Credit: FX Fowle Architects

After City Council modifications, Rudin returned to Landmarks for approval to enlarge and reuse Reiss Pavilion. On March 28, 2012, the City Council modified the Rudin Management Company’s plan to redevelop the former St. Vincent’s Hospital Complex on Seventh Avenue in the Greenwich Village Historic District. The modified mixed-use residential project includes a new residential tower along Seventh Avenue, five townhouses along West 11th Street, and the preservation of the Reiss Pavilion on West 12th Street, which was slated for demolition. In addition, Rudin reduced the number of residential units from 450 to 350 units, and the size of an underground parking garage.

The project, which originally included a new hospital building for St. Vincent’s on the site of the O’Toole Building, has undergone multiple revisions over its four years of public review. The saga began in 2008, when Rudin and St. Vincent’s Hospital sought Landmarks approval for a joint proposal to redevelop the site. The plan included replacing the 1964 O’Toole Building on Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets across the street from St. Vincent’s Hospital with a new (read more…)

Opponents concerned about project’s impact, lack of new full-service hospital, and use of park space. On November 30, 2011, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on Rudin Management Company Inc.’s proposal to redevelop the former St. Vincent’s Hospital complex into a 450-unit mixed-used project. The project site includes two parcels in the West Village. The East Site parcel comprises the western half of the block bounded Sixth and Seventh Avenues and West 11th and 12th Streets and is occupied by St. Vincent’s eight-building campus. The Triangle Site, a triangle-shaped parcel across Seventh Avenue to the west of the complex is occupied by materials handling and gas storage facilities, and a raised landscaped area. The O’Toole Building to the north of the site was once part of Rudin’s development plans, but will now be used as a comprehensive health care center.

The existing buildings on the East Site consist of approximately 763,114 sq.ft. of floor area, and Rudin’s proposal would consist of approximately 635,290 sq.ft. of floor area. The project would include converting to residential use the Nurses’ Residence and the Smith and Raskob Buildings on West 12th Street and the Spellman Pavilion on West 11th Street. Rudin would construct a new sixteen-story building on the site of the Link and Coleman Pavilions facing Seventh Avenue, and a ten-story building would replace the Reiss Pavilion on West 12th Street at the East Site’s northeastern edge. Five four- and five-story townhouses would replace the Cronin Building at the southeastern edge of the site on West 11th Street. The project would provide 11,200 sq.ft. of ground floor retail space, and 25,094 sq.ft. of space for medical offices. A 152-space underground parking garage would be accessible from West 12th Street.  (read more…)

St. Vincent’s made its case for a new building, while residents expressed outrage. Landmarks held two public hearings, on April 1st and 15th, regarding St. Vincent’s Hospital’s and Rudin Management Company’s proposal to build, within the Greenwich Village Historic District, 1.3 million sq.ft. of new residential and hospital space. The plan is arguably the largest ever proposed within an historic district in the history of the City’s Landmarks Law.

Under the plan, St. Vincent’s and Rudin would demolish nine buildings along Seventh Avenue between West 12th and West 11th Streets, including the O’Toole Building, a 1964 structure designed by Albert Ledner. Ledner, who trained under Frank Lloyd Wright, also designed the National Maritime Union building in Chelsea.

The demolished buildings would make room for, and transfer development rights to, a 329-foot state-of-the-art hospital, a 21-story residential tower, and rows of three-story townhouses. The new hospital, designed by I.M. Pei’s architecture firm, would consolidate all of St. Vincent’s operations into one building and feature an egg-shaped terracotta clad tower. (read more…)