FRIENDS testified at the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises hearing on September 10, 2024. Read below our two-minute testimony.

"FRIENDS of the Upper East Side has concerns about the proposed pavilion's height, as well as how it might negatively impact the surrounding neighborhood's character and livability. Our main concern is that the proposed 594-foot-tall pavilion would be a massive tower rising directly from the sidewalk, with no setbacks, a throwback to pre-zoning regulation building form soaring above even the tall medical towers further north along York Avenue. From a zoning and land use perspective, the massive upzoning and amendments required before such could be approved would send a troubling signal to developers about what is permissible in the Upper East Side, and with respect to institutional expansion across the city.

Our second concern centers on the proposed building's allocation of space. As it stands, a significant portion is dedicated to mechanical systems, leaving only 44% for patient care, surgery, clinical areas, and the lobby. We question the efficiency of building a tall surgical hospital, especially when a larger footprint could potentially accommodate a shorter structure. This seems like a suboptimal use of space, and the community should not bear the burden of such an inefficient design. Is it customary for hospitals to have only 44% of their space allocated for hospital or clinical use? Or is this behemoth being proposed primarily to cater to the needs of VIP patients with water views and 20-foot-high ceilings? The community needs to have more details to fully understand this oversized request, and a process of more comprehensive disclosure needs to be established for review of new construction by MSK and the other institutions. Given the client's disregard for the community's repeated efforts to achieve a sensible design alternative, we urge the council to intervene on our behalf."