New York Methodist Hospital fails to court Park Slope residents

New York Methodist Hospital unveiled a revised design for its expansion in Park Slope in response to criticism from the surrounding community — but Park Slopers were still having none of it.

Architects reworked the design of the outpatient services center the hospital intends to build between Seventh and Eighth avenues and 5th and 6th streets, in Brooklyn, after locals gave the project a thumbs-down at a community board meeting in July.

The new design, unveiled at a Community Board 6 meeting yesterday evening, puts the highest point of The Building On Sixth Street instead of on Eighth Avenue, And Removed A Fifth Street driveway that had been intended for patient pickup.

Architect Peter Cavaluzzi said the revised plan took inspiration from the neighborhood’s “architectural DNA,” and would no longer “overwhelm” Eighth Avenue, DNAinfo reported.

But residents, including Valerie Zilbersher slammed the expansion, saying it was akin to dropping a Walmart into the area, according to DNAinfo. “It’s essentially putting a huge commercial complex in the middle of a low-density residential neighborhood, and they have not figured out what the impacts will be,” Zilbersher told the website.

Earlier this week, City Council member Brad Lander called for a scaling down of the hospital’s plan.  [DNAinfo]  – Hiten Samtani