Barnard College
IN-47: Innovation A

In academic year 2021-2022, the exhibition “Undesign the Redline,” was displayed in the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning, filling the vestibule with six large, stop-sign-red panels. This interactive installation — a joint effort among staff, faculty, Harlem and Morningside Heights community members, and students — combines history and storytelling with community outreach to reckon with systemic racism and the legacy of redlining in Barnard and Columbia’s neighborhoods and in New York City as a whole.

The intention was to bring the Barnard community and neighbors together in conversation around structural racism and how “redlining” — the race-based practice of denying financial services (especially mortgages) to people based on where they live rather than on their individual qualifications — has continued to impact the present and how to change that going forward. One particular aspect that was brought forth was Barnard's particular involvement throughout our history has impacted our local community.

This is especially true in the Morningside Heights and Harlem neighborhoods, where Barnard and Columbia University reside. In 1968, Columbia announced plans to build a gym in Morningside Park, public land that borders the campus’s eastern edge. It marks the boundary between Morningside Heights and, at the bottom of the park’s steep topological drop, south Harlem. University affiliates would enter the planned gym from the top of the hill and have access to the facility’s top eight floors. Two bottom floors with their own entrance, about 12% of the total space, would be available for community use. The University faced an uproar from a coalition of students and community activists, who dubbed the segregated design “Gym Crow,” leading Columbia to scrap the project.

“Undesign the Redline” is organized into sections that aim to simultaneously educate and involve viewers. They include an introduction to structural racism; a lesson on redlining through historical maps of New York City; where redlining fits into the broader history of racism; first-person stories; and how to “undesign the line.”

Besides the interactive display, which was open to the public and hosted outside student and community groups, the exhibit hosted events such as the Undesign @ Barnard Symposium, reading groups, and a collection of community stories.