Skyline Restoration’s project “Lenox Health Greenwich Village” at 30 Seventh Avenue in New York City received the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award. The ceremony was held on May 11 with a record breaking attendance at the New York Public Library, also a winner of a Preservation Award.
As the New York Landmarks Conservancy states on its website, “the sensitive restoration and adaptation of this mid-century Modern building [at 30 Seventh Avenue] marks its third use. Albert Ledner designed the 1964 facility, celebrated for its quirky, ship-like design, to serve as the headquarters of the National Maritime Union, when it was known as the Joseph Curran Building. Next it was the O’Toole Building, administrative offices for St. Vincent’s Hospital. When St. Vincent’s closed in 2010, the structure in the Greenwich Village Historic District was nearly lost."
“Now it has been reborn as Lenox Health Greenwich Village, Manhattan’s first freestanding emergency department. The interior was renovated with nautical-inspired decorative elements and re-fitted as a leading-edge medical facility. The façade has been returned to its original appearance. Some 18,000 square feet of peeling ceramic tiles, that were not original, but applied in a failed attempt to facilitate maintenance, were removed, and the white concrete façade was restored to its original finish. The glass block ground floor—a distinctive feature of the building’s original design—now encloses the waiting and patient rooms. Ledner’s vision was re-established when perimeter fencing was removed, revealing the contrast of square concrete upper levels floating over the rounded glass block base”.
At the same event, the Preservation Leadership Award was presented to Ruth Pierpont, former New York State Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation, while the Preservation Public Leadership Awards were presented to the Honorable Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President and the Honorable Daniel Garodnick, New York City Council Member, 4th District.
For a complete list of winners of the 27th Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards, please visit nylandmarks.org.