St. Vincent's AIDS Memorial Park to Break Ground Next Year

Drastically smaller memorial will "honor" AIDS victims If you've ever wanted to see life-size origami, although it's pretty hard to imagine why you would ever, then you're in luck. Say hello the new St. Vincent's AIDS Memorial. In a full overhaul of the memorial's original plan, which basically called for a 17,000 ft. sq. "infinite forest", the new plan is a 1,600 ft. sq. ivy-covered canopy at the corner 12th St., 7th Ave., and Greenwich Ave. that resembles a giant version of the Japanese paper-folding practice. (Actually, don't watch that. It's terribly boring.) According to Architizer, the canopy's design won the endorsement of the Greenwich Village community board on July 19, and will hopefully break ground next summer. The plan is for the memorial to open by 2014 and to cost around $2 million. The shrub-ravaged, oversized decoration designed by Studio a+i will "honor New York City's 100,000+ men, women and children who have died from AIDS, to commemorate and celebrate the efforts of the caregivers and activists who responded to fight the disease, and to recognize the ongoing crisis," the AIDS Memorial Park's website says. The organization has been nobly pulling for the memorial's construction since 2011. The canopy will have a circular opening in the middle of its roof, with a circular stone on the ground beneath it. Inscribed around the stone will be poetry and other writing. Archrecord has an informative slide show of the plans. Currently standing in the way of the memorial is a defunct branch of St. Vincent's which will be razed before construction begins, the New YorkTimes says. To one NY Press writer, the design is an aesthetic abomination. He understands the impracticality of the original plan's prodigious square footage, but a canopy that looks like someone played Jumanji under it is an unworthy substitute. --Nick Gallinelli