AIDS Memorial Park Gets Its Finishing Touch

The long-planned pavilion at the AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent's Hospital Park -- aka "the AIDS Park" -- has finally been unveiled. (Photo by me!) The cement beneath the 18-foot steel canopy features circular text curated by a team of historians, artists, community members and activists led by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Tony Kushner -- a loving tribute to the many people the city lost to the plague, although a giant high-heel might have been more fun!

AIDS Park Gets Big Load

My West Village friend Chad noticed the long-awaited canopy is finally going up on the west end of the NYC AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent's Hospital Park, which we affectionately refer to as the AIDS Park.

Thad better watch out ... 

This is what the finished product should look like ...

First Look at NYC AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent's Hospital Park

Here's your first look at the New York City AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent's Hospital Park (Seventh Avenue and Greenwich Avenue), the only thing left of the iconic hospital that was Ground Zero for the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s.  

It still sickens me that the hospital where so many men and women lost their lives has been converted to a luxury condo complex -- and it likely cost Christine Quinn the mayor's office -- but I am thrilled that the park is finally close to being ready for people to visit, and reflect on a time that thankfully seems almost unimaginable just 20 years later.

Doesn't quite look like the final design announced in 2012, which was described this way:

The streamlined design will feature an 18-foot steel canopy as the dramatic gateway to the new St. Vincent's Hospital Park in the West Village. As it's described in a press release, the memorial also will feature "a central granite fountain, granite benches, and a granite paving surface carved with educational and commemorative text. The text will be curated by a team of historians, artists, community members, and activists led by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Tony Kushner."

Maybe there's more work to be done, but the construction barrier just came off and it's a sight for sore eyes.

Not only was history erased when St. Vincent's closed, the entire area was left without a hospital. Instead we have the Lenox Hill Healthplex, which is a cross between an urgent care and the Fisher-Price hospital I had as a kid.

UPDATE:

As we move into the next phase of the LGBT movement, I encourage people of all backgrounds to remember how we got here and the many sacrifices made along the way.