IS the plan of St. Vin cent’s Catholic Med ical Center to build a much needed, state-of-the-art, all-digital, green hospital just inside the northern boundary of Greenwich Village being stopped by a “duck”? If so, it will just be the most recent – but surely not the last – important project blocked by an outlandish building.
“Duck” is the term coined by architects Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi years ago to signify a building that “announces its purpose” – like the huge, famous Duck on Long Island that indicated ducklings and eggs were sold inside. It’s supposed to be ridiculous – or at least humorous.
And, indeed, the O’Toole Building, owned by St. Vincent’s and standing on Seventh Avenue between 13th and 12th streets, is both.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission has authority over the demolition of any buildings in the Greenwich Village Historic District. Last week, all 10 commissioners refused to permit the demolition of O’Toole. It is, they ruled, “inappropriate to eliminate an important example of modern architecture that was designed by a prominent architect and is historically and culturally significant.”
Of all the hurdles facing development in New York, landmarking may be the toughest. The very words “historic district” conjure up a neighborhood of superb structures worthy of preservation. Yet most New York neighborhoods have a mix of good and bad buildings, high and low, new and old – some worth saving, others not. The commission’s supposed to figure out which are which.
Like the Duck, O’Toole has a certain goofy charm. Opened in 1964 as the headquarters and hiring hall of the National Maritime Union, the then-Joseph Curran Building was given a nautical feel by architect Albert C. Ledner. The concrete façade has two overhangs that, depending on where you stand, look scallop-shaped, suggesting waves, or like the portholes of a great ship. Inside are a 70-foot-long, Captain Video-like tunnel, overhead portholes, submarine-like circular conference rooms, etc.
Yet St. Vincent’s, even if it had millions of extra dollars to lavish on the project, would be unable to restore O’Toole’s interior, which is utterly unsuitable for the hospital’s use. At best it could “save” O’Toole the way the Hearst company “saved” its 1928 building at 8th Avenue and 57th Street by having London architect Norman Foster design an immensely expensive tower to go on top.
But this whole dispute is ridiculous. St. Vincent’s runs its much acclaimed Level 1 trauma center – the only one on the West Side below St. Luke’s on 114th Street in Morningside Heights – in a grossly outdated, cramped physical plant. It must modernize.
To find the money, it wants to sell eight buildings east of 7th Avenue for $301 million to Rudin Management, which would build an 18-story condominium tower and several townhouses while converting four hospital buildings to residential. St. Vincent’s would replace O’Toole with a 299-foot tower holding a new hospital. If O’Toole can’t be demolished, the plan falls to pieces.
And the building is at best marginally important – like thousands of others in New York’s historic districts. Yes, its demolition will be sad. But preserving all buildings in all historic districts would be even sadder – indeed disastrous – for the city’s economy.
For New York to stay competitive, its key institutions have to be able to adapt to new conditions – serving their constituents while staying at the forefront of their fields and maintaining technological preeminence.
Landmarks commissioner Margery Perlmutter attacked Rudin for proposing to demolish the hospital buildings “for the sole purpose of developing a huge housing project on the site.” In fact, the Rudin plan diminishes the overall square footage from 763,000 gross square feet above grade to 633,000.
The real problem is that many Villagers don’t want change or development of any kind.
As Columbia University historian Kenneth Jackson points out, “Change is constant in New York.” It’s at the core of New York’s very being. The Landmarks Commission has to permit even historic districts to evolve – or we will all stagnate.
Julia Vitullo-Martin is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.