MANHATTAN — The Landmarks Preservation Commission have given the green light to Rudin Management's plans to create a 16,500-square-foot park on the St. Vincent's Triangle.
In a 7-3 vote Tuesday morning, the LPC said the project proposed for Seventh Avenue between Greenwich Avenue and West 12th Street, follows precedents for other parks in the Village, like at Abingdon Square.
“Our role and responsibility is to determine if the choice [Rudin] is now proposing is an appropriate choice,” Commission Chairman Robert Tierney said in a statement. "It is very, very welcome."
Rudin's plans for the park, unveiled Sept. 8, show a space with more than 600 seats, 31 trees and 4,861 square feet of plantings. A spokesman the group was pleased by the vote.
"[The vote] paves the way towards our developing a 16,500-plus-square-foot community park and bringing some desperately needed open space to the Greenwich Village community," spokesman Stefan Friedman said.
Commissioner Margery Perlmutter, who provided one of the dissenting votes, called the Rudin design a "lost opportunity," according to the LPC statement.
“The idea of something that’s generic that doesn’t pull in the elements of the character of the district I don’t think is appropriate," she said.
A group pushing for the creation of an AIDS memorial park on the Triangle site has launched a competition with celebrity architect judges to create an alternate plan for the park.
Rudin has said their park design will include possible memorials to St. Vincent's Hospital or the AIDS epidemic, whose epicenter was Greenwich Village.
Plans for St. Vincent's Triangle are part of Rudin's larger request for rezoning in central Greenwich Village, which would allow the creation of luxury homes and retail space. After being voted down by Community Board 2 and up by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in advisory votes, Rudin's zoning application is subject to approval by the City Planning Commission and City Council.
