New York City's AIDS Memorial Park Coalition Announces Agreement with City Council & Rudin Management

NEW YORK, March 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizers of New York City's proposed AIDS Memorial Park (http://AIDSMemorialPark.org) today announced an agreement with the City Council and Rudin Management Company, the developer and owner of the proposed site.  The agreement, brokered by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, calls for a significant and prominent AIDS memorial as the primary feature in the new triangle park opposite the former St. Vincent's Hospital, the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic.

Christopher Tepper and Paul Kelterborn, co-founders of the AIDS Memorial Park Coalition, aim to create a memorial to honor the 100,000+ New York City residents lost to AIDS and to recognize the ongoing epidemic.  "We are very pleased with the agreement announced today.  In just one year, our grassroots effort has grown from an important idea to a coalition of thousands of individuals and organizations, whose involvement has elevated the civic discussion about recognizing and honoring the history of the AIDS crisis.  We are grateful for the support of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn; Manhattan Community Board #2 and its Chair, Brad Hoylman; and Rudin Management Company.  We look forward to working together with the community and all stakeholders to create a beautiful, culturally significant memorial for the neighborhood and the city," said Tepper and Kelterborn in a statement.

Speaker Quinn said, "The AIDS memorial will help us to honor and remember those who have died of AIDS.  I can think of no better place to do that than in a park devoted to the memory of St. Vincent's Hospital.  So many of our friends and loved ones received care at the hospital, and it was such a pivotal location for our community.   I am honored to have been able to help make this memorial a reality and look forward to seeing the design that will emerge from this newly created transparent process.  The Rudin family deserves our gratitude for helping to create a place in their park for this memorial.  I want to thank the AIDS memorial project team who have devoted so much time and energy toward making this a reality.   Additionally, many thanks to Brad Hoylman, the Community Board and all members of the community for their advocacy and being so committed to working together to make this memorial fit seamlessly into the overall design of the park."

Said Chair Hoylman, "It is extremely gratifying to see this agreement.  On behalf of the community board, we look forward to working with the AIDS Memorial Park Coalition in creating a meaningful commemoration to the AIDS crisis at this special location."

The next step for AIDS Memorial Park is a continuation of the memorial design process, which will incorporate concepts from entries submitted to the Coalition's international design competition. "These concepts will inspire and inform us as we move forward to design and build New York City's first significant AIDS memorial," said Tepper and Kelterborn.

About AIDS Memorial Park Coalition: The AIDS Memorial Park Coalition was founded in 2011 by urban planners Christopher Tepper and Paul Kelterborn, whose generation has never known a world without AIDS.  The Coalition aims to recognize and preserve the ongoing history of the AIDS crisis through the creation of a memorial park to honor New York City's 100,000+ men, women and children who have died from AIDS, and to commemorate and celebrate the efforts of the caregivers and activists who responded heroically to the crisis.  For more information about AIDS Memorial Park, visit http://AIDSMemorialPark.org.  The Coalition is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AIDSMemorialPark and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AIDSMemPark.

SOURCE AIDS Memorial Park