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NYC AIDS Memorial Park Launches Design Competition

NEW YORK - APRIL 07: Hundreds of ceramic plates pay homage to the victims of the September 11 attacks on a fence next to St. Vincent's Hospital, the hospital closest to the World Trade Center and which treated more than 800 people on 9/11, April 7, 2010 in New York City. On Tuesday the board of St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers voted to close the hospital following its unsuccessful search to find a way out of its estimated $700 million of debt. The Westside hospital, which has served Manhattan for 160 years, may retain some of its services like an urgent care facility. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
St. Vincent’s. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

When St. Vincent’s hospital closed last year, this magazine remembered the sad, central role it played in the global AIDS crisis, but noted, “There is no true standing memorial to HIV victims, even though there were more from New York by 1995 than U.S. deaths in the Vietnam War.” A community park, memorial, and learning center is now planned to fill St. Vincent’s Triangle park, across the street from the hospital, and a design contest is currently running through January 21, to be judged by a panel including 9/11 memorial designer Michael Arad and writer Kurt Andersen. The public park and “living memorial” aims to open by World AIDS Day on December 1, 2014.

Related: The Shrine of St. Vincent’s [NYM]

AIDS Memorial Park Launches Design Competition