Newark New Jersey
A Renaissance City: The Point of Discovery
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Nursing (UMDNJ-SN) has its northern campus located in Newark. Students and faculty joining the UMDNJ community on the Newark campus discover a word-class university situated in a remarkable and vibrant city positioned within one of the most richly diverse population centers in the nation.
Newark is Northern New Jersey’s central city and the third oldest city in the United States. With such a rich history and a bright future, Newark is the Gateway to New Jersey and is currently emerging as the newest focal point of discovery in the New York metropolitan area. Labeled as “a Renaissance City,” Newark is the financial, commercial, transportation and cultural nucleus of the Garden State and offers a rich variety of quality entertainment, dining, culture and sports.
Education
UMDNJ-SN is one of eight schools within UMDNJ, New Jersey’s only university of the health sciences and the largest such institution of its kind in the United States. Located in the heart of Newark’s University Heights, UMDNJ is surrounded by four other institutions of higher learning including New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Rutgers University-Newark, Seton Hall University School of Law and Essex County College. In addition, the area is home to the Graduate Center of Newark, a collaborative effort of UMDNJ, NJIT and Rutgers-Newark for advanced studies in a variety of disciplines. More than 44,000 undergraduate and graduate students engage their studies in Newark.
Culture
The Newark Museum - founded in 1909, The Newark Museum underwent an extensive renovation and expansion in the late 1980s headed by world famous architect Michael Graves. The Museum complex, the largest in New Jersey, weaves together 80 galleries of art and science, a mini zoo, planetarium, gift shops, cafe, auditorium, sculpture garden, schoolhouse and the Ballantine House, a restored 1885 mansion that is a National Historic Landmark. The Museum houses the finest collection of Tibetan art in the country.
Newark is also home to a number of other museums and art galleries including Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art that features exhibitions and educational programs that promote cross-cultural dialog and City Without Walls a not-for-profit art gallery that offers career development opportunities to new and emerging artists while providing the public a chance to understand and enjoy challenging contemporary art.
Business
Newark’s business center offers an extensive array of fortune-five-hundred companies as well as local non profit agencies and renowned health care facilities. For businesses, Newark offers top-of-the-line technology, with a sophisticated infrastructure including a modern communications grid, ample power supply and fiber-optic wiring. Along with UMDNJ, other businesses that call Newark home include Prudential Financial, Verizon, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, IDT, Continental Airlines as well as St. Michael’s and Newark Beth Israel hospitals.
Entertainment
New Jersey Performing Arts Center - a world-class concert hall, drawing audiences from the city to the suburbs and beyond. Diverse performances by the world’s leading artists ranging from concerts, opera, dance to top-name entertainers and plays. Increasingly popular with young professionals is Sounds of the City, a free, outdoor summer music series that includes rock, reggae, jazz, and rap.
Riverfront Stadium – Newark has always been a great baseball town and in 1999, the Newark Bears emerged from 50 years of hibernation. Each year, the team swings into action at Essex County's own 30 million dollar state-of-the-art ballpark.
Music
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra – headquartered in Newark, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra performs a full symphonic repertoire of classical, pops, and family concerts at venues across the state. A nationally recognized tier-one orchestra, the NJSO recently acquired more than 20 rare Italian instruments from the Golden Age. As the only orchestra in the world to own such a distinguished collection, the NJSO serves as a cultural leader in the city of Newark as well as the entire state of New Jersey.
WBGO Public Radio – a champion of jazz as an American art form, the station serves as cultural beacon that educates and entertains a wide local, national and international audience with high-quality broadcast programming. Within public radio, WBGO is regarded as a leader because of its ground-breaking work in community and volunteer involvement, special events, and the presentation of jazz including collaborations with local artists.
Other Points of Interest
Among Newark’s other landmarks are the Newark Public Library, the state’s largest library, the New Jersey Historical Society, a museum and library that preserve’s the state’s political, social cultural and economic history and Symphony Hall, listed on the National Register of Historic places and a venue for concerts, performances, banquets and meetings.
Newark is also home to the Weequahic Golf Course, a tree-lined, 18-hole public golf course built in 1914 by George Low, that boasts rolling hills and beautiful vistas and Branch Brook Park, the first county park to be opened for public use in the United States. Created by Frederick Law Olmsted and John Charles Olmsted, Branch Brook is one of the finest examples of landscape architecture. Adorned with 2,700 Japanese trees, the park is nationally known for its Cherry Blossom Festival which rivals the collection in Washington DC's Tidal Basin.
Discover Dining
Because Newark is one of the most richly diverse population centers, the city is abound with a variety of multi-cultural restaurants. From the elegant to the ordinary, Newark features hundreds of fine restaurants from Italian, Barbecue, Japanese to Caribbean, Chinese and Indian.
Just to the east of Newark’s Pennsylvania Station is the Ironbound District, named for the railroad tracks that border the area. Its European flavor is derived from Iberian and Latin American immigrants. The area’s main thoroughfare, Ferry Street, as well as surrounding streets are noted for Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilian restaurants and bakeries. Paella, garlic flavored seafood, sangria and Rodizio (barbecued meat), are just a few of the authentic specialties that have out-of-towners flocking to the area.
Transportation
With the development of the Train-to-Plane, Newark now boasts one of the most streamlined transportation systems in the world with incomparable road, rail, sea and air connections.
The city encompasses: Newark Liberty International Airport, which serves 37 airlines, making 300,000 flights with 30 million passengers a year; Penn Station, built in 1932, that stands as both a historical and functional landmark for New Jersey's rail and bus systems which services both Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains and is a gateway to points throughout New Jersey as well as New York, Boston, Washington, Florida and other destinations nationwide.
There is also a wealth of options to get to and from the city, including major highway connections, Amtrak's Northeast Corridor Line, and PATH trains which feature 15- minute train rides to and from downtown Manhattan. Newark also is home to Port Newark/Elizabeth, the largest container shipping complex in the east.
