Columbia University is located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, bordering Harlem to the north and east and Upper West Side to the south.

The McKim, Meade, and White architectural team designed the current campus in the late 1890s, replacing older campuses further downtown. Although located in the northern remoteness at the time, it soon was connected to the rest of the city via New York's first subway line in 1904 (the Broadway IRT line, currently Line 1, stopping at 110th Street and 116th Street - Columbia University stations).

This view looks southwest from the center of the campus. On the left is Butler Library, the largest building on campus, and the main library since opening in 1933. On the right are Carman, a freshman dormitory, and Ferris Booth, student activities building; Ferris Booth, built in 1959 and woefully inadequate by the 1990s, would be demolished in 1996 to make room for the replacement building, Alfred Lerner.