Architect’s rendering of the proposed Meals on Wheels facility. Image credit: Rampulla Associates

Commissioners found design choices made new facility in Seaview Hospital complex look like a suburban office park. On June 7, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered a proposal for a new Meals on Wheels facility in a vacant site at 460 Brielle Avenue in the Seaview Hospital section of the New York City Farm Colony-Seaview Hospital Historic District. The proposed new two-story building would be used as a Meals on Wheels facility serving the whole of Staten Island, with space for a kitchen, food storage, offices, and loading areas for trucks and volunteers. The plan will also require City Planning’s approval as the site lies within a Special Natural Area District.

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Tower moved to new location to diminish impact. The Health and Hospitals Corporation sought Landmarks approval to construct a 132- foot telecommunications tower and an equipment building on the northeastern grounds of Seaview Hospital in Staten Island. The Seaview Hospital complex was, at the time of its 1905-38 construction, the largest and most costly tuberculosis hospital in rowthe country. It was sensitively designed to preserve the rural landscape along a 230-acre portion of Todt Hill by tucking building structures behind slope changes. Adjacent to the hospital is the 90-acre New York City Farm Colony, a complex of buildings used from 1829 to 1975 as the Richmond County poorhouse. In 1985, Landmarks designated both sites, including the buildings and grounds, as Staten Island’s first historic district. The buildings on both grounds are largely vacant and several are severely deteriorated.

HHC, in its application to Landmarks, proposed to camouflage the tower as a 132-foot flagpole flanking the hospital’s entrance driveway. Landmarks objected to the prominent location of the phone tower, suggesting that it be moved away from the hospital’s main entrance along Brielle Avenue. At a second hearing on May 17, 2005, HHC stated that it sought the “most remote space” for the tower and proposed a wooded southwest portion of the grounds. Two new proposed designs included a 125-foot phone tower painted dark brown and a 130-foot tower disguised with tree branches. Landmarks noted its approval of the new location, but suggested painting the tower pale grey to further minimize its impact. (read more…)