New York-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital (New York City, New York)

 hospital, Modern (architecture)

Hospital complex housed in the Albert H. Wiggin Memorial Pavilion, completed in 1971. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, it has a 6-story wing fronting Gold Street, and a 9-story wing on the opposite side of the block. The lower wing is faced in concrete, with 12 recessed bays of windows along Gold Street. The tops of the spandrels between floors angle inward toward the recessed window panes. A 1-story metal and glass angled extension toward the street contains the entrance and ambulance bays. The north and south facades, facing Spruce and Beekman Streets, each have recessed, horizontal 5-paned ribbon windows in the centers of the 3rd-6th floors. The rest of the facade is faced in paneled concrete, and both sides are set back from the sidewalk behind a rough concrete wall at ground level. On the north side, a taller windowless tower links to the 9-story building section on the other end of the lot.

This section is clad in glazed white brick, with horizontal bands of windows separated by black metal panels. On the north side, it is also slightly set back from the sidewalk, with a nearly windowless (there is one column of small windows on the southeast face), projecting brick tower dividing this section into two halves. A ground-level wall continues up to this center brick tower. There are two similar flanking, projecting brick towers that extend only from the 5th-7th floors. The northwest elevation faces a small plaza, and has a similar facade, with horizontal ribbons windows and a projecting brick tower at the 5th-7th floors. The portion at the northwest corner extends out further, and has a single column of double-windows. Linking this small wing to the rest of the facade is a slightly-angled curtain wall of black metal panels and ribbon windows. The south side rises only three floors, except at the northwestern end, where it rises full height, with a column of recessed bays with fire doors.

The hospital is a not-for-profit, acute (medical) care, teaching hospital, and is the only hospital in Lower Manhattan. The facility operates 170 beds, and offers a full range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as community outreach and education.

The name and location of the hospital have gone through several changes since Elizabeth Blackwell founded the New York Dispensary for Poor Women and Children in 1853. In 1857 she opened the hospital under the name of New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children[1] at East 7th Street near the present day Tompkins Square Park. As the hospital required more space it moved in 1858 to Stuyvesant Square. Finally in 1981, merging with the Beekman Downtown Hospital, it relocated to its present site in Lower Manhattan under the name of New York Infirmary-Beekman Downtown Hospital. In 1991, the hospital was renamed New York Downtown Hospital. In 1997, after three years of affiliation with NYU Medical Center, the name was changed to NYU Downtown Hospital. In 2005 the affiliation with the NYU Medical Center ceased and the hospital reverted to the name New York Downtown Hospital. Following a full merger in 2013 with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, it was renamed New York-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital.