By Carter B. Horsley

The Landmarks Preservation Commission held a 7-hour hearing July 15, 2008 on "hardship" applications from St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers to demolish the Edward and Theresa O'Toole Medical Services Building on the west side of Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets and erect a new hospital complex on its site. The hospital has entered an agreement with the Rudin family, one of the city's major developers, to residentially redevelop many of its properties on the east side of Seventh Avenue

Several elected officials such as City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, State Senator Thomas K. Duane and Representative Jerrold Nadler spoke in favor, albeit with some reservations, of the hospital's recently revised plans that lowered the height of the proposed new hospital tower to 299 feet 4 inches and preserved several of its existing buildings that its original plan had planned to demolish (see The City Review article on original plans and The City Review article on the revised plans).

Civic organizations such as the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation indicated they still had problems with the revised plans and many other speakers, many wearing "Protect Our Village" labels, angrily denounced the elected officials and argued that the hospital's revised plan was still "too tall" and "too dense" and that it had not fully explored alternative plans.

At lunchtime, a rally was held by Friends of the New St. Vincent's across the street from the New York University School of Law building where the hearing was held. Scores of people waved placards stating "We Deserve A World -Class Hospital" and chanted loudly supporting a new hospital.

The surprise of the hearing came from Frederic Schwartz, the architect noted for imaginative urban schemes, who told the hearing that he is collaborating with Albert C. Ledner, the architect of the O'Toole building, on a plan, shown at the top of this article, to preserve the building as the base for a new hospital tower structure that would be a "twin intersecting circular glass block extrusion with operable strip windows like the circular glass block volume and the ground floor." Mr. Ledner designed the building in 1964 for the National Maritime Union and the hospital acquired it in 1979.

Mr. Schwartz said he had received a telephone call from Mr. Ledner last week from New Orleans where Mr. Schwartz is restoring and converting Edward Durell Stone's 30-story World Trade Center.

Mr. Schwartz said that "the floor plates, stacking of functions and the height of floors are the same as the Pei Cobb Freed design" commissioned by the hospital. That design called for an "ovoid" tower setback on a low-rise base. "essentially the only difference is in the form which would I believe make it easier to preserve the O'Toole building from a structural point of view. The glass block tower, by the nature of its material and scale, will offer an ephemeral and light appearance," Mr. Schwartz declared. Mr. Ledner had employed glass blocks in part of the base of the O'Toole Building.

"The 1964 O'Toole building is the Village's own Guggenheim. Instead of being filled with Art it was filled with working people. And unlike, for example, the addition to Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim by Gwathmey Siegel - we have the architect to work with - and that is the main reason I am here. Pei Cobb Freed is an excellent choice to design this hospital (think of their addition and preservation at Bellevue) - why not preserve and add here as well. To his credit, the talented partner in charge, Ian Bader, has expressed an interest in meeting with Albert to discuss this alternative," Mr. Schwartz continued.

The Ledner/Schwartz plan is a bit similar to the reflective-glass, curved tower that had been designed by Sir Norman Foster to rise above the north end of the former Parke-Bernet Building at 980 Madison Avenue (see The City Review article). That plan stirred considerable community opposition and was recently significantly revised and downscaled (see The City Review article).

Although there was only one rendering available and it has not too detailed, it was more attractive than the hospital's two tower designs because of its rounded form and color and the fact that thematically was somewhat related to the base.

At a previous meeting on the hospital's application for certificates of appropriateness for its plans the commission's members indicated they considered the O'Toole Building an important example of modern architecture and the hospital subsequently filed hardship applications on the grounds that its demolition was necessary for it to carry out its charitable purposes and replace its existing hodge-podge of facilities with low ceilings and unaligned floors with a state-of-the-art facility.

Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, the actors who live near the hospital spoke separately in opposition to the revised hospital plans. She said that more time should be spent on studying alternatives both on their properties and elsewhere.

Many of the speakers were critical of the hospital for not studying alternatives but many of them left before the late afternoon when the hospital did in fact present and analyze numerous alternatives for expansion on their properties.

The Ledner/Schwarz scheme is pretty attractive and it always is nice to have the input of the original architect. It is certainly more symmetrical and graceful than the hospital's current proposal and it is a very handsome solution to the rooftop addition solution. The big question, of course, is how does it work pragmatic for the hospital's needs in terms of floorplans, circulation, and construction costs. It probably is not too far off the mark, but detail studies need and should be made.

Objections to the height of the buildings really are inappropriate if the resulting plan is stunning and workable. Arguments that the conversion of several of the existing hospital buildings to residential uses is better than the original Rudin scheme lead to a hodge-podge of unexciting and bland mid-block buildings that have nothing to do with the traditional, mid-block townhouse ambience of much of Greenwich Village.

In October, 2008, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 6 to 4 to grant the hospital its hardship application to demolish the Ledner building (see The City Review article).