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Early Addition
A rendering of the planned new hospital from the southwest. The proposed new condominium tower and town houses is seen to its right. (Pei Cobb Freed & Partners)
Earlier today the Landmarks Preservation Commission firmly rejected a proposal by St. Vincent’s Hospital to raze a number of its buildings in Greenwich Village and construct a new 329-foot-tall, $800 million hospital building. Under the terms of the deal, St. Vincent’s would sell eight buildings to the Rudin Management Company to finance the project; Rudin would in turn construct an $800 million housing complex consisting of new town houses, a midsize residential building, and a 265-foot-high luxury condominium tower on Seventh Avenue.
Not one of the ten Landmarks commissioners who spoke at a public hearing this morning were in favor of demolishing the buildings and replacing them with towers. According to the Times, Robert B. Tierney, the commission’s chairman, declared that “the idea of any demolition in a historic district is an enormous step. It is time for everyone to be taking a deep breath and doing some rethinking.”
Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, called the hearing “a powerful, stinging rebuke to the St. Vincent’s plan. And it’s a forceful defense of the whole meaning of landmarks preservation.” But Henry J. Amoroso, president of St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, said in a statement that the hospital will file a new application as soon as possible claiming “hardship” status, arguing that unless the plans are approved, St. Vincent’s will face fiscal ruin. The Municipal Art Society notes that in the past 26 years, only one of seven "hardship" applications has been denied.
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I always love the historic site designation. If they knocked those buildings down, 100 years from now whatever they put in that spot would be a historic site.
This is a living city. There are only a few places that deserve protection, and those are immediately identifiable. A bunch of crappy little buildings in Greenwich Village won't be missed.
Heck, the Greenwich Village Historic Preservation Society tells how the area has evolved over time.
http://www.gvshp.org/history.htm
In the 16th century it was a marshland inhabited by Native Americans who camped and fished in its meandering trout stream.
By the 1630s Dutch settlers had cleared pastures and planted crops in this area.
In 1664, the settlement evolved into a country hamlet, first designated Grin’wich in 1713.
Greenwich Village survived the American Revolution as a pastoral suburb.
Commercial activity after the war was centered near the edge of the Hudson River, where there were fresh produce markets.
In the 1780s the city purchased a parcel of eight acres for use as a potter’s field and public gallows, at what is now Washington Square Park.
During an especially virulent epidemic in 1822 many who had intended to remain in the area only temporarily chose instead to settle there permanently, increasing the population fourfold between 1825 and 1840 and spurring the development of markets and businesses.
Shrewd speculators subdivided farms, leveled hills, rerouted Minetta Brook, and undertook landfill projects. Blocks of neat rowhouses built in the prevailing Federal style soon accommodated middle-class merchants and tradesmen.
During the early 19th century new institutions served the spiritual, educational, and cultural needs of the growing community.
Etc. Why stop progress now?
Time to take a deep breath and look at the building they are protecting. It's a turd.
"Why stop progress now?"
What Rudin proposed wasn't progress.
It was unbridled destruction of historic buildings and an assault on a low-rise neighborhood used to masquerade his greedy ambition.
The Landmark Commission is composed of architects, lawyers, real estate people. You don't think they want development and progress?
But, they knew this proposal was a greedy plan by a greedy developer.
I say knock the entire village down and restore that trout stream. Send those motherfucking nimby yuppies to Scarsdale where they belong. Let them worship their 200 year historical bracket there.
i agree-- if you want to be a preservationist, bring back the trout stream.
the same a-holes who want to down zone everything in the same breath complain about the lack of affordable housing. Supply and demand seem to be too complex a for their simple brains. Screw em, they'll all be priced out of the city anyway soon enough and partly from their own actions.