inwood, on the northernmost tip of the island of Manhattan, New York City, within the Baker Athletic Complex. The stadium is named in hono ...

into a 288-bed field hospital. The idea went from proposal to reality in a week. The field hospital was named for Ryan F. Larkin (1987–2017), a decorated U.S. Navy SEAL who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kate Kemplin, head nurse of the operation, described Larkin as "exactly the kind of person who would have set up a tent to treat patients if he were alive today." The care center was staffed primarily with former U.S. military personnel and NewYork-Presbyterian's frontline staff.

References

External links

Columbia Athletics Facilities: Lawrence A. Wien Stadium

Baker Field history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robert K. Kraft Field At Lawrence A. Wien Stadium Columbia Lions football Columbia University campus Inwood, Manhattan U.S. Route 9 College football venues in New York (state) College lacrosse venues in the United States College soccer venues in the United States College track and field venues in the United States

Giants A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore. Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to: Mythology and religion *Giants (Greek mythology) * Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'g ...

Athletics (track and field) venues in New York City Lacrosse venues in New York City Soccer venues in New York City Sports venues in Manhattan Sports venues completed in 1984 1984 establishments in New York City

History

Wien Stadium

Use as COVID field hospital

See also

References

External links