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Preservationists Sue to Save St. Vincent's O'Toole Building
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 9, 2009
Modified Mar 9, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 9, 2009
Modified Mar 9, 2009
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A coalition of community groups and preservationists have filed a lawsuit against the Landmarks Preservation Commission [LPC] and St. Vincent’s Hospital to try and block the demolition of the distinctive O’Toole building in Greenwich Village. You'll recall that after a bitter public battle, St. Vincent's hospital was granted a “hardship-status” exemption last October to raze the landmark building to make way for a 299-foot-tall medical tower. The lawsuit, spearheaded by a group called Protect the Village Historic District, argues that the LPC "did not make an adequate investigation of alternatives, including the potential reuse of St. Vincent's existing buildings." Officials at St. Vincent's have threatened that the hospital would have to close if it could not build an $830 million medical tower on the site of the O’Toole, which NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff hails as a representation of "a moment when some architects rebelled against Modernism’s glass-box aesthetic in favor of ornamental facades." Others simply call it the "overbite building."
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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