I was always passing the above building when I made flower deliveries to St. Vincent's hospital at 11th Street and 7th Avenue.. The building was built in 1964, designed by Albert Ledner, who has now just passed away at 93, a "modernist architect who followed his whimsy." You can say that again. But now there's Frank Gehry who gives the world thought-provoking buildings with odd shapes that are hard to understand.
If you didn't know that the Maritime Union commissioned the building from Mr. Ledner, you might have understandably missed that the highly unique arrangement and shape of the windows is evocative of portholes. Thus, maritime. Even knowing that, I still have trouble viewing the building, which now houses medical services connected with Lenox Hill hospital, important to the area since St. Vincent's has closed.
Let me tell you, every time I passed that building I just shook my head. How did they get that one off the drawing board? Like New York's Fashion Institute (FIT) also on 7th Avenue, they are two building I've always considered the ugliest in New York. Mr. Ledner had nothing to do with FIT, so we can't blame him for that one. I could even find the so-called Lollipop building at Columbus Circle to be appealing, but never these two.
And just to again prove how difficult it is to get anything done in New York, consider that when it was proposed to demolish the Maritime Union building and replace it with a larger tower building, there was such a neighborhood outcry that the plans were scrapped and the building was repurposed as a health facility.
Mr. Ledner apparently graced two other building in the city with his porthole style. Both have now been converted into hotels.
The Dream Hotel, pictured below, is a perfect example of what a hipster hotel in New York should look like.
On that, there is agreement.
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