Neighbourhood Facts

The Columbia University Medical Center campus, where the HIT Lab is located, lies roughly between 165th and 169th street in Northwestern Manhattan. The broader neighborhood, known as Washington Heights, occupies the highest elevated land in Manhattan, the ridge between 155th street in Harlem to just below Dyckman Street and Inwood. Due to the area's superlative altitude and convenient position between to the Hudson and Harlem Rivers, it was once chosen by Revolutionary War Generals for the location of Fort Washington, for which the neighborhood is now named.

Though the fort itself is long gone, Washington Heights is now home to a considerably sizable list of historic and cultural landmarks. The nearby Fort Tryon Park offers inspiring views across the Hudson to the New Jersey Palisades. Nestled within the park is the Cloisters museum and gardens, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art focusing on the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Just a few blocks away at 155th and Broadway, The Hispanic Society of America hosts the largest collection of works by El Greco and Goya outside of Spain.

The Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center is the largest institution that operates within the community, and its employees value the resources that it has to offer and respect the unique needs of the population, large segments of which are historically underserved. The HIT Lab is proud to be a part of the Washington Heights community and we are committed to initiating locally-grounded research alongside the work we do all around the world.