Date: December 14, 2022
TO: The University Community
FROM: Andrew Hamilton, NYU President and William Berkley, Chair, NYU Board of Trustees

Dear Members of the NYU Community,

The magnificent new academic building NYU has been constructing along Mercer St.—the most ambitious and complex project the University has ever built at its Washington Square core—is set to open next month. Much-needed and much-awaited, this beautiful new structure will fulfill so many vital roles for our University, providing us with nearly sixty new classrooms; spaces of unprecedented quality for our performing arts programs; outstanding new spaces for community gathering, get-togethers and events; excellent new sports and recreational facilities; and splendid student and faculty housing. No single University building has ever served so many important uses; it will serve thousands of NYU community members every day.

Ahead of that opening, we are thrilled to announce today another piece of happy and exciting news about the complex: that NYU has received a $100 million gift from alumnus John A. Paulson, a 1978 graduate of our Stern School and a former member of our Board of Trustees, to help fund the new building. And in recognition of and gratitude for his extraordinary gift—one of the largest NYU has received at its Washington Square Campus—the new complex is being dedicated as the John A. Paulson Center.

John Paulson has been a long-time philanthropic supporter of the most important domains in society: the arts, medicine, parks, and, of course, education. This building, and his gift toward it, are profoundly important, helping NYU fulfill its academic mission now and into the future and sustaining the academic trajectory that has brought this University so far.  

Come January, after the last pieces of work on the building are completed, we hope that you will come to the wonderful Paulson Center and see for yourself how it reshapes campus life in important and impressive ways. Today, however, we ask you to join us in expressing our community’s thanks to John Paulson for his exceptional gift and devotion to NYU.