St. Vincent's Hospital's expansion plan in Greenwich Village was finally approved yesterday by the Landmarks Preservation Commission by a vote of 9 to 1 after it reduced the height of the largest new residential building in the complex by 15 feet to 203 feet.

Originally, it had proposed a 266-foot-high residential condominium building that would have filled the east blockfront on Seventh Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets. After negotiations lasting more than a year and a half with the community board and the landmarks commission, the hospital agreed to retain several existing buildings including one on the southeast corner of Seventh Avenue and 12th Street.

Earlier this year, the landmarks commission approved a "hardship" application from the hospital to demolish the Edward and Theresa O'Toole Medical Services Building designed by Albert Ledner in 1964 for the National Maritime Union on the northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 12th Street. The commission previously had denied permission to demolish it and had declared it historically important.

The hospital initially planned to replace it with a 329-foot-high new hospital building so that its existing complex across the avenue could be developed residentially by the Rudin family. The commission and many community groups including the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation felt that the proposed new hospital tower, a curved designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, was too tall and its height was reduced to 286 feet.

Dan Kaplan of FXFowle Architects is the designer of the complex's residential plans for the Rudin organization that initially offered about $300 million to the hospital for the rights to develop its properties east of Seventh Avenue.

Construction of the residential portion of the project will not proceed until after the hospital moves into its new building.

The entire project still needs the approval of the City Planning Commission and the City Council and in March some civic groups filed suit against the Landmarks Commission claiming that it failed to follow "hardship" guidelines established in two famous preservation cases, one involving Grand Central Terminal and the other St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church on Park Avenue.

The distinctive O'Toole building was noted for its nautical motifs and it had been purchased by the hospital in 1977. The hospital also acquired separately the former site of the Loew's Sheridan movie theater that had occupied the triangular block bounding by Seventh Avenue, Greenwich Avenue and 12th Street and which has been used by the hospital only as a loading dock.

This part of the Greenwich Village Historic District is also faced with new construction in the immediate area as the Metropolitan Transit Authority plans to put a ventilation facility on the triangular vacant lot on the southeast corner of Seventh Avenue and Greenwich Avenue that for many years was occupied by a gas station and a White Tower restaurant that served scrumptious, but small cheeseburgers with diced onions, sliced pickles and catsup for under a dollar.

An article by Albert Amateau in the last week's edition of The Villager reported that on June 22 the MTA presented the local Community Board with several plans for the site, which is currently surrounded by a wire fence festooned with ceramic tile plaques commemorating the tragedy of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center of September 11, 2001. The article indicated that a spokesperson for the MTA indicated it was willing to incorporate some of the "Tiles for America" in its project.