On November 14th St. Vincent's held another of its Community Working Group meetings to seek feedback on its design concepts and provide additional information that had been requested by community members. For a stacking diagram of the services that will be in the new hospital and data on the new hospital dimensions, please click here.

In terms of the residential redevelopment, the proposed buildings on the sites east of 7th Avenue measure approximately 265,000 Cubic Yards above grade. This compares with 357,300 Cubic Yards above grade for the existing hospital buildings on the same lot (i.e. the Coleman, Link, Reiss, Spellman, Cronin, Smith and Raskob buildings)

The "bookend" is 21 stories tall; approximately 235' to the top of the main roof level plus approximately 30' of mechanicals. At the 7thAvenue frontage, the base of the building extends to the property lines and is therefore the width of the block, 206'-6. .The building then has multiple set backs resulting in widths facing 7th Avenue ranging from 185' (predominant) to 100' at the top.

The street-wall of the proposed 12th Street mid-rise building steps from 8 to 10 stories (90'-110'); the building is 11 stories tall (125') plus mechanicals. The proposed building is approximately 75' wide and is immediately west of the Martin-Payne Building (to remain).

Question
Will actual questions from the community be put on the web or will you just use general questions?

Answer
Actual questions from the community will be answered on this web site. Questions will be grouped together under headings, and similar questions will be answered together when it makes sense to do so.  Below are the questions that we have been able to answer at this time, we will continue to post and answer questions throughout the project.   

Question
When will the community see a meaningful case for why this is necessary, with facts, costs and data, not just photos and quotes?

Answer
In January 2007, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan formed a Community Working Group consisting of representatives of elected officials, local block associations, community organizations, patient advocacy groups and St. Vincent's physicians and nurses. For the past 10 months, St. Vincent's has been meeting with the Community Working Group to share with them the need for a new hospital and details about the project as they evolved; the meetings are open to the public, the minutes of which can be found in the "Our Commitment to the Community" section of this website.  When the hospital selected the Rudin Family as its development partner, as well as after choosing Pei Cobb Freed & Partners as the new hospital's architect, both organizations attended the Community Working Group meetings to hear the community's concerns and suggestions.  Many of those suggestions proved helpful in formulating the presentation of the design concepts.  Please also see fact sheets that were distributed at the October 10th presentation on the two projects.  Click here for St. Vincent's fact sheet.  Click here for the Rudin's fact sheet. 

We are still very early in the process.  As we prepare to submit our application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and subsequently to the City Planning Commission (CPC), the plans will become further refined and shared on this website.  The LPC process requires a hearing before Community Board 2 and a public hearing of the LPC. The CPC's process for pubic review of applications, known as the "Uniform Land Use Review Procedure" or "ULURP", assures further multiple opportunities for public review and comment before the Community Board, Borough President, CPC and the City Council. We look forward to this upcoming public dialogue, and through the Community Working Group and other public events are trying to make the public review of our proposal as inclusive as possible.

The Overall Project

Question
Do I understand correctly that St. Vincent's is selling 80% of its land on this campus to build a building almost twice the height of the other buildings on 7th Avenue?

Answer
St. Vincent's recognizes its responsibility to plan for meeting the healthcare needs of the West Side and Downtown for the coming century. After exploring all of our options, our board and advisors have concluded that the best way to meet this responsibility is to build a new state-of-the-art ‘green' St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan that will incorporate the best in healthcare delivery with efficient operations. After thorough review of the scope and cost of renovation of the existing physical plant and the disruption that renovation would cause, St. Vincent's determined that the most viable option was to build the new hospital on the site of the O'Toole building - land that we already own.

Financing the anticipated $700 million cost of the new hospital will come from the three traditional sources of capital: debt, equity and philanthropy. The proceeds from the sale of the property to be purchased by the Rudins represent St. Vincent's equity - and an essential component necessary to pay off existing debt on the entire campus and build the modern hospital that the West Side and Downtown needs to ensure the future health of our communities.

The height of the proposed new hospital is approximately 300 feet excluding rooftop mechanicals, other buildings immediately across from the site of the new hospital are approximately 200 feet, and some buildings within a three block radius of the hospital are as high as 285 feet.  The gross square footage (above grade) for the hospital will drop from 940,000 gross square feet (in an assemblage of 8 buildings) to 480,000 gross square feet in the new facility. 

Hospital Design Considerations

Question
Where are the ambulances bays in the new hospital?

Answer
At any given moment, as many as a dozen ambulances may be parked and double parked near the current Emergency Room dock. At the same given moment, 2 or 3 large trucks could be making deliveries at the services building. How can 12th St. handle this?

Queston
What kind of soundproofing will you afford 225 West 12th St bedrooms? Noise from ambulances on West 12th Street will be a nightmare. Please do not block the 5th & 6th Floor east windows of 225 West 12th Street that space should only be 4 stories, also please have the hospital set back from Greenwich Avenue.

Answer
We haven't finalized the location and operation of the ambulance entrance for the new hospital, although we are proposing an access point on West 12th Street, across from the existing service facility, which would remain in place. As you may know, the New York City Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, called "ULURP," requires us to prepare a draft Environmental Impact Statement - D.E.I.S. - which includes a detailed traffic assessment. That assessment, as well as input from FDNY (which governs ambulance systems in NYC) will inform our proposal for ambulance access. The D.E.I.S., in which the study will be included, is prepared under Department of City Planning guidelines and will be reviewed by DCP prior to ULURP and is subject to public review and comment during ULURP.  Comments received during ULURP will be reflected in the final E.I.S., which is submitted to the City Planning Commission prior to its vote on any land use applications. Accordingly, it will be possible for the public to track the assessment and comment on it throughout the public review process. It will also be subject to public review and comment during ULURP. 

Although a certain amount of noise is unavoidable in the operation of emergency vehicles, it's our intention to look for methods that will allow us to reduce the impact of ambulance noise. We will report on developments in this area as the planning process continues.  In addition, St. Vincent's will work directly with the owner of the adjacent apartment building to address the issue of the eastern facing windows. 

Question
The entrance to the hospital will be on 7th Avenue - but will the emergency room entrance be on 12th Street?

Answer
In the proposed plan, the walk-in emergency department entrance would be on Seventh Avenue. Exact position of all entrances to the building will be refined once we complete our pedestrian and vehicular traffic analysis. 

Question
Is there any possibility of integrating the MTA venting project into one of the new structures?

Is there an elevator in the subway in the plan - if not, why not?

As the ambulance bays will be on 12th Street west of 7th Avenue, the subway entrance will need to be moved. Will it (or can it) be incorporated into the new residential building?

Answer
Replacement of the O'Toole Building will permit excavation and construction that could allow improvements in subway access. We'll be initiating talks with MTA soon, and these ideas - elevator access to the subway platforms, ease of access from the street, and the possibility of incorporating aspects of the subway venting project into our new construction - will all be part of those discussions.

Question
he proposed building is described as "21 stories", yet appears 30% taller at least compared to 175 West 12th, a 20 story building. How tall is the new building in feet?

Answer
The new building would be approximately 300 feet tall, excluding rooftop mechanicals. The height of each hospital story or floor is bigger because of the technology space needs in the ceiling of each floor.  (The low ceiling height of the current hospital buildings was one of the critical issues in preventing the renovation of those buildings for hospital use.)

Question
Mr. Bader says the "podium" would be 4 stories or 67 feet. How many stories is 67 feet in the 19th century townhouses on the surrounding streets?

Answer
The podium will be four "hospital" stories tall; since modern hospital floor-to-ceiling heights are taller than those in residential buildings (see above), in this case it translates into approximately 65 feet.  Relative to the other residential buildings that surround the triangle area, the podium, as proposed, would continue the cornice line of the adjacent six-story apartment building at the corner of Greenwich Avenue and West 12th Street.

Question
What LEED Certification are you shooting for? (Silver, Gold, etc.)

Answer
For those who are not familiar with theses terms, LEED refers to The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System^TM, the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings, as issued by the U.S. Green Buildings Council (www.usgbc.org). LEED recognizes performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality guidelines. Although LEED does not presently address healthcare construction, The American Society of Healthcare Engineers (www.ashe.org) has revised the LEED guidelines to apply to health care, and USGBC is evaluating the ASHE proposal and is expected to adopt the healthcare LEED guidelines at some point within the next year.

St. Vincent's will follow the ASHE interpretation of LEED for healthcare construction when planning the design and operation of the new hospital. We will pursue the highest level feasible, once ASHE has clarified it.  We will keep you informed of any developments in this area.

Affordable Housing

Question
How many folks are expected to live in the Dan Kaplan, FX Fowle Development? What housing % goes to St. Vincent's staff?

How many apartments will there be in the Rudin Development?

What are you going to do about including affordable housing?

Shame on your design for not including either affordable or low-income units. We are a diverse income neighborhood.

New housing should be 70-30. That is 30% affordable to low income seniors and families with young children. Is that here?

Middle income residential?
Answer
The original Request For Proposal, developed by St. Vincent's and circulated to numerous developers earlier this year, was designed to achieve a singular goal -to maximize sales proceeds to St. Vincent's as an essential component necessary to pay off existing debt on the entire campus and build the modern hospital.  The Rudin family was selected as the development partner because they were the high bidder and they also brought a philosophy of development that fit with what the hospital wanted to accomplish, as well as a long-standing commitment to New York City communities.   

The redevelopment of the existing hospital properties along West 12th and West 11th Streets will result in the addition of approximately 400-450 new housing units.  At this time there is no dedicated housing planned for St. Vincent's staff on the redeveloped site.

Affordable housing is not economically feasible on this site for a number of reasons:

1. The Sale of the Land Must Maximize Funding to St. Vincent's. In order to successfully finance and construct the new hospital St. Vincent's needs to maximize the amount of money it receives from the Rudin family. St. Vincent's agreed to sell the property east of 7th Avenue to the Rudin family for approximately $516 per square foot for approved zoning square feet available for development.  Any departure from this concept can only decrease the available square footage for development reducing what St. Vincent's would receive. 
   
2. Lack of Affordable Housing Subsidies on this Site:  Recent legislation enacted in Albany prevents 421-a tax exemptions from being utilized by this site. This means that full property taxes will be paid by the developer from the first day of their ownership.  This is good news for the city tax coffers but will prevent anything but market rate housing from being built on this site. Also, the ability of a developer to obtain tax exempt financing from the city or the state has decreased substantially due to the fact that we have reached our lending cap that is set by the federal government.  A coalition of leaders including the City, the State, the Real Estate Board and ABNY are working to convince Congress to lift this cap and thus allow a greater amount of tax-exempt money to flow into affordable housing projects in New York State.
   
3. Community's Interest in Limiting mass and Bulk.  We have been asked by members of the community to use our best efforts to minimize bulk and mass of both the new hospital and the residential campus.  A substantial increase in bulk and mass to accommodate affordable housing would go against this desire by the community.

Public Schools

Question
As a community member with children I'd like to know you've thought about considering supporting the Village by offering space for a public school. Have you? What about classroom space to help support our already crowded Public School 41?

Our school district, District 2 will see a 24.7 percent enrollment increase between 2004 and 2014, largely because of new development of this kind. You will need air rights and variances to complete this project. What are you prepared to offer the city in return - especially considering the demands that increased population places on our neighborhood and its schools?

Would you consider building community space within this development when more school space is desperately needed?

Answer
As part of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure - called ULURP - St. Vincent's will prepare a draft Environmental Impact Statement, or D.E.I.S. The D.E.I.S. will assess the impact of the proposed projects on community resources, including schools and identify if the proposed project will contribute to an overtaxing of any such resources. The D.E.I.S. is prepared under Department of City Planning guidelines and is reviewed by DCP prior to ULURP and is subject to public review and comment during ULURP.   Comments received during ULURP will be reflected in the final E.I.S., which is submitted to the City Planning Commission prior to its vote on any land use applications. Accordingly, it will be possible for the public to track the assessment and comment on it throughout the public review process.  We have not yet begun the E.I.S. analysis, but we will begin it soon, and we expect to be able to present its findings to the community by the middle of 2008.

At this time, it is not financially feasible to construct a school in this project.

The Triangle

Question
To get the current tower approved nearly 20 years ago, St. Vincent's promised the triangle between Greenwich Avenue and 7th Avenue and 12th Street would be space accessible, ground level plaza. Can you promise and can we believe that the triangle will truly be useable public space?

Will you give the Community written assurance that there will be a garden area open to the Community and will you consult with the community on the design of the garden area?

Is it possible to get rid of the service building on the triangle all together? Currently it is an eyesore, noisy, and reeks of garbage - all of which makes the park extremely uninviting. I have trouble envisioning there ever being a nice park in the triangle as long the building exists.

Answer
Almost all of the input we have received from the community has been in favor of keeping the triangle open, while asking that St. Vincent's re-commit to making it an attractive, useable space.  As you may know, we have already taken steps to spruce up the service structure as well as the triangle by partnering with the New York Horticultural Society for new plantings and maintenance of the green space.

The service building will remain on the triangle as it is a necessary part of our supply chain operations.  The architects are looking at ways to re-conceive the service building to make it more attractive.  Our current architectural concept considers a park-like community space on the triangle, with additional greenery to be added to the roof of the service structure. As we move forward, we will continue to work with interested members of the community on the final design and uses of the triangle, and we expect that the commitment to the final design will be made in writing. 

Historic District

Question
One of the clear problems has been that St. Vincent's has been condescending about historic district concerns. They clearly view it as an idle luxury that should be subordinated to their needs. How can they work with the community when they don't respect its unifying value?

Answer
On the contrary, we are not only mindful but also respectful of the historic district concerns. Both St. Vincent's and the Rudin Family have hired architects, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and FX Fowle, respectively, that have a track record of designing in historic neighborhoods.  The proposed design concepts shared on October 10th, were careful and thoughtful, taking into account not only historic district concerns but also an enormous number of additional variables of importance to our community.  The proposal for returning the mid-blocks of West 12th and West 11th streets to their pre-hospital townhouse configuration is more appropriate to and consistent with the history of the Village as contemplated in the Greenwich Village Historic District text. It further reduces the "streetwall," reduces density, and permits a greater degree of "green" architecture and engineering to be employed.  It will also substantially increase light and air to the mid-blocks of 11th and 12th Streets. 

Currently, we are preparing to submit the proposal for the project - including both the construction of the new hospital and construction on the current campus - to the Landmarks Preservation Commission and subsequently to the City Planning Commission.  The LPC process requires a hearing before Community Board 2 and a public hearing of the LPC. The CPC's process for pubic review of applications, known as the "Uniform Land Use Review Procedure" or "ULURP", assures further multiple opportunities for public review and comment before the Community Board, Borough President, CPC and the City Council. We look forward to this upcoming public dialogue and through the Community Working Group and other public events are trying to make the public review of our proposal as inclusive as possible. We believe that having a state-of-the-art hospital, appropriate for the changing and increased needs of the Village, the West Side and Downtown, will enhance our neighborhood and the wider community. We also believe that working with the community, we will arrive at a mutually satisfactory outcome.

Finally, the architects for St. Vincent's and the Rudin Family are also considering building materials for the new structures that will be consistent with the Greenwich Village Historic District.

Benefits to Employees and Patient Care

Question
How will the new hospital help employees do their job? Will the ‘green' aspect of the new building provide any benefits to employees?

What technological changes will the new hospital have that will enhance patient care and help staff do a better job?

Answer

We will involve all of our employees in the planning of the interior of the new hospital since they are our "internal experts" on what they need to make this a great place to work, as well as support great patient care. 

The new facility will offer the latest technology for patient care in a bright new environment with sufficient room and flexibility for us to provide the highest quality of care to our patients. While the interior design and architectural engineering of the new building remains to be worked out in detail, it will include new, minimally invasive and robotic operating room technology, electronic medical records, electronic physician orders for medication and diagnostic tests, electronic lab and diagnostic test result reporting, digital radiological imaging ("filmless" X-ray technology), and the latest generation of M.R.I. and C.T. scanners, among many other advances. These technologies, in addition to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of our care for patients, have the important added benefit of reducing the possibility of medical error - which is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States.  In addition, St. Vincent's is committed to using ‘green' technologies in the building to create a healthier environment for patients and employees alike.  All of which will enhance the work environment for our employees. 

Emergency Medical Care

Question

How will one emergency room accommodate one million people from Hell's Kitchen to the Battery, per your direct mail piece?

Answer

As things now stand, St. Vincent's IS the only emergency department serving the people of the West Side and much of Downtown. This situation was not of our choosing, but because of it, we believe that it's our responsibility to build a new hospital that not only incorporates sufficient room and resources, but also offers the latest technology and the ability to continuously upgrade as new technologies emerge.

Construction Project

Question

How long do you estimate construction will last? For each phase? Will you incorporate "green" building techniques w/construction? For example noise pollution? Dust?

The structures on both sites will involve huge quantities of construction! How long is it estimated each will take? Demo and construction?

Answer

The first phase of the project is the public review process. This includes applications filed with and reviewed by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the New York City Planning Commission, and the New York State Department of Health.  It will also include several hearings at Community Board 2 for public input and feedback. We expect the public review process to last 18 to 24 months from the date of application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The New York State Department of Health review process could take an additional period of time. Once the necessary governmental approvals are received, St. Vincent's will begin demolition of the O'Toole Building and construction of the new hospital. We expect that demolition and construction will last approximately four years. After the new hospital is built, St. Vincent's will move all operations out of the existing facilities on the east side of Seventh Avenue. The Rudin Family will then begin the process of demolition and construction for its residential facilities. The Rudin Family projects a four-year period for demolition and construction.

Also, it should be noted that St. Vincent's will continue to operate during the entirety of construction at these sites-the current hospital will be in operation during the construction of the new hospital and the new hospital will be in operation while the Rudin site is built.  Thus, it is in the best interest of our patients, employees, and physicians to mitigate all construction impacts and we will take measures to ensure all safety, noise and pollution impacts are addressed.  The community-through the Community Working Group and other forums-will also be made well aware of construction schedules and techniques, and will have the opportunity to provide feedback throughout the construction phase. 

Current Operations

Question

Why does the refilling of the oxygen tanks become louder and moved into the wee hours of the morning?

Answer

We have asked both the cylinder gas and the bulk gas companies (and other vendors) to deliver only between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. We will monitor their compliance with our request, and follow up on any problems. Please note that scheduling deliveries for a hospital is an intricate and delicate process. Morning deliveries from our principal suppliers are quite literally the lifeblood of the hospital, but we will continue to pursue methods of making sure that our supply-chain operations are as neighborhood friendly as possible, and welcome further feedback from our neighbors about this.

Comments

This is a major turning point for Greenwich Village healthcare. It is exciting to envision a "state of the art" medical center with facility to match and entice the best physicians in the country. As a neighbor I am reassured that the medical care I might need is a few steps away. As Program Director for internal medicine at St. Vincent's, I am delighted to offer such a facility to entice the best and brightest young physicians to finish their training.