Hunter College in New York City will spend $35 million to upgrade HVAC at Thomas Hunter Hall

The City University of New York (CUNY) Board of Trustees has approved allocating $35 million for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) upgrades at Hunter College’s Thomas Hunter Hall. 

The City reports funding is part of a plan to fix the dilapidation at the institution’s oldest building, which is connected by skywalks to another four Hunter facilities. The renovations at Thomas Hunter Hall are scheduled to begin next month and be completed by next March. 

“Along with HVAC upgrades, Hunter will replace one of the two existing elevators and renovate the seventh, sixth, and parts of the fifth floors at Thomas Hunter,” Hunter College spokesperson Vince DiMiceli said.

Built in 1913, the Tudor-style Thomas Hunter Hall is one of the university's oldest buildings. Its infrastructure problems include crumbling ceilings, peeling paint and broken windows and drywall. 

DiMiceli said that in the first phase “students can expect to see new restrooms, improvements to the seventh-floor Dance Studio, refreshed dressing rooms and study space on the sixth floor, and a new Dance Department Office suite on the fifth floor. 

A CUNY facilities condition assessment in 2023 found that more than half of the university’s 300 buildings are over 50 years old, and they needed about $7 billion to cover “both the current deferred maintenance backlog and anticipated future renewal requirements necessary to maintain safe, functional buildings.”

Just 25% of those 300 buildings are now in a state of good repair, according to CUNY’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request.