St. Vincent’s Hospital in the West Village presented its application for hardship status to the Landmarks Preservation Commission today to get permission to demolish the O’Toole building on Seventh Avenue and construct a new facility in its place.
The hospital set out to convince the LPC to reverse its decision to forbid the demolition of the 1964 building, on the grounds that the physical limitations of the current facility between 11th and 12th streets is preventing it from carrying out its charitable mission to area residents. A trio of health care professionals testified at the hearing, painting a bleak picture of the current conditions at the hospital.
In May, the LPC pushed back against a $1.6 billion development proposal submitted by St. Vincent’s and its development partner Rudin Management that would have demolished nine buildings owned by the hospital and replaced them with a 329-foot-tall hospital and 265-foot luxury condo tower.
In keeping with the LPC’s recommendations, Rudin’s revised proposal would preserve and renovate four of the buildings it wanted to demolish on the east side of Seventh Avenue and reduce the scale of the condo tower by 60 feet in height and 30 feet in width.
St. Vincent’s also cut the density of the new hospital facility by about 9 percent, but argued that the only possible location for a modern, revamped hospital is the site of the O’Toole building.
A member of Community Board 2 who did not have permission to go on the record seemed pleased about Rudin’s revised plans, though the board had not formally announced their position yet.
“They are much different,” the member said of the new plans. “They listened to everything the Community Board said. They brought down the heights, reduced the bulk.”
The LPC will hold another public hearing in July on the hardship application, and a panel of hospital and financial experts is now being put together to help the Landmarks Commission analyze and evaluate St. Vincent’s case. Just two years after emerging from bancruptcy protection, St. Vincent’s will also have to open up its financial records for scrutiny to get its application approved. The group being considered will include analysts from the Economic Development Corporation and other city agencies, though the exact composition has not been confirmed.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who wields considerable influence over the outcome given that she could block the project in the Council, signaled cautious support for the plan, writing in a letter today that the project “is headed in the right direction.”
Ms. Quinn came out against the earlier plan last month, saying it was out of context.
