Updates on St. Vincent's Plan & the South Village landmarking efforts
from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
http://www.gvshp.org/
St. Vincent’s/Rudin Plan Public Meeting: St. Vincent’s Hospital will be hosting its “Community Working Group” on Wednesday, November 14th at 6:30 pm in its Cronin Cafeteria, 170 W. 12th Street. These meetings are open to the public and provide an opportunity to hear from the hospital and their development partners about their proposed luxury housing and hospital development, as well as to ask questions and provide feedback. Elected officials’ and Community Board representatives, who must ultimately vote on this plan, also participate in these meetings. As St. Vincent’s has announced their intention to file their application for approval of their proposal with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in December, this may be the last opportunity to provide feedback in a public forum with the hospital before these proposals are finalized, and the formal public hearing and approval process begins. The plan for 650,000 sq. ft. of new luxury housing and a new 625,000 sq. ft. hospital (replacing about 1 million sq. ft. of hospital space currently on the sites) must be approved by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, the City Planning Commission, and the City Council. ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN THIS PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT IS STRONGLY URGED TO ATTEND THIS PUBLIC MEETING.
GVSHP has expressed some very strong reservations about several aspects of this plan. The current proposal would consolidate most of the hospital’s current facilities spread among eight buildings into one new building of approximately 330 feet high and 288 feet wide. All of the hospital’s current buildings would be demolished, and east of 7th Avenue they would be replaced by luxury housing developed by the Rudin Family, including a 265 ft. tall, 207 ft. wide apartment building on 7th Avenue. GVSHP is very concerned about the size and height of these buildings (both of which would be substantially larger than the hospital’s current building, the Coleman Pavilion, and would be among the largest buildings ever constructed in Greenwich Village – see www.gvshp.org/StVincentsPlans.htm ), as well as the plan to demolish all the hospital’s buildings, even those which are as much as 85 years old and merit the landmark protections of the historic district within which they are located (see www.gvshp.org/documents/Amoroso10-07Ltr.pdf for full text of letter to St. Vincent’s outlining our concerns).
HOW TO HELP:
COME TO THE ST. VINCENT’S COMMUNITY WORKING GROUP MEETING on Wed. Nov. 14 at 6:30 pm in the Cronin Cafeteria of St. Vincent’s Hospital at 170 W. 12th.
SEND A LETTER URGING CHANGES BE MADE TO THE ST. VINCENT’S/RUDIN DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL NOW before it is filed with the City – go to www.gvshp.org/StVincentsLetter.htm and be sure to send copies the elected officials listed on the bottom of the letter.
South Village Town Hall Dec. 10th: GVSHP and our South Village Advisory Board (www.gvshp.org/SVadvisorybd.htm ) will be hosting a Town Hall meeting on the effort to preserve the South Village and secure landmark status for the area. While the proposal for landmark designation (www.gvshp.org/documents/SouthVillageDolkartReportPDF.pdf ) has attracted tremendous support (www.gvshp.org/documents/SVdistrictsupportltrs.pdf ), including recent letters from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilmember Tony Avella (Chair of the City Council’s Italian-American Caucus), the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission still has not taken any action to protect the area. This in spite of an increasing number of threats to the South Village’s historic buildings (see www.gvshp.org/documents/Bleeckerlandmarking.pdf and www.gvshp.org/firepatrol.htm ). This growing number of threats, and our efforts to counter them with historic district designation, were recently covered by Metro NY newspaper – see http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Looking_to_save_S_Village/10546.html .
The Town Hall meeting on December 10th will be an important opportunity to learn more about the status of preservation efforts, find out how you can help and get involved, and send a strong message to the City that we need historic district designation as soon as possible. Participation in the Town Hall will be crucial to our efforts to push the campaign to preserve the South Village forward.
HOW TO HELP:
COME TO THE SOUTH VILLAGE TOWN HALL MEETING on Monday, December 10th at 6:30 pm in the basement hall of Our Lady of Pompei Church, at Bleecker and Carmine Streets (enter on Bleecker Street) and SPREAD THE WORD!!! — use the flyer at www.gvshp.org/documents/TownHallflyer1207.pdf (please note: it is illegal to post flyers on NYC public property).
WRITE A NEW LETTER TO THE CITY URGING THEM TO DESIGNATE THE SOUTH VILAGE HISTORIC DISTRICT RIGHT AWAY in light of the urgent threats the neighborhood faces – go to www.gvshp.org/southvillagesupportlet.htm for a sample letter you can use.
PLEASE SEND THIS NEW LETTER EVEN IF YOU HAVE WRITTEN BEFORE!
For more information on the effort to preserve the South Village, see www.gvshp.org/southvillage.htm .