Section 8 it ain't. (FXFowle)

Bill Rudin must be wondering if it was worth it in the end.

Given the price of prime Manhattan real estate, the answer is almost definitely yes, but that does not change the fact that the redevelopment of the St. Vincent's hospital into condos in the heart of Greenwich Village has been a long and expensive enterprise. Lawsuits, landmarks reviews, a recession, demands for a new school: the Rudins have overcome them all. Now, it appears, the city wants more.

According to Crain's, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the local representative for the Village, is poised to extract yet more concessions from Rudin Management to redevelop the hospital. The developer will give more money for local schools, and a compromise appears to be in the works over what to do with a triangle of land currently planned as a community park. A counter-proposal for an AIDS Memorial has been made, though Mr. Rudin did not appear eager to embrace it, as it could require new approvals.

One thing not on the table is affordable housing, perhaps the greatest concern in the ever-more-expensive Village. That would be a truly costly concession, and after all this time and money, one he would probably not like to make.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Reflecting on an AIDS memorial. (AIDS Memorial Coalition)

Happy hour had just ended at the Stonewall Inn on Monday night (2-for-1 well, beer and wine). Rob (dirty martini) and Steve (Budweiser) were sitting at a table discussing the merits of Tom Brady and Eli Manning.

“Brady is better in the pocket, he’s better by the numbers, but Eli just always pulls it out for you,” Scott said. “No pun intended,” he quickly added.

“I think Brady’s better. He’s just past his prime,” allowed Rob.

So they were in agreement, a rarity, they said.

Among the things they disagreed on—Thai food (Rob prefers pad thai, Scott pad see ew), books (Rob thrillers, Scott histories)—was a recent proposal for an AIDS memorial on a triangle of land across from the shuttered St. Vincent’s Hospital.

“I think it’s a lovely idea,” Scott said. “It had a huge impact on the gay community, on the neighborhood, on the entire city, and it has never been properly commemorated. This would be the perfect place to remember those who were lost.”

“It’s a big community,” Rob said. “Bigger than just us. We need a space that feels welcoming to everyone. Besides, I don’t like the design. All those mirrors, it looks like something Frank Gehry would do.”

This fight has more color than a rainbow flag.

The AIDS Memorial Park was conceived by Christopher Tepper and Paul Kelterborn, friends with a flair for city planning—Mr. Tepper works at the city’s Economic Development Corporation, Mr. Kelterborn at the Municipal Art Society. They are no strangers to the power of a nice public space. Their inspiration came from a 2010 article in New York magazine, about the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital and the unusual role it played in serving the AIDS community in New York.

“The building standing there being vacant had become a sort of de facto monument to the epidemic,“ Mr. Kelterborn told The Observer.

When Rudin Management, the august real estate family that had been working to turn the hospital into condos for years, revived its plan last spring, the young bucks saw an opportunity and launched the AIDS Memorial Park Coalition to create a proper memorial in New York, something a city long associated with the illness lacks.

But there are those in the Village who have been less than taken with the idea. (This is the Village after all, so everyone has an opinion on what goes on in their backyard.)

The Rudins are rooting for a regular park. (Rudin Management)

“We are a park-starved community,” said Marilyn Dorato, head of the Greenwich Village Block Association. “We need more space for people to just sit out and relax. There is a section of the approved plan that has an AIDS memorial. There is opposition to giving this whole space over to a use like this.”

According to Ms. Dorato—who says she has been called homophobic for her opposition—she lost a number of close friends to AIDS and a memorial would be too painful. “I don’t really need to be overwhelmed with memories all the time,” she said. “That period was really, really dreadful.”

There are those in the gay community who oppose the plan, as well. “I’d rather have a park,” said Scott Colton, head of the 305 West 13th Street Tenants Association. “I don’t think we need to memorialize AIDS.” Ms. Colton felt that many within the AIDS community have been cast aside by what might be called the AIDS Establishment run by gay men.

“What are we memorializing, a disease?” she said. “That was controllable!  What, bad behavior of people who went out and had sex knowing full well that was how it was transmitted with total disregard for the consequences?”

Even some of the old guard oppose the plan, feeling that the memorial is the work of arrivistes. “The AIDS garden was a plan by a group of 20-something men in the gay community,” said Tim Lunceford, an activist opposed to both the memorial and the Rudin plan.

The Rudins are against the memorial for practical reasons: there is concern that altering the plan could reopen the public review process, delaying construction of those condos. The plan is currently under review at the City Council, having won support from the City Planning Commission in January. (It was staunchly opposed in the fall by Community Board 2 while Borough President Scott Stringer conditionally approved of it.) The Council will vote by April.

The developer is sticking to his own park proposal, already approved by the planning commission, though he points out it will have AIDS memorial aspects. “We’ve always been very consistent in the design that we’ve put forth in working with the community, that we have placeholders for commemorative elements reflecting HIV and also the rich history of St. Vincent’s,” Mr. Rudin told The Observer after the commission voted for his plan on Jan. 23.

Among the powerful people backing the memorial is the same planning commission that approved Mr. Rudin’s plans. “Given the past efforts of the applicant on this proposal, I am confident they will continue to work with the community in the future, including those interested in creating the AIDS memorial,” influential chair Amanda Burden said.

Messrs. Tepper and Kelterborn have lined up some influential backers as well, including Whoopi Goldberg, Kenneth Cole and Robert Hammond of the Friends of the High Line, who are on the jury for the memorial design competition, launched in November. Michael Arad, designer of the 9/11 memorial, chaired the jury and has become a de facto spokesman for the project.

An official design was announced on Jan. 30. Called Infinite Forest, it was designed by Brooklyn firm studio a+i and features a stand of birch trees bounded by a triangle of mirrored walls. A nice place for reflection, but not necessarily somewhere to take the kids frolicking on a play date.

The ultimate decision on the fate of the memorial stands with Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who must decide between one of the city’s most powerful real estate barons and the pillar of her political base, the Village’s gay community, not to mention her constituents opposed to the memorial. The community has been demanding numerous concessions from the Rudins for affordable housing, a smaller condo tower and other issues, which could be costly to the developer, and it is possible he and the speaker could come to an agreement on an AIDS memorial that would be far less costly than any of those proposals. A mirrored olive branch.

Then again, city planning officials said that it would be almost impossible to approve the coalition’s design within the current land-use review, setting the development back as much as a year—one promise in the Rudin deal is that the condos cannot open before a new emergency care center or the park space is completed, which is tentatively scheduled for 2014.

This could just be a politically savvy move by two upstarts trying to get a big AIDS memorial built somewhere, anywhere. Get on board with one of the most contentious development fights of a generation and see where it takes you. You win, you win. You lose, you have built up a huge base of support. For her part, the speaker is already hard at work on the issue. A Quinn spokesperson reported diplomatically, “We look forward to working with all parties to ensure the appropriate location and design for an AIDS memorial.”

mchaban@observer.com

eknutsen@observer.com

"Infinite Forest" by design team at Studio A+i

With all the negative attention surrounding Rudin Managment's plan to turn the old St. Vincent's hospital into condos, there has been one piece about which people have been genuinely excited—even if it is not officially part of the plan: a new AIDS Memorial Park proposed for a triangle of land at the corner of 7th Avenue and 12th Street.

Today, the AIDS Memorial Park Design Competition jury announced the contest winner and selected a local design team from 475 submissions from around the world. The Brooklyn-based crew,  studio a+i, proposed a design called "infinite forest." Stands of trees are set against polished surfaces reflecting the "forest" on-and-on as well as those inside. It creates a space of quiet contemplation that hides the busy city beyond.

One park, many places.

"The winning design creates a space for reflection, awareness and recognition, while acknowledging the history of the disease," jury chair and 9/11 Memorial designer Michael Arad said in a statement.

Studio a+i is made up of Mateo Paiva, Lily Lim, John Thurtle, Insook Kim, and Esteban Erlich, and their design was rendered by Guillaume Paturel. According to their website, the designers have created both retail and residential spaces around the city. Previous projects include a Tribeca loft, french clothing brand Zadig and Voltaire's Mercer Street store and the Ronnybrook Milk Bar at Chelsea Market.

"The winning concept inspires us, and is the starting point for an iterative process to design a green oasis with an AIDS memorial for the community and New York City," memorial co-founders Christopher Tepper and Paul Kelterborn said. Three runners up and 12 honorable mentions were also awarded to competing designs.

The only remaining question is whether Bill Rudin will build it. He seems obliged. After all, the AIDS memorial project has helped shore-up some support for his development project.

Update: Mr. Rudin is eager to work with AIDS activists on incorporating elements of their proposal into his. Considering a new design would require an entirely new public-review process, this specific memorial seems to stand less of a chance of actually getting built, as it would take at least another year to be approved. Below is Rudin Management's statement:

Our neighborhood park design – which was approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Community Board 2, the Borough President’s Office and the City Planning Commission – allows for a commemoration of both those effected by the AIDS epidemic and of St. Vincent’s Hospital for its 160 years of service to the community and its steadfast commitment to care for those suffering from HIV/AIDS. We stand ready to continue our work with all stakeholders to determine how best to realize these memorial elements as part of the approved park design in a timely manner.

eknutsen@observer.com

Sacred ground. (Architizer)

It's official—well, almost—the West Village will be getting an AIDS memorial. After opening the design competition in November, the AIDS Memorial Park received 475 entries from architects, designers and gardeners the world over. The winner will be announced next Monday, and will receive a $5,000 prize.

The timing is appropriate, given that yesterday Bill Rudin's development at St. Vincent's received unanimous approval by the City Planning Commission. Several of the commissioners made mention of the AIDS memorial, including Chair Amande Burden, and stressed their desire to see a memorial included.

Commissioner Maira Del Toro, who resides in Greenwich Village, explained the role AIDS has played in the community's history. "When AIDS affected our community in such disproportionate numbers, St. Vincent's was the refuge for those suffering. They never turned away a single AIDS patient," she said.

Ms. Burden all but commanded Mr. Rudin to include the memorial in his plans. "Given the past efforts of the applicant on this proposal, I am confident they will continue to work with the community in the future, including those interested in creating the AIDS memorial," she said.

Considering these land-use applications are mostly hashed out behind closed doors, it would not be unreasonable to imagine that an agreement had even been struck already. Do not be surprised if a big announcement is made to this effect in the next month or two, after the memorial has selected a winner and while the proposal is still being fought over at the City Council. It will look like a nice olive branch, one that will not cost the Rudins anything—unlike, say, adding affordable housing—since they have already promised to build some sort of park on the plot of land across the street from the hospital.

Indeed, Mr. Rudin even seems open to the idea. After yesterday vote, The Observer asked him where he stood on the memorial proposal. "We've always been very consistent in the design that we’ve put forth in working with the community, that we have placeholders for commemorative elements refelcting HIV and also the rich history of St. Vincent's," Mr. Rudin said.  "We’re working with the community board to come up with the appropriate designs."

eknutsen@observer.com

All smiles. (PMcM)

Earlier this afternoon, a die-hard group of developers, activists and real estate enthusiasts gathered at the New York Department of City Planning for a much anticipated meeting. In a brief meeting, the controversial Rudin development project at the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital passed with unanimous support from all City Planning commissioners.

Commission Chair Amanda Burden explained that she was pleased with how the developers had worked with the community. "The Rudin West Village proposal represents an important step in incorporating the former St. Vincent's campus into the fabric of the West Village," Ms. Burden said.

Commissioner Angela Battaglia similarly voiced her support of the project, but encouraged Rudin to continue searching for a way to include an affordable housing program into the massive real estate endeavor.

After the meeting, Mr. Rudin spoke to a bevy of reporters, most of whom were curious about the affordable housing angle Commissioner Battaglia had mentioned. "I'm not exactly sure, there were a couple of different comments, and I think we need to see what their report was," Mr. Rudin said. "Maybe after we’ve read it we can comment on it."

Mr. Rudin explained that the development project will create "a revitalized neighborhood with jobs being created and stores being refilled." In addition to condos and a park, the new space will include *an urgent care clinic with exactly two hospital beds.

As Mr. Rudin was speaking to the press, several opponents of the project gathered behind him, with signs reading "Shame! Shame!" and "City Planners to The West Side: Drop Dead."

The vociferous activists argued that without a fully-operational hospital, complete with in-patient care and Level 4 trauma facilities, the West Side of Manhattan would be put in dire straits. "There's a very large disparity of hospital beds and this isn’t being addressed by the plan," said Dr. Gerrie Nussdorf. "There’s a change in health care where these freestanding clinics are somehow taken as being equal to hospitals." The urgent care center, she said, is "kind of a band-aid: it can help certain things if they’re not so serious, but for serious things people need to be transported to a hospital."

Another opponent, Timothy Lunceford, told The Observer that despite the planning commission's statements, the Rudins have not worked with the community. "I'm telling you the commission did not tell the truth today," he said. "Bill Rudin has not told the truth any time he's presented to the board about working with the community."

Mr. Rudin told the assembled reporters that *financing is completely in order for the project, and it will be completed sometime in 2015.

eknutsen@observer.com

Clear! (FXFowle)

The City Planning Commission is set to vote on the Rudin's plan for condos on the St. Vincent's site on Monday, and even though a single vote has not been cast, Greenwich Village superman Andrew Berman has already divined a favorable outcome for the developer. His response, as always, is damning.

“To grant a private developer of luxury condos essentially the same special privileges and zoning considerations offered to a hospital which served the public is simply wrong,” Mr. Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, wrote in a release.  “To do so opens a pandora’s box of profoundly negative potential consequences, not just for this neighborhood but the city as a whole.  We call upon the City Council to right this wrong and not to grant these special privileges, which were supposed to be reserved for projects that serve the public interest, to this well-connected developer."

That is some swift, if ineffectual, justice.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Village green. (Architizer)

Is a tiny triangle in Greenwich Village the next 9/11 Memorial? That's what a pair of local activists are hoping, with their plan to turn a patch of land across from the old St. Vincent's hospital into the city's first AIDS memorial. They have even signed up Michael Arad, designer of the ground zero mecca, to lead a design competition for the project.

"The design process that happened after the events of 9/11... catalyzed this citywide discussion about an important historic event, and we think this design competition can do something similar," Paul Kelterborn said in a video posted by the competition sponsors, Architizer and Architectural Record.

The hope is to turn the old triangle at Seventh Avenue and West 12th Street into a new memorial. As part of Rudin Management's plans to convert the old hospital complex into a condo development, the august real estate family has promised to turn the 16,000-square-foot triangle plot, formerly home to storage and maintenance facilities for St. Vincent's, into a park. Even if it does not like the new condos, the community welcomes the new open space, though it has quibbled over the particular designs for the park.

From ambulence parking to AIDS park. (Architizer)

It remains to be seen whether the Rudins would support the memorial plan, though the developer has been willing to make some concessions to the community thus far, such as building a new school in a former St. Vincent's building.

The designers behind the competition hope to convince them, as they view this as a rare opportunity to create a memorial in what was the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic. Not only has the Village always been strongly associated with gay culture and the equal rights movement, but St. Vincent's set up the first and most extensive AIDS ward in the city.

"There really won't be an opportunity to design another important public space in Lower Manhattan, Christopher Tepper said. "This site is particularly important because there's an opportunity here that doesn't come around very often."

The competition calls for a design that does in fact resemble the plans for the 9/11 Memorial a good deal. A park would be located at street level, while the existing below-ground space at the plot would be turned into the AIDS memorial.

How exactly this would be achieved is up to the designers participating in the competition. In addition to Mr. Arad, the competition has drawn a number of other high profile jurors, including Richard Meier, Kurt Anderson, landscape architect Ken Smith and High Line collaborators Robert Hammond (co-creator) and Elizabeth Diller (architect).

Submissions are due by January 21, with a win expected in the spring. The big question, then, is if the organizers can mount the kind of political support both the High Line and the 9/11 Memorial achieved in that short span of time.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Sony is watching. (The Nation)

In addition to Zuccotti Park, the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators have taken over the Brooklyn Bridge, Park Avenue, Washington Square Park, Times Square, the local McDonald's, and tonight they march on Lincoln Center. Fearing new encampments in the plazas outside of their Midtown towers, the already-occupied Brookfield Properties, as well as the august Rudin Management and the corporate godheads at Sony, have begun putting out new signs forbidding a litany of activities, according to The Times.

As The Observer previously reported, the Department of City Planning, which regulates these publicly owned private spaces, is O.K. with landlords tweaking the rules of their POPS, so long as it does not impact access to them. There are specific regulations as to how big signs can be, and historically they have been free from much in the way of prohibitions. This is because the city actually forbade developers from listing illegal activity on the signs—something that says "no drug dealing" tends to suggest such illicit activity was taking place there in the first place.

Here's what The Times stumbled on this afternoon:

The signs are identical to the one posted at Zuccotti Park downtown, shortly after Occupy Wall Street began. They are posted at Grace Plaza, next to the W. R. Grace Building at 43rd Street and Avenue of the Americas, which is owned by Brookfield; and the plazas attached to 40 East 52nd Street and 345 Park Avenue, both buildings that are controlled by Rudin Management Company, a real estate firm.

The signs at the Rudin properties are printed on laminated paper taped to the wall, while the one at Grace Plaza is a metal placard like the one at Zuccotti Park.

Meanwhile, over at The Nation, the most adorable warnings were found at the Sony Building.

Since the signs were inaugurated in the 1970s, in a very different New York, expect to see more of them starting to change. The Big Real Estate lobby is certainly in favor of reigning things in as a result of Occupy Wall Street. Whether the demonstrators, or any other New Yorkers, take note and fight back, well, that's a whole other protest.

Healthy living.

While it looked for awhile like the Rudin family might never get its coveted condos in the West Village, it engineered a plan to bring in another hospital operator to turn the old O'Toole Building into a new critical care center. Now, the Rudins have passed an even bigger hurdle—not the City Council, which still has to vote on the project, but an even tougher bunch, bankers.

According to The Journal, a consortium of banks have agreed to provide construction financing for the $800 million condo project.

"We think that we have responded in a very positive way to all the concerns that have been expressed to us before," said William Rudin, chief executive of Rudin Management, a family-owned company that has been active in New York City since the 1920s.

The project's success at obtaining financing is unusual in today's market. Many banks continue to be skittish about lending to developers to construct large, high-end condo buildings.

Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and M&T Bank Corp. have all made commitments to provide a total of $525 million in construction financing, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Whatever Bill Rudins' got going for him, we'll take some of it.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Is this the Village? (DNAinfo)

When Bill Rudin and St. Vincent's were planning a row of massive towers for the corner of 12th Street and 7th Avenue, one of the bones they'd thrown to the community was turning the triangle the hospital controls into a park—it's currently walled off by fences and a mechanical facility.

They've cornered the market. (DNAinfo)

After St. Vincent's went bankrupt, the Rudins teamed up with North Shore-LIJ health system to convert the O'Toole Building into a scaled down critical care center. Though this means no 280-foot hospital tower, the Rudins are still building their big condos, and they are still committed to the park.

Bill Rudin, tear down this wall! (DNAinfo)

Are the persnickety neighbors satisfied? This is Greenwich Village, so of course not.

Rudin Management presented new plans for St. Vincent's Triangle last night, according to DNAinfo, and the locals were still unimpressed:

"This could just as easily appear next to a high-rise on the Upper East Side," she said at Wednesday night's meeting, sparking a round of applause.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation said in a statement read by Elizabeth Finkelstein that architects should look at Abingdon Square and Jackson Square for inspiration. "A design which fits in with and draws upon the historic character of the West Village, which is characterized by small, oddly-shaped but enjoyable green spaces, would be most appropriate for the site," Finkelstein said.

Community members also expressed concerns about potential vermin problems, homeless people sleeping in the park and the design's lack of a playground. "That's a huge seating area with no activities and nothing for children," said Tobi Bergman, head of the community board's parks committee.

And here we thought, with its 60 percent abortion rate, the Village wouldn't need a playground. What they need is an urgent care center to get their pregnancies terminated at.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC