“The memorial should enhance the park but not overshadow it,” said Tom Molner of the preservation group Protect the Village Historic District as he commented at the first of three public sessions sponsored by Community Board No. 2’s parks committee. The sessions are set up to gather input on the proposed triangle park and AIDS memorial across from the former St. Vincent’s Hospital site, the future site of a Rudin condo and medical facility development.

The public sessions, which include participation from Rudin Management and the AIDS Memorial Park Coalition, will look at designs for a 16,000-square-foot park, including a 1,600-square-foot memorial to the AIDS epidemic as well as the former hospital that many have described as “ground zero” for HIV patients.

Molner also pointed to Abingdon Square and Strawberry Fields as memorials that are well integrated into their surrounding areas.

Yet another village resident suggested that the names of those lost to the disease should be incorporated in some way into the memorial. “A memorial means something when you see the name of a person you lost,” the resident said.

One resident made the point that many people died from the disease alone or in secret. “It may be difficult to put the names of people on the memorial because many victims were unknown, largely due to the stigma of the disease,” he said.

Other residents agreed saying that there should be a “balance” between personal impact and the disease in general.

According to CB 2, Brooklyn-based design firm Studio a+I, the firm that submitted the winning concept in the AIDS Memorial Park Coalition design contest that was ultimately rejected by Rudin Management, will now design the AIDS Memorial and work with Rudin’s landscape architect Rick Parisi of MPFP to integrate the memorial into the park.

The construction of the triangle park, bordered by Greenwich Avenue, Seventh Avenue and West 12th Street, will be paid for by Rudin as part of the St. Vincent’s Redevelopment Project.

Kate Turley, principal of the City and Country School on 12th Street, pushed for an educational component for children as part of the memorial. “There should be a part of the memorial where kids can go and learn all about the epidemic and those who passed away,” she said.

A handout from CB 2 suggested that the memorial’s commemorative priorities should celebrate the community’s heroic response to the crisis; honor the thousands who died by celebrating life; recognize the ongoing nature of the epidemic and inspire additional learning about the crisis.

Meanwhile, community design priorities for the memorial should invite reflection with comfortable seating and a water feature; maximize landscaping; incorporate contemporary aesthetics respectful of the historic district and be physically integrated into the park.

Upcoming design meetings on the Triangle Park and AIDS Memorial will take place on May 30 and another on June 27.

CB 2’s Landmarks and Parks committees will examine designs from the three public sessions on July 9 and make a recommendation to the full board, which will vote on a final design on July 19.

The City Council’s Land Use Committee voted 10 to one in favor of a proposal whose major provisions include shrinking Rudin’s residential development from 450 condo units to 350; the purchase of a state-owned building at 75 Morton St. to be used for a new middle school; and the permanent transfer of Triangle Park to the city, which will include an AIDS memorial and undergo a public review process.

Moreover, the Council reported that $1 million would be directed to arts programs at P.S. 41, P.S. 3 and the proposed school at the Foundling Hospital site, along with $1 million for a legal services fund to help retain affordable housing in the Village. The Council also said that the Reiss Building on 12th Street would be preserved.

Brad Hoylman, chairperson of Community Board 2, praised Council Speaker Christine Quinn, whose district includes the Village, for her efforts on behalf of the community. “The St. Vincent’s redevelopment package addresses significant needs in our area. This includes support for public schools, a legal fund for rent-stabilized tenants, open space that will become permanent public parkland with an AIDS memorial and sensible changes to the new development, including preserving the Reiss building in addition to the five buildings that were already saved as part of the project, which is in the Greenwich
Village Historic District,” Hoylman said in an emailed statement.

However, he reiterated his frustration regarding the fight for a hospital in the Village. “Unfortunately, the plan doesn’t include a much-needed full-service hospital,” he added. “That battle must continue.” Plans for a new health care center to be operated by North Shore LIJ out of the modern building on West 12th Street, referred to by some residents as a “freestanding emergency room,” were unaffected by Wednesday’s announced deal.

Some politicians, including Assembly Member Deborah Glick, had mixed support for the revised Rudin West Village Development Plan. “The battle to get a school at 75 Morton Street was a four-year effort and we’re happy about that,” Glick said. She added that she was not pleased about the upzoning privileges afforded Rudin.

“That zoning should have been reserved for the ‘public benefit,’ as St. Vincent’s was,” Glick explained. “A private developer shouldn’t have been able to take that zoning and use it for a private, commercial use.”

In an emailed statement, Andrew Berman, executive director of The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, concurred with Glick regarding the upzoning issue. “The GVSHP objects to upzoning the St. Vincent’s site to give a luxury condo development special zoning considerations originally intended for a hospital,” he wrote. He continued, “While many of the changes may improve the [development] plan, they don’t necessarily address this fundamental problem.”

The special zoning privileges Berman referred to date back to 1979, when the St. Vincent’s site was rezoned to allow a large bulk of development for hospital buildings and a much smaller one for residential buildings. Berman added that Rudin is now asking for the site to be upzoned to be allowed much greater bulk than the allowable residential.

The revised plan must still be reviewed by the City Planning Commission and will be voted on by the full Council March 28.

Members of the 99% are up in arms today about the planned renovation of St. Vincent’s Hospital. The hospital was closed last year as a result of insurmountable debt. Since then the Rudin Management group has renovated much of the space and is expected to put their new luxury condos on the market this fall.

At 4pm today OWS will take to the streets an march to St. Vincent’s for a “teach-in” in protest of the condo-fication. The march will leave from OWS headquarters–Zuccotti Park–where protesters will start by sharing personal struggles with the healthcare system. The march will continue on towards St. Vincent’s making stops at health insurance companies to protest on the way.

The protest will move to Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield at One Liberty Plaza just outside Zuccotti Park. Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield is a subsidiary of WellPoint and the largest publicly traded health insurance company.

At 5:30 p.m. the group will move to WellCare at 110 5th Ave to protest the for-profit company that administers Medicaid and Medicare Advantage Programs. Wellcare is currently being investigated for fraud with estimates that the company illegally siphoned $400 to $600 million from state health insurance programs.

The march will make its final stop at St. Vincent’s where it will meet up with members of the Coalition for a New Village Hospital for the teach-in. Members of both groups will occupy the area and spread knowledge about the US healthcare industry as well as protest the closing and sale of the hospital.

OWS and the Coalition for a New Village Hospital invite anyone and everyone to join in the fight, “Don’t allow our hospital to be turned into luxury Condos for the 1%.
Stand Up. Fight Back. Teach In.”

By McCamey Lynn