New design of St. Vincent's triangular block in Greenwich Village reviewed

The omnibus committee of Community Board 2 passed a resolution this week that called for St. Vincent's Hospital to erect a low-rise fence around a redesigned park on the triangular block just south of the O'Toole Medical Services building it plans to demolish for a new hospital building.

According to a report in this week's edition of The Villager by Albert Amateau the committee endorse plans by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh to make the park on the block at grade as it is now elevated and now available to the public. However, its resolution, he wrote, responded to concerns voiced by a group that called itself Waverly Bank 11 Neighbors that the park would be open 24 hours seven days a week with no fence and concerns about garbage from people lunching in the park and general maintenance.

The committee, his article continued, also wanted to "see options and details for a green-wall concept for the north side of the triangle at the wall of the materials-handling building" as well as seeing drawings of mechanical elements on top of it. The materials-handling building is at the west end of the block, which for many years was the site of the Loew's Sheridan movie theater.

The preliminary plan by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates incorporates many of the features identified in a public workshop in May sponsored by the Omnibus Committee, elected officials and conducted by the Project for Public Spaces.

"All of the redesigned space," the article maintained, "will be visible from the sidewalk. Trees and other plantings, however, will be in four raised planters, with seating along the edges of the planters to accommodate small groups, as well as solitary users of the park. The raised planters are necessary to provide room for tree roots because a basement space for the hospital's materials-handling building lies beneath the triangle."