Mulry Angle

Public Comment Closes Tues, March 11

Last Thursday, the MTA held its public comment session for its Mulry Square plan. Attendance paled in comparison to the previous Monday’s hearing for St. Vincent’s/Rubin held at PS 41. More than 500 people attended St. Vincent’s. About 20 people were present at the Mulry hearing held at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium.

(On June 28, 1920, about 3,000 people including Archbishop Hayes were present at the dedication of Mulry Square. Music was provided by the Police Glee Club and the Fire Department Band.)

Three plans are on the boards for the site. One above ground, two below.

Toby Bergman, chairperson, parks and recreation committee, Community Board No. 2, was one of the handful of persons registered to speak. He recalled being in the auditorium 38 yrs ago when labor leader Victor Gotbaum, came and spoke out against Vietnam War.

He went on to address the plans’ failure to provide open space. He reminded us that the space was once actually a square that honored Thomas Mulry—before 7th Avenue cut through. He stated that Mulry even in its current state serves as an entrance to a different space, demarcating an entrance to the Village. He continued to say that building a fan plant is the farthest away from open space, “even Duane Reed is more open space than a fan plant.”

Questions also arose from a neighbor at 227 Waverly as to how the MTA acquire the property. No public hearing records have been found addressing when that took place.

The period for public testimony closes Tuesday, March 11.

The latest proposal is online at the MTA site. You can comment directly on these proposals through the MTA website by using the MTA email system or by mailing your comments to: Douglas Sussman, Director, Community Affairs, 347 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017.

MTA MEETING Feb 28th @ 6pm

(from Cynthia Crane, Chair,  Mulry Angle/W.11th Street Block Association)

I am reaching out to friends of the Village and  to my neighbors.  I can’t attend.  I am devastated that I will miss  this as I will be out of the country till mid-March.  I BEG YOU ALL TO  ATTEND AND SPEAK OUT AGAINST ANYTHING ABOVE GROUND.  We stand to lose a  great deal should they build on Mulry Angle, a site that, if there is any  justice at all, should be a garden   to mirror the triangle garden,  which has been promised as sacrosanct by the hospital.
They have  chosen three possible sites:
1. streetbed Gr.Av, bet. 7th + Perry  (below ground)
2. streetbed Perry bet. Gr Av + 7th (below  ground)
3. our beloved Mulry Angle, (above ground) @ 61 Gr Av, which  they own

MEETING DATE & PLACE;
Thurs Feb 28,  2008, 6PM
Tishman Auditorium
New School, 66 West 12th Street  (6/7)

We also need to enlist the Mulry Family, our  neighbors and anyone who cares about preservation of Greenwich Village.   The hospital is going to take some northern sky at 12th Street.   How sad it would be to lose the southern sky as well.  We stopped  PATH some years ago from another potential disaster.  We can do it again.   PLEASE spread word of the meeting.  Show up and speak  out.

My thanks to you in advance,
Cynthia Crane, Chair,  Mulry Angle/W.11th Street Block Association

Henry Amorosa speaks out in Crains article

(from Crains New York Business)  Henry Amoroso, chief executive of Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, the hospital system that operates the aging institution, says the facility isn't equipped to deliver the best available care. Its replacement will feature electronic patient records, which cut down on medical errors; exclusively private rooms, which help prevent infections; and operating rooms large enough to house the latest equipment.

Mr. Amoroso maintains that the plan's critics are ignoring the tough choices that the hospital must make in order to fund the project, because there's no government funding for construction.

The CEO says he wishes that the hospital could have kept at least some of the buildings, but it has to sell them all to raise enough money for the new hospital.

"These people have good intentions. They want to preserve their community," says Mr. Amoroso. "But no one wants to deal with reality. They want to make [construction] happen by waving a magic wand."  Read full article

Letter: A Bridge to Sustainable Living?

Re: St. Vincent’s/Rudin Proposed Development - A Bridge to Sustainable Living?

Dear Mr Amoroso & Mr. Rudin,

I am writing to you as a 24-year resident of Greenwich Village, a PS 41 father and a public member of the CB2 Omnibus team. I also own a business in the neighborhood and teach as adjunct faculty at Parsons the New School of Design. I have invested my life in this neighborhood and care deeply about how it grows going forward. That said, I have very serious concerns about the plans proposed by St. Vincent’s Hospital and the Rudin Company.

My hope is for a case study in urban renewal, not in mega-development. To get there, I believe we all have to synchronize our needs--St. Vincent’s, Rudin Company and the community at large. We all have a lot to lose and a lot to gain through this process. Let it be a process that we all can be proud of in years to come. The result should be a Village that we can proudly return to our children. Will the new buildings continue the narrative of Greenwich Village or will they be an abrupt interruption announcing the end of the Village as we know it?

Once the buildings are built and functioning, both sides will be looking to each other for support. That calls for a community relationship. The Village has historically been based on community, and for a long time St. Vincent’s has enjoyed being part of that spirit. We would expect St. Vincent’s to work with us, not sell us out.

A project of such unusual scope in such a unique and distinct area requires unusual measures to assure that it helps and not hurts the neighborhood. This is about more than any one building, but rather the impact of the project as a whole and its integration into the fabric of the Greenwich Village community.

For the past 14 years, I have lived on W. 11th St. between Sixth and Seventh Aves. Not too long after we moved in, St. Vincent’s financial troubles began and we became witness to some of the choices they had to make to help themselves. Many of those choices rippled negatively throughout the community creating an “us vs. them” situation with the hospital. When the 11th Street entrance was closed, for example, the safety of the block was compromised and the public amenity of green space on the triangle bounded by Greenwich Avenue, West 12th Street, and 7th Avenue never came to fruition.

Going forward, there’s a chance to heal, reconcile and begin a collaboration with the community that keeps us all evolving together.

1. Building Scale. Work with the community to bring the buildings more into the scale of their surrounding edifices. Without question, the proposed new tower goes well-beyond the standard scale of height in the hospital development.

2. Public Green Space. Allow the entire St. Vincent’s triangle to function as a public amenity and green space. Do not build on it. Open up the definition of green space. Mayor Bloomberg is talking about creating 800 more green triangles at street inter-sections; 80 a year for 10 years. We see a lot of private green space within the Rudin plan, but none that is accessible to the community.

3. Mulry Square. As an act of good faith, reclaim the Mulry Square triangle to mirror the St. Vincent’s triangle as green space. The MTA-owned property sits in the shadow of the proposed new structures and is named in honor of one of St. Vincent’s original benefactor Thomas Mulry and is the site of the famous Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks. Reclaiming it for public green space would save the neighborhood from being doubly impacted by another major construction project by the MTA in the same area. It would also integrate the dedicated square back into the shared St. Vincent’s/Greenwich Village narrative.

4. Noise, Pollution and Safety. Consider the environmental impact (air/noise) on the delicate buildings in this historic area. I live in the Unadilla building that faces Cronin.  The building was erected in 1898 and is subject to Landmarks for any modifications to the façade. Our windows will not protect from noise or pollution. Consider a proposal to give surrounding buildings money to install new landmark-approved windows to block out noise and air pollutants. Port Authority has recently given in to this with the buildings around the WTC site. Also develop a proactive plan to manage potential damage to structures and foundations in the surrounding area before construction is underway.

5. Retail. Involve the community in the decisions regarding the use of retail space. The community wants retail that supports the needs of the community. Involve us in a visioning process regarding retail and allow us to review and provide input.

6. Education Funds. Facilitate a Tax Revenue Study on the Rudin property to earmark funds for education. According to the city’s statistics, enrollment in our district, District 2, is projected to increase 24.7 percent between 2004 and 2014, yet the DOE has not shown us any plans for commensurate increases in classroom space. Our children are already feeling the crunch in the shortage of places in kindergarten, increased class size, and scarcity of appropriate placements for middle and high school.

I hope that we can come together in achieving a sustainable community that we all enjoy living and working in. With your cooperation and attention to the special needs of this unique and vital historic district, we can move together into a new chapter in our history that still honors and nurtures the meaning of Greenwich Village. 

Sincerely,

Tim Stock
126 West 11th Street, #32
timstock@scenariodna.com

cc: Community Board #2; NYC Dept of Parks & Recreation; AIANY, Planning/Urban Design Committee; Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation; Christine Quinn, City Council Speaker; Deborah Glick, Assemblymember; Mulry Family; Landmarks Preservation Commission; Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President; Real Estate Board of New York; Tom Duane, State Senator; US Green Building Council

CB2 MANHATTAN St. Vincent's/Rudin Landmarks Application

Podcast and downloads from public hearing 1/22/08

Go to http://www.savemulrysquare.com

Also access further information here:

St. Vincent's Site

Community Board 2 Omnibus Committee

Public Hearing @ PS 41 January 22nd @ 6:30pm

from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

On January 22 there will be a very important public hearing on the plan by St. Vincent’s Hospital and the Rudin Company to build 1.3 million sq. ft. of luxury condos and new hospital facilities on the site of the current St. Vincent’s hospital. This is the largest proposed development in   Greenwich Village in more than 50 years, since Robert Moses’ superblock urban renewal projects south of Washington Square in   the 1950’s.

Public Hearing on St. Vincent’s/Rudin Luxury Condo & New Hospital Development Plan
at PS 41 (116 West 11th Street, west of 6th Avenue)
Tuesday, January 22 at 6:30 pm
(due to large expected turnout, we recommend you arrive and sign into speak at 6 pm,to ensure you get a chance to testify)

St. Vincent’s gets operating; Plans are filed at Landmarks

(from The Villager)

St. Vincent’s Hospital has filed applications with the Landmarks Preservation Commission for approval of plans for a new hospital building and the Rudin Development’s residential redevelopment of the hospital’s current main campus.
         

         

Because both the hospital and the residential project that is intended to pay for the new medical facility are within the Greenwich Village Historic District, L.P.C. must approve the demolition of existing buildings on the sites and issue certificates of appropriateness for the new buildings. Read more

Public Hearing by CB2 Zoning Commitee

When: January 10th at 6:00 PM
Where: NYU SILVER BUILDING, 32 Waverly Place, Room 507 (ID required)

An Architect’s Flotilla of West Side Buildings

The New Orleans architect Albert C. Ledner’s three offbeat creations for the National Maritime Union came ashore in New York in the 1960s, their porthole facades impudent in the face of doctrinaire modernism. The union sold off all three buildings within two decades. One of the pair on Ninth Avenue and West 17th Street is now the Maritime Hotel; the other, too, may soon morph into a hotel.

But the fate of the third building — owned by St. Vincent’s Hospital at Seventh Avenue and 12th Street — is uncertain. The hospital wants to replace it with a high-rise, despite pleas from the preservation group Docomomo and despite the facade’s status as a landmark. read more