Saint Vincent's Releases Design Concepts for New State-of-the-Art, 21st Century, Green Hospital
01/29/2008
The Rudin Family unveils plans to return blocks of Greenwich Village back to its townhouse-based history
(NEW YORK) - Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers (Saint Vincent's) today released its proposed design concepts for a new, cutting-edge, ‘green' hospital that will offer New Yorkers, commuters and visitors the best in high quality healthcare. As the cornerstone of healthcare on Manhattan's West Side and Downtown, the new state-of-the-art hospital will house the only emergency room on the West Side from Hell's Kitchen to Tribeca.
'Today marks a new, exciting phase in St. Vincent's long and storied history,' said Alfred E. Smith IV, Chairman of the Board, Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers. 'Working hand-in-hand with talented architects, medical professionals and the communities we serve, we have designed a state-of-the-art, ‘green' hospital that will meet the needs of New Yorkers for the next century.'
The new hospital, designed by Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, will feature many of the latest technological advances to improve healthcare efficiency. Building from the ground up, the new hospital will have the required floor heights to accommodate cutting-edge operating rooms and procedural rooms, as well as the most modern infrastructure - including information technology and improved HVAC systems - with the flexibility to adapt to future changes in technology and healthcare delivery as they happen.
'In form and material quality the building is extremely responsive to its context,' stated Ian Bader, lead architect for Pei Cobb Freed and Partners. 'The facades on the streets continue the scale of neighboring buildings and will be rendered in terracotta or brick, consistent with the warm earthy tones that characterize the neighborhood'.
'For St. Vincent's, designing this new hospital was all about one thing: providing the best healthcare possible for the people of the West Side and Downtown Manhattan,' said Henry Amoroso, President and CEO of Saint Vincent's. 'With hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers relying on St. Vincent's for their healthcare - and the population of the West Side continuing to grow - it is absolutely essential that St. Vincent's has top-of-the-line healthcare services and a 21st Century emergency room. Our community deserves nothing less.'
At the same time, the Rudin Family released its plan, designed by FXFOWLE Architects, to transform the existing St. Vincent's site into a series of low-rise residential townhouses and buildings that are far more consistent with the original feel and heritage of Greenwich Village.
This plan, as in the plan for the new hospital, will also emphasize green and sustainable design technologies that will substantially reduce the site's current carbon footprint.
'We are truly proud to be part of this historic project,' said William C. Rudin, a managing member of the Rudin Family holdings. 'Our family is passionate about New York City and we are committed to creating new buildings that honor the spirit and character of Greenwich Village. Our design will dramatically increase light and air to the mid-blocks of 11th and 12th streets, creating more green space along these streets and recreating the streetscape that existed in the early 1900's.'
The 1969 Designation Report of the Greenwich Village Historic District addressed the importance of townhouses to the mid-blocks of the Historic District and the desire to prevent their gradual replacement. It stresses, 'Where the fine old townhouse stands proudly today, a mediocre apartment house may stand tomorrow.' It also emphasizes that one of the attributes that makes the Village so unique is 'its many tree lined streets.' One of the few exceptions in the neighborhood is the current St. Vincent's campus. Although 19 townhouses once stood on this site, they are no longer present, having been replaced by bulky mid-block hospital buildings. The Rudin/FXFOWLE plan will restore the traditional street layout as envisioned in the historic district with a design that is sensitive to the environment, recreates the traditional Greenwich Village green zones with green, sustainable design and is more appropriate to the traditional pattern of low-scale mid-block density with taller buildings on the avenues.
The release of the design concepts for both sites comes after nearly a year of meetings with elected officials, Community Board 2, and St. Vincent's Community Working Group, which includes representatives of local elected officials, Community Board 2, local block associations, patient advocacy groups, community-based organizations, and St. Vincent's physicians and nurses.
St. Vincent's and the Rudin Family anticipate submitting their design plans to the Landmarks Preservation Commission by the end of the year. Pending Landmarks Preservation Commission approval, the plans will be submitted to the City Planning Commission for ULURP review. In addition to the dialogue that St. Vincent's and the Rudin Family are already having with the community, these two public review processes provide numerous opportunities at public hearings for the community to provide their input and feedback on the project.
'As someone who has lived in the Village for more than 50 years and has seen his fair share of ‘big projects,' I was extremely impressed by St. Vincent's and the Rudin Family's willingness to not only go to the community for input, but to take advantage of that input to improve the project for the better,' said Mayor Ed Koch, co-chair of the Friends for the New St. Vincent's. 'I am confident that this collaborative spirit will continue through the Landmarks Commission and ULURP processes and up until these new buildings are completed.'
Fact sheets about, and renderings of, both the St. Vincent's and Rudin concept designs are available upon request.
Saint Vincent's
Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers (Saint Vincent's) is anchored by St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, an academic medical center located in Greenwich Village and the only emergency room on the Westside of Manhattan from Midtown to Tribeca, St. Vincent's Westchester, a behavioral health hospital in Westchester County, and continuing care services that include two skilled nursing facilities in Brooklyn, another on Staten Island, a hospice, and a home health agency serving the Metropolitan New York area. Its behavioral health services also provide supportive housing programs for people with mental illness throughout the Metropolitan area. Saint Vincent's is the designated provider for the New York and New Jersey region of the US Family Health Plan sponsored by the US Department of Defense.
Saint Vincent's serves as the academic medical center of New York Medical College in New York City. The healthcare organization is sponsored by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn and the president of the Sisters of Charity of New York.
The Rudin Family
The Rudin Family has owned real estate in the City of New York for over 100 years. Currently, the family holdings include 16 office buildings and 20 apartment buildings. The family prides itself in working with local stakeholders to make their developments relate to the context of the existing community. Examples of this commitment to the City and its neighborhoods can be found in projects like 55 Broad Street, the world's first totally wired work environment and a driving force in the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan developed during the mid-nineties. Another example is the Reuters Building at 3 Times Square, where they worked in tandem with the city and state as well as the historic New Victory Theatre and the New 42nd Street to help revitalize Times Square and create one of the city's first green buildings. In addition, 32 Avenue of the Americas where they worked with the local Community Board and Landmarks Commission to restore and transform an historical landmark into one of the most important telecommunications and media properties in America, is now home to international telecommunication, television, radio and advertising companies. Members of the Rudin family hold or have held leadership positions on the boards of many New York not-for-profit institutions including, but not limited to: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York Downtown Hospital, Lenox Hill Hospital, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Central Park Conservancy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York Hall of Science, Battery Park Conservancy and the Whitney Museum.
