Well, NY1 got the scoop on what this facility will look like on the southeast corner of 14th Street and Second Avenue... hold on tight...
Per NY1:
It will be known as Mount Sinai Downtown Beth Israel.
As part of a $500 million, the hospital will become a network of buildings, including a specialized care facility and with a new urgent care center, among other upgrades.
Part of this new complex will sit on space belonging to 321 E. 13th St., a 14-floor building between Second Avenue and First Avenue that houses training physicians and staff of the nearby New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. This building will be demolished.
All they need now is an indoor roller coaster and their transformation into the Mall of America will be complete.
ReplyDeleteSo out of character for the neighborhood! And I bet they'll make the sidewalk & bike lane unusable for years while they build this monstrosity.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me, I need to order another business card holder from Staples.
ReplyDeleteAm I naive or does $500mm seem like an incredible small number for a state-of-the-art hospital in the heart of the East Village?
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in seeing more detailed drawings and schematics of the interior before joining the EVG architectural critics knee jerk denunciation. From what is shown, it looks like an interesting design--totally out of character with its neighbors--you bet!! But why must it be in "character"? Why can't it be a bold statement?
ReplyDeleteSomething looks off there, besides the ugly building.
ReplyDeleteThere are people walking in the middle of the street, the bike lane is on the wrong side
of the street.
And - south east on second ave means where the Eye and Ear is now ?
Where there is an eye glass shop on the corner ?
It looks as warm and welcoming as Superman's ice-bound Fortress of Solitude. Too bad it'll be in the EV and not in the Arctic. Bye-bye, nice little optical store there on the corner, first a car plowed into you and now Mount Sinai does the same. Sorry to say that this one, there's no coming back from.
ReplyDeleteWell, it is replicating the aesthetics of the Union Square outpost.
ReplyDeleteThe bike lane appears to still be on the correct side of the road as the cars are still to the right of the bike lane, however the lane is much further from the curb than currently. Also, the eye glass spot is in the rendering labeled "optical shop."
ReplyDeleteApart from the aesthetics (and I appreciate 4:45's willingness to keep an open mind), what services will they really be providing here? They've been silent about the hospice that's currently at the main Beth Israel campus and has provided essential care to people whose circumstances mean they can't die at home. The Mt Sinai folks have obfuscated about the substance of their plans and I hope the "bold" architecture doesn't distract us from whether they are fulfilling their public service mission.
ReplyDeleteAnd the beat goes on. This is a rendering. It's so disproportional that it looks like there's a 13 1/2 Street. All the architect is doing is re-cladding the original building. Ugly? Well, it doesn't fit into the neighborhood. But neither does a small hospital. The Second Avenue corridor is being used to clear out the First Ave property. It's the removal of the 99% for the 1%. The present site on the open market is worth over 600 million. Add to that the cost of building several towers and you'll get a billion dollar development. The apartments will sell for 5, 10, 20 million. And that's why Mt. Sinai bought the property. Not for medical services but to clear it out and sell. And the state and the city are part of this ripoff of medical services to the people of lower Manhattan. ISN'T THERE ANY POLITICIAN OUT THERE WHO CARES ABOUT THE PEOPLE THEY REPRESENT?! God what an ugly answer Silence. Silence. Silence.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like one of the new terminals at JFK, except at this airport, people check in but they don't check out
ReplyDeleteWell, you HAVE to have a hospital that LOOKS LIKE the Standard Hotel in order to serve the condo-owners who will be paying a zillion dollars to live in the FORMER Beth Israel building, right? Maybe access to the hospital is an amenity that will be part of the condo's offering plan!
ReplyDeleteFor Mt. Sinai and its archi-dreckt, "context" has no meaning at all. Just lots of shiny stuff that's a distraction, and definitely not anything that feels like a place where a sick person might receive actual CARE.
Mt. Sinai, much like NYU, is more in the business of real estate than it is in the business it PURPORTS to be in. It's all about the $$$$$$$$, and the neighborhood gets told what's good for it & then we are all supposed to shut up and slink away quietly so we don't annoy our "betters".
I am waiting for them to close the 800 bed hospital and replace it with a stylish for profit urgent care. Just needs a cocktail lounge in the lobby
ReplyDeleteMoney vs beds doesn't add up. Plus it looks like a giant glass arrow. UGH.
ReplyDeleteI know that most people are opposed to just about any new building in this city and I often agree with that but if I could save up all my disgust for an ugly building it would all go towards this one. Giovanni got this right right out of the gate, "Mall of America". Will this be a "themed hospital" with actors dressed like patients and doctor recreating "emergencies" and using lines from prime time medical dramas? If this gets built as shown in these drawings the "Death Star" officially loses it title as most out of place structure built in New York City. Did I mention this undignified piece of shit cannot be built.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a bunch of rectangular prisms surrounded by some dramatic fencing. I am also curious to see additional renderings of the exterior as well as the interior.
ReplyDeletecmarrtyy - you got it "ISN'T THERE ANY POLITICIAN OUT THERE WHO CARES ABOUT THE PEOPLE THEY REPRESENT?!"
ReplyDeleteno there isn't
this is another sell-off for the east village and gramercy park developers. nothing more.
the same do nothing officials that stood by and watched the loss of the nursing home, numerous stabilized apartments, historic buildings, small neighborhood stores, seem to welcome the tidal wave of theme bars and clubs - the customers of which will need a new hip hospital to recover in after a night at webster hall and the 11th street "hotel".
replaced by chains and bars
That tall thing with the name on it? That is actually a 40x60 foot tall video screen to beam ads and "information" into the public space!!
ReplyDeleteBased on the illustration, that building will have some of the worst feng shui - and surely not what one would want in a place that is supposed to make you feel better rather than worse. Somebody involved might have given that some thought - oh, sorry, I was fantasizing!
ReplyDeleteWill Calvin Harris be the resident DJ and open up the room ?
ReplyDeleteI don't care what it looks like. I am upset that it will be smaller than the current hospital on 1st and 16th. After St. Vincent's closed, Beth Israel was a zoo. Patients in the emergency room on stretchers in the hallways, so overcrowded. We need a huge hospital given the population in Manhattan. The esthetics are the least of it and actually, I think it has a nice look. Nothing stays the same. The West Village is not the same...the closing of Cafe Figaro was the final nail in the coffin as far as the village "flavor". So this is happening to the East Village. It's OK with me but a smaller hospital was not a good idea. It needed to be built up vertically with more beds!
ReplyDeleteI hope when this hospital building opens that all the posters who find it offensive decide to go to some other place if they have an emergency or if they are are hospitalized as per a doctor's request. They could announce to all that they won't step foot in that horrible building.
ReplyDeleteMost of us fortunately will not need to be hospitalized in the near future but unfortunately we must look at this Carnival Cruises architecture in an urban setting for much longer. My surrounding are important to me, I am inspired by beauty natural and human made. There is no good reason to make a prominent building look so out of place in a cheap circus like way. A really good architect should be hired instead, one that considers the neighborhood's existing flavor and history.
ReplyDeleteOkay Anon 5:28 glad to know that you are so certain that there will be no circumstance under which you might need a hospital in the East Village. You probably don't think you need Obamcare because you are never sick. And the character of the East Village hasn't become more and more like a "Carnival"-and a "cheap circus" in the last decade or two? I wish I knew which part of the EV you are living in.
ReplyDelete