Students who want their mail will have to go to Lerner Hall.

Lerner Hall already has tenants: a dozen students are installed in a small office, planning Columbia's freshman orientation.

The band began playing shows around Columbia University, starting with a battle of the bands at Lerner Hall.

Lerner Hall is home to social events throughout the academic year.

Lerner Hall replaces Ferris Booth Hall, a student center that occupied the site at Broadway and 115th Street.

Lerner Hall, by contrast, sets loose an interplay of exhibitionist and voyeurist impulses that animate the space.

It is true that compared with places like the student center at Hostos, Lerner Hall offers a much richer experience.

But Lerner Hall doesn't reflect an architectural way of thinking.

At Lerner Hall, however, that glass atrium could symbolize the plight of an architect trapped in an elaborately staged conceit that the day is already here.

Aesthetically and functionally, Lerner Hall is a tragically missed opportunity.