by: Jessica Sheridan Assoc. AIA LEED AP
Damage to the north façade of the Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital Ruin.
Judith Berdy
The north façade of the landmarked Smallpox Hospital ruin designed by James Renwick Jr. on Roosevelt Island collapsed last week. Although pieces of the cornice have been crumbling for years (the call to stabilize the ruin is not new), the fall of this much larger portion of the building won’t surprise those who have been fighting for its preservation. “This is a real failure of stewardship,” stated Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy. Situated just north of the proposed Louis Kahn Monument to Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the focus of the 2006 Emerging NY Architects Committee’s competition, Southpoint: from Ruin to Rejuvenation, urgent calls are being placed to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) to firm up the rest of the building. In response to the disaster, RIOC is working with the Trust for Public Land to do emergency stabilization.