The controversial New York Methodist Hospital expansion will require special permission from a city panel to change the character of the neighborhood.
Hospital officials plan to seek permission for the plan, which calls for the demolition of as many as 15 buildings, including several historic brownstones, from the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals.
On Thursday, hospital spokeswoman Lyn Hill told concerned residents that the “U”-shaped building would be designed to match the historic neighborhood’s design, but the variance would allow the hospital to build a broad complex on Fifth St., Eighth Ave., and a portion of Sixth St. that is expected to be up to eight stories high.
“It’s out of character with the surrounding blocks which don’t extend more than four stories,” a community activist grumbled.
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The building will likely include a hospital service road connecting Fifth and Sixth Sts. as well as two floors of underground parking.
“That would be a disaster. They wouldn’t just be altering the buildings but also the street,” said David Goodman, whose family lives across the street from the proposed facility.
At last week’s meeting, an architect from Perkins Eastman and a consultant from Washington Square Partners explained that the building, which has not been designed yet, would not include a lot of glass and steel like other modern structures.
The proposed expansion plan comes as the number of patients at the hospital has increased. The hospital now handles 350,000 patients each year, with 40,000 requiring stays of at least one night.
The planned new building will include 12 operating rooms, an endoscopy suite and a cancer center that will offer radiation oncology and chemotherapy services.
The four brownstones slated for the wrecking ball are owned by the hospital and are not landmarked, even though Park Slope is home to one of the biggest historic districts in the city.
In April 2012, the Bloomberg administration approved a 600-property extension of zone, forming a protected swath of 2,575 buildings.
But the New York Methodist buildings were carved out from that historic protection, a move likely done to allow the hospital to later knock them down.