On May 5, 1904, the school incorporated itself again in order to change its name to the Columbia College of Expression,[9] adding coursework in teaching to the curriculum.

Under his leadership, Scherger signed the paperwork at the board's annual meeting on April 14, 1928, to change the school's name to the Mary A.

As the radio program gained prominence, Alexandroff was named as the vice president of the Columbia College of Expression and became a member on the board of directors at both institutions by 1937.

He established a generous admissions policy[18] so that qualified high school graduates could attend college courses taught by some of the most influential and creative professionals in Chicago.

For the next thirty years, Alexandroff worked to build the college into an urban institution that helped to change the face of higher education.

At the time of Alexandroff's retirement in 1992, the college served 6,791 students and owned or rented more than 643,000 square feet (59,700 m2) of instructional, performance, and administrative space.

From 1992 until 2000, John B. Duff, former commissioner of the Chicago Public Library and former chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education, served as the college's president.

Through 2010, under his leadership, the college created new student-based initiatives such as Manifest,[20] the annual urban arts festival celebrating Columbia's graduating students, and ShopColumbia,[21] a store where students can showcase and sell their work on campus; partnered with local universities to construct the University Center;[22] purchased new campus buildings; added new curricula; and oversaw the college's first newly constructed building, the Media Production Center.

The college also operates an intensive five-week Semester in Los Angeles program on the premises of Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, California, for upper-level (80+ credit hours completed, 3.0 GPA) Cinema Art & Science, Television, Communication and Media Innovation, Music, and Business & Entrepreneurship students.

[52][53] Located at 600 S. Michigan Avenue, Columbia College's Main Building was built in 1906–07 by Christian A. Eckstorm,[54] an architect popular for his industrial and warehouse designs, to serve as the headquarters of the International Harvester Company.

The seven-story brick and terra cotta "Congress-Wabash Building" was commissioned by Ferdinand W. Peck, Jr., a real estate developer, and initially housed a bank, offices, and recreation rooms that included dozens of pool tables.

The building is home to Columbia's American Sign Language-English Interpretation, Audio Arts & Acoustics, Journalism and Radio departments.

It was later owned by the Brunswick Corporation, makers of wood furnishings and built-in furniture for libraries, universities and a variety of public commercial and governmental facilities.

By the late 19th century Brunswick became specialists in designing such entertainment furnishings as bars, billiards tables, and bowling alleys for drinking establishments nationwide.

The building was acquired by Columbia in 1983 and now houses classrooms, academic offices, a computerized newsroom, sciences laboratories, art studios and two public gallery spaces.

The building is also home to Anchor Graphics[55] and ShopColumbia, a retail venue that sells the work of Columbia students and alumni artists, musicians, filmmakers etc.

Tenants in the building in the 1920s included Augustus Eugene Bournique's dancing schools and two select women's clothiers, Stanley Korshak's Blackstone Shop and Blum's Vogue.

Its status as a manufacturing facility determined its form as a loft building, with a practical and efficient interior that had few elegant original elements.

[citation needed] The Ludington Building was owned by descendants of its original owners until 1960, although it was occupied by many different tenants, including the Pepsodent toothpaste company in the 1910s and 1920s.

The artistic, cultural and performance education tradition of this building, as it was adaptively reused since the 1940s, is continued today in the programs of the Music Center of Columbia College.

72 East 11th Street, a six- story, limestone-clad Art Deco building, was originally owned by the Chicago Women's Club and housed the organization's meeting rooms, offices and a theater.

After extensive interior renovation and adaptation, the Dance Center opened its state-of-the-art educational and public performance facilities in the fall of 2000.

Prior to the relocation to Michigan Avenue, the Dance Center was located at 4730 North Sheridan Road in a former movie theater in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.

Located at 1600 South State Street, the Media Production Center (MPC) was completed in 2010 and was the college's first new-construction building in its history.

It contains two film production soundstages, a motion-capture studio, digital labs, animating suites, a fabrication shop, and classrooms.

The college has met ACUPCC reporting deadlines that included submitting a formal Climate Action Plan and updating their Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

In conducting the GHG update, new methodologies were employed, emissions from purchased paper were used, and commuting data was collected from a streamlined transit survey.

These part-time positions are responsible for maintaining the campus green spaces and managing diversion efforts such as compost and atypical recycling (batteries, technotrash).

Radio students work on WCRX producing live mixes by local DJs, their own imaging, PSAs, and carrying select sport games.

Other Columbia College Chicago publications[68] include: Hair Trigger, Columbia Poetry Review, South Loop Review, Center for Black Music Research Journal, DEMO, and@LAS In addition to the academic programs offered at the college, students engage in many extracurricular activities.