That White Building on Seventh Avenue

By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP

Northwell Health acquired the landmarked modern building at 30 Seventh Avenue, between 12th and 13th Streets, from The Rudin Management Company, which had acquired it as part of its purchase of the former St. Vincent’s Hospital facilities in 2010.

Not so long ago, Saint Vincent’s Hospital was one of the oldest and most revered hospitals in the city. In March 2009, St. Vincent’s got the city Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approval for the design of a replacement hospital. They needed to demolish St. Vincent’s O’Toole medical building, which was originally designed for the National Maritime Union by Arthur A. Schiller and New Orleans architect Albert Ledner in 1962-63. This building was followed by their designs for the National Maritime Union annex building on Ninth Avenue in Chelsea just a few years later. The LPC confirmed that the hospital had the right, as a hardship case, to demolish the building which had previously been landmarked.

The Greenwich Village Historic District Report of 1969 describes 30 Seventh Avenue thus: “The main portion of this building fronting on the Avenue is a glistening white, built above two curving glass-block walls. It has two overhangs at the top floors which are dramatized by their scalloped edge profiles. These overhangs produce an interesting play of light and shade. The rectangularized pattern of the jointing of the stone veneer lends a new dimension to the building, making us double aware of the various wall planes. Bubble shaped covers of plexiglass serve to display ship models around the base outside the glass-block walls.”

Note the addresses of 30 Seventh Avenue, showing that this is where Seventh Avenue originated with the 1811 street grid. It was many years later, when the subway was bored through the Village, that the city made the grievous mistake of calling the extension Seventh Avenue South, instead of Varick Street, thereby duplicating addresses from Seventh Avenue that befuddle people to this day.

Today, the “Maritime Union Building” aka “Joseph Curran Building” aka “O’Toole Building,” after extensive exterior restoration to its former glory, is the Lenox Health Greenwich Village medical facility.

Upper East Side Lenox Hill Hospital merged into the Northwell Health system in 2010, thus the 2014 opening of Lenox Health Greenwich Village (LHGV) in Northwell’s 160,000-square-foot building housed Manhattan’s first and only freestanding emergency center, imaging and ambulatory surgery centers, a medical pavilion and community conference center.

Northwell also boasts five urgent-care centers and two ambulatory centers in Manhattan. Northwell has established nearly 80 outpatient facilities in Manhattan since 2010.

Then in 2018, Northwell Health announced the opening of a 15,000-square-foot, multi-specialty medical practice in two-stories of 7 Seventh Avenue, a new building on the site of the former St. Vincent’s Hospital, called the Northwell Health Physician Partners at Greenwich Village. The new facility offers expertise in adult cardiology, rheumatology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, otolaryngology and surgical specialties, plus pediatric neurology, allergy and cardiology. Its surgical consultative services include thoracic, bariatric, vascular, colorectal, plastic, urologic and general surgery. The space features 28 exam rooms, a noninvasive cardiology testing suite, chest radiography, audiology testing and a pulmonary function lab.

“When St. Vincent’s Hospital closed in 2010, we promised to restore healthcare services for the residents of Lower Manhattan,” said Michael Dowling, president and chief executive officer of Northwell Health. “Our ongoing expansion of medical care in Greenwich Village and other neighboring communities reaffirms our commitment to improve the health and well-being of the communities we serve.” Northwell Health has 21 hospitals across the metropolitan area, including Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital. This Lenox Health facility is Northwell’s largest primary multispecialty center in Manhattan.

That white building at Seventh Avenue is the Lenox Health Greenwich Village facility since 2014. Credit: Brian J. Pape, AIA.