The Borough of Manhattan Community College was founded in 1963 and opened in 1964 as a small, primarily business-oriented community college offering programs aimed at the business community and focused on preparing students for business careers and on providing a liberal arts education to students who wished to transfer to four-year colleges.
The building spans four city blocks from Chambers Street to North Moore Street and was constructed in lower Manhattan to serve as the school's main campus. BMCC is now the largest community college in the City University of New York system, with roughly 25,000 students, and is the only community college in Manhattan.
