Rudin Management

St. Vincent’s public affairs office gave us a call about our post on the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s meeting Tuesday on the hospital’s hardship application to demolish the O’Toole building and construct a new, “state-of-the-art” medical facility in its place.

Dr. George Neuman, the interim chief medical officer at St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center, said that “support for the new hospital among the doctors and nurses, maintenance and ancillary staff is universal.”

“The people here want to see a new hospital built,” he said. “When you think about it, who wouldn’t want to work in a new building?"

Dr.  read more »

So long O'Toole building?

A host of elected officials today--City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Senator Thomas K. Duane, and Congressman Jerrold Nadler--gave their blessings to a demolition of the O'Toole building at 12th Street and Seventh Avenue in order to make way for a new St. Vincent's hospital in its place, should the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission find the hospital faces sufficient "hardship."

By issuing statements or speaking at a hearing today, the officials voiced support for Rudin Management's modifications to the original, $1.6 billion proposal, but warned that more revisions responding to community concerns about construction, building height and density, and how to mitigate shadows and traffic cast on the neighborhood, would be needed should the proposal reach the public review phase.  read more »

Yesterday, we wrote about the public hearing at the Landmarks Preservation Commission where St. Vincent's submitted its application for hardship status to get permission to demolish the O'Toole building and build a new hospital on the Seventh Avenue site.

The Municipal Art Society, which also testified at the hearing, issued the following statement in reaction to St. Vincent's application:  read more »

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.  read more »

After its plans received an emphatic “no” from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission earlier this month, St. Vincent’s hospital is coming back with a slightly revised plan to build in the historic West Village a new medical center coupled with a residential development by Rudin Management.

The Landmarks Commission sent back the plans, saying that it could not support the demolition of so many buildings within the historic district.

Now, St. Vincent’s has submitted an application pleading hardship, a claim that the hospital hopes will receive a more sympathetic response from the commissioners.  read more »

The planned new medical facility of St. Vincent's in the West Village was dealt a setback today, as the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission sent the hospital back to the drawing boards. At issue were concerns about the demolition of numerous structures in the historic district to make way for a block of townhouses and a condo tower built by Rudin family.

While the commission did not vote on the plan, according to commission spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon, commissioners said it required major revisions, with some suggesting the hospital rethink the proposal in full.  read more »