New York City Architecture News: The NYC AIDS Memorial

“I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.”

― Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

In the shadows of one of the most underrated pieces of New York City architecture, the Lenox Health Hospital (formerly St Vincent’s) in Greenwich Village, lies a wonderful new design addition to downtown, adding elegance and a welcoming public space: the NYC AIDS Memorial. Designed by Studio a + i who won a competition launched by Architectural Record and Architizer, the memorial is located in Vincent Square, on 7th Avenue between 13th and 12th Streets and features a distinctive, geometric steel canopy which protects the stone benches underneath. In the granite underfoot, the words of Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself” are engraved. The memorial is an inspiring example of how design cannot only empower people and unite communities, but also create compassion and healing.

Not even a block away from the LBGT center in the West Village, the site is in remembrance of St. Vincent’s Hospital, an important landmark for LGBT communities and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the 100,000 men, women and children in New York City that were lost due to the disease.

Lenox Health, formerly St. Vincent’s Hospital of Greenwich Village