BMCC's Fitermall Hall set to reopen, 11 years after its 9/11 demise

After 11 years, the Borough of Manhattan Community College building destroyed in the 9/11 attacks is set to reopen.

Fiterman Hall, which opened in 1959 and was blocks away from the World Trade Center, and was irreparably damaged after debris from World Trade Center 7 crushed much of the building.

But 11 years later, the brand new, $325 million hall opens its doors today, ready to welcome students for the first time since its destruction.

The new Fiterman Hall stretches 14 stories tall and spans some 400,000 square feet, and will include a first-floor art gallery and café, about 80 classrooms and computer labs, as well library spaces and music ensemble rooms.

"It was a very demoralized area here around the World Trade Center," G. Scott Anderson, BMCC's vice president of administration and planning, told the Associated Press. "But this resurrection of Fiterman signifies that there is a rebirth, a renewal down here."

The newly minted structure, at 30 West Broadway between Barclay and Park Place, will be part of a BMCC campus that now boasts some 24,000 students - the largest undergrad body in the city - up from 17,000 in 2001, according to the AP.

The BMCC didn't return requests for comment.