25 Journal Square
Jersey City's third institution for higher education, along with New Jersey City University and Saint Peter's University, is Hudson County Community College (HCCC). The campus includes several properties in the Journal Square and Bergen Square areas and other college-operated properties throughout Hudson County.
Founded in 1974, HCCC is a two-year public, coeducational community college begun as one of the two "contract" colleges in the United States and New Jersey's only contract college. It contracted for faculty and facilities to grant students occupational and career-oriented certificates and Associate in Applied Science degrees. Its mission was to offer programs that reflected the current job market. Its founding was during an era of fiscal restraints for central campus funding with a permanent faculty.
By 1992, after years of financial problems and a New Jersey higher education mandate for reform, the County of Hudson was committed to reorganizing HCCC with an urban-style campus and expanded services. The HCCC revitalization began with the takeover of the historic Pathside building at 84 Sip Avenue which was converted into classrooms and a library. Designed by Jersey City architect John T. Rowland Jr., the former Public Service Building (now PSE&G), completed in 1912, served as the company's trolley terminal and office building. The building's iconic covered arcade originally sheltered the trolley cars. In 1996, a board room was named for Hudson County Congresswoman Mary Teresa Norton (1925-1951). Jersey City purchased the building in 2009.
In 2017, the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency bought the four-story Pathside building for a new city-owned museum and community center for $9 million. In 2021, the city announced plans for the former industrial building to become the North American satellite for the Centre Pompidou, a Paris art museum expected to open in 2026. Other Pompidou satellites are in Malaga and Shanghai. The Pompidou Museum project in Jersey City is part of the ongoing renovation and rejuvenation of Journal Square with Loew's Theater for the arts and culture.
Campus Expansion
HCCC offers classes in business and marketing, computer science, health sciences, home economics, law, culinary arts, and multi-interdisciplinary studies. It has a two-year transfer program through an Associate in Science (A.S.) or Associate in Arts (A.A.) degree to a bachelor's degree program and an Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree in a professional field.
In 2007, HCCC opened its five-story Culinary Arts Institute/Business Conference Center/Classroom Building at 161 Newkirk Street for degree and non-degree courses for professionals and hobbyists in the culinary field. In 2011, the college built its first off-site classroom building--the North Hudson Higher Education Center--in Union City at 4800 Kennedy Boulevard.
Adding to its Journal Square campus, the HCCC Gabert Library opened at 71 Sip Avenue in 2014. The six-story multipurpose facility, designed by NK Architects of Morristown, features a rooftop terrace overlooking Jersey City and Manhattan and a 9/11 monument fashioned from a World Trade Center column. In 2015, the Benjamin J. Dineen, III, and Dennis C. Hull Gallery opened on the sixth floor. The gallery's first exhibit displayed selected works from the collection of New Jersey and American art donated to the college by Mr. Dineen and Mr. Hull.
The college's six-story Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) building at 282 Academy Street in the Bergen Square neighborhood opened in September 2017.
D'Auria, Peter. "Centre Pompidou, World-Renowned Paris Art." Jersey Journal 5 June 2021.
Jacobs, Julia. "The Pompidou Center Plans to Open an Outpost in Jersey City." New York Times 5 June 2021.
Hudson County Community College: http://www.hccc.edu
McDonald, Terrence T. "New Home, New Life for Jersey City Museum?" Jersey Journal 14 November 2017.
Varacalli, Joseph. "College Without Walls." Hudson Forum December 1980:21.
