NEW YORK | New York AIDS Memorial

[Eidolon]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2012/11/28/new_york_city_aids_memorial_approved_by_landmarks.php
New York City AIDS Memorial Approved by Landmarks
November 28, 2012,
by Jeremiah Budin
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After almost a year of occasionally hilarious debate about the future New York City AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent's Hospital Park, the agreed upon design from Studio a + i received no opposition from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, who approved the proposal unanimously yesterday afternoon. Studio a + i's Mateo Paiva presented the plans for the "quietly abstract memorial," which will consist of a triangular steel structure covered in vines with a water feature underneath, taking up a 1,600-square-foot triangle in the northwest corner of the park.

[photoLith]

What a depressing memorial.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Yuck. A Vietnam Veterans Memorial or Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe this most certainly is not.

[Illithid Dude]

I like how subtle this memorial is. This can just as easily be a nice, shaded public space as it can be a testament to those lost during the AIDS crises.

[theWestisDead]

Thank god it includes a sign saying what it is cause I sure wouldn't have any idea otherwise...

[Rail>Auto]

It looks like a bus stop and nothing more.

[patriotizzy]

Geesh, so many negative comments. I for one like the design. Sure an AIDS memorial is a little off the beaten path, but it's nice to know people who've had lost family members and friends, will have a beautiful place to respect. Besides, who can argue against public spaces?

[DJM19]

I really like the design...as a shade element for a small park. And I am all for subtlety in memorials. But this is TOO subtle to be a memorial. To the point where its almost an insult to just slap AIDS on the side and call it a memorial to AIDS victims.

I think memorials should at least have the subject matter reflected in the design somehow. This looks like someone experimented with interesting patterns in canopy designs and then when the AIDS memorial project came to their desk they pulled this out of the filing cabinet and moved on to the next project.

Its nice, and fits well with the location. But it seems cheap to tack on that name to a bench and call it an AIDS memorial.

[yankeesfan1000]

I quite like it. And the St Vincents conversion into apartments across 7th Ave is flying along.

[NYguy]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/03/28/village_aids_memorial_loses_the_greenery_raises_funding.php

Village AIDS Memorial Loses the Greenery, Raises Funding


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Thursday, March 28, 2013, by Jessica Dailey

After raising $1 million in funding, the New York City AIDS Memorial released updated renderings showing a triangular canopy that's much in line with what the Landmarks Preservation Commission hoped to see. The updated 18-foot tall structure, designed by the Brooklyn-based firm Studio a+1, keeps the same general shape and the water feature, but it is no longer covered with ivy and flowers. LPC had raised concerns about the upkeep of the greenery, as well as how much light it would block. Paving stones beneath the canopy will feature poetry and quotes about the city's response to the AIDS epidemic.


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[H-man]

new design sucks. I guess a crappy memorial for a crappy disease is fitting.

[photoLith]

Just the place I want to hang out at, an AIDs memorial. Don't know about you, but Id feel very uncomfortable there.

[easy as pie]

a massive improvement over the substation or train ventilation or whatever structure that is there now: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=7th+Avenue,+12th+Street+nyc&hl=en&ll=40.737594,-74.001605&spn=0.002135,0.004342&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hq=7th+Avenue,&hnear=W+12th+St,+New+York&t=h&fll=40.737281,-74.001248&fspn=0.002135,0.004342&z=19&layer=c&cbll=40.737648,-74.00174&panoid=XlaK0sDHjY1y463yBdSCtA&cbp=12,133.7,,0,-8.55

a really welcome addition to a hood that can always use a little more park space

[mrnyc]

wait - is this where the depressing former hospital oxygen tank garage or whatever the ef that eyesore is across from the village den diner is? in that case i like it. i like it a lot. tear that ugly useless block down asap!

[mt_climber13]

Just the place I want to hang out at, an AIDs memorial. Don't know about you, but Id feel very uncomfortable there.


The AIDS Memorial grove in San Francisco's golden gate park is one of the most beautiful public spaces I have ever visited.

[sbarn]

wait - is this where the depressing former hospital oxygen tank garage or whatever the ef that eyesore is across from the village den diner is? in that case i like it. i like it a lot. tear that ugly useless block down asap!

Yes. This will be a great improvement over what's there now.

[yankeesfan1000]

^ Yup. Nice to see they included the St. Vincent's condo conversion in the background, which has been U/C for months with no mention anywhere on here.

[Busy Bee]

Would make a really cool subway entrance. Just doesn't say "Aids Memorial" to me.

[NYC4Life]

What was the point of having the greenery in the first place? Whatever the reason made the memorial look hideous. This revision looks better.

[RobEss]

I really don't get how some zippy trade-show-esque pavilion is meant to memorialize the millions that have died and suffered from AIDS. There's nothing somber or reflective about the space. I'm embarrassed.

[Busy Bee]

Are the louvered triangle design supposed to reference the AIDS quilt or something. How but they scrap this and just build a 80 foot ribbon.

[NYguy]

http://nycaidsmemorial.org/


http://nycaidsmemorial.org/2012/susan-sarandon


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WHY

Thirty years after the onset of AIDS, there is no significant New York City AIDS Memorial. Inspired by two young men who had never known a world without AIDS, a coalition of artists, health care providers, historians, family, friends and neighbors have come together to create a permanent memorial to remember the history of the crisis. The new memorial will honor the more than 100,000 New York City men, women and children who have died from AIDS, and commemorate and celebrate the efforts of the caregivers and activists who responded heroically to the crisis. In addition to serving as a place to remember and reflect, the memorial will also renew awareness and inspire action by current and future generations through educational programming.

WHAT

The park will feature an 18-foot-high canopy structure comprised of three intricate triangles that create a strong gateway to the park and a sheltered venue for people to gather. The Memorial’s surface design incorporates an inspiring narrative element, represented in a granite paving pattern of concentric rings, inscribed with a patchwork of facts, quotations and poetry reflective of the community’s response to the AIDS epidemic. A beautiful granite water feature, glazed with a thin surface of running water, will serve as a focal point for reflection and meditation. The AIDS Memorial design has garnered feature articles in Architectural Record, New York Magazine and The New York Times, which tout the simplicity and elegance of the design and the significance of the Memorial.

WHERE

After successful community advocacy, in March 2012, the NYC Council designated the entrance of the new public park to house the NYC AIDS Memorial. The park is planned as part of the redevelopment of the former St. Vincent’s Hospital campus, which housed the City’s first and largest AIDS ward. The memorial will be located at the intersection of West 12th Street and Greenwich Avenue, a block from the LGBT Community Center. The park and Memorial will create a new, significant green space and amenity in the historic West Village.

[NYguy]

http://nycaidsmemorial.org/



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[mrnyc]

I really don't get how some zippy trade-show-esque pavilion is meant to memorialize the millions that have died and suffered from AIDS. There's nothing somber or reflective about the space. I'm embarrassed.

yeah and not to mention 2/3rds more women die of breast cancer per year than aids victim deaths. where is that 2/3rds more prominent memorial? will it be built on the rest of this triangle?? oh wait, there isnt one being built anywhere. now i dont mean to play 'top the disease,' but thats whats really embarrassing.

[Perklol]

Has anyone taken recent photos of this project?

[sparkling]

Rudin Breaks Ground on West Village Park (http://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-the-deal-news-digest-1424656265)

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A rendering of Rudin Management Co.’s Greenwich Village park. PHOTO: HAYES DAVIDSON

Emily Nonko
Feb. 22, 2015
Rudin Management Co. is making good on the promises it made to the Greenwich Village community when it cut its 2011 deal to redevelop the site of St. Vincent’s Hospital as luxury apartments.

The latest sign of this: Rudin has broken ground on a 16,000-square-foot park it promised to develop on Seventh Avenue between Greenwich Avenue and West 12th Street. The triangular park will feature the city’s first major AIDS memorial as well as play areas, a lawn and water jets.

Rudin is paying the $10 million cost of the park, which is scheduled to open this summer. “It’s designed to be a classic West Village park,” said Bill Rudin, the company’s chief executive.

Rudin is developing 200 condominiums and five townhouses at the site of the old hospital, which sought bankruptcy protection in 2010. Community groups opposed to the hospital’s closure fought the plan. Eventually Rudin got city approval after promising to develop the park and donating the former O’Toole Building, of the St. Vincent’s complex, for a medical center.

The 160,000-square-foot Lenox Hill HealthPlex opened this summer and offers 24-hour emergency care.

The Greenwich Village community board initially opposed the redevelopment. But Bob Gormley, the board’s district manager, said there is a lot of excitement among board members about the park. “[Rudin] was very inclusive with the community board for the design,” he said.

The park was designed by architecture firm M. Paul Friedberg & Partners. Studio a+i designed the 1,600-square-foot memorial, a structural canopy with a geometric design.

The first phase of the residential development, The Greenwich Lane, is expected to be completed this year. Buyers have signed contracts for 148 of the 200 condos, with average prices of about $3,500 a square foot, according to a Rudin spokesman

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PHOTO: HAYES DAVIDSON