Landmarks Preservation Commission July 11, 1989; Designation List 218 LP-1578 WILLIAM J. SYMS OPERATING THEATER, 400 West 59th Street, Borough of Manhattan. Built 1890-92; architect William Wheeler Smith. Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 1068, Lot 1 in part, consisting of that portion of the lot bounded by a line extending southerly along the base of the fence on Ninth Avenue to a point approximately 83 feet 6 inches from the intersecting point with the base of the fence on West 59th Street, then westerly approximately 120 feet 11 inches along a line parallel with the base of the fence on West 59th Street to a point within Lot 1, then northerly approximately 83 feet 6 inches along a line parallel with the base of the fence on Ninth Avenue to the base of the fence on 59th Street, then easterly along a line contiguous with the base of the fence on 59th Street approximately 120 feet 11 inches to the point of beginning, be designated as its Landmark Site. On December 10, 1985, the LPC held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the William J. Syms Operating Theater and the proposed designation of the related Landmark site (Item No. 16). The hearing was continued to March 11, 1986 (Item No. 12). Both hearings had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of the law. A total of four witnesses spoke in favor of designation including one representative of the owner whose support was qualified. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS Summary The William J. Syms Operating Theater, built 1890-1892, was the most advanced operating theater in the world when it opened and one of the first equipped for aseptic surgery. The result of a collaboration of the architect William Wheeler Smith and the prominent American surgeon Charles McBurney, the building represented the attempt in the 19th century to reconcile architecture with technological advances. The appearance of the building, subtle and simple in detail but striking in its massing, especially in the form of its semi-conical roof, is expressive of the unusual functional demands of the building, an effort to harmonize the design with the other Roosevelt Hospital buildings, and the well-developed personal style of the architect for medical buildings. Syms was the fourth of several major pavilions (see below) built as part of the pavilion plan of Roosevelt Hospital begun in 1869, and as such is both part of one of the earliest pavilion 1

plan hospitals in America, and a rare early survivor of a once highly influential approach to hospital design. Syms was the center of medical education in New York City in its early years, and it was the site of numerous advances in surgical practice at a time when modern surgery was taking shape. Roosevelt Hospital The Syms Operating Theater was one of a series of pavilions built according to the original pavilion plan of Roosevelt Hospital. The pavilion plan was an important early step, proposed by the French Academy of Sciences in 1788 but not executed until much later, in applying scientific knowledge to the design of hospitals. At first it called for small parallel two-story buildings, called pavilions, set in a symmetrical plan oriented for access to light and air. Disease and infections were believed to be carried in vapors, odors, dirt, and other "miasms" which were dispelled by light and good ventilation. Later, improved lighting and mechanical ventilation systems led to the acceptance of larger pavilion buildings.1 Syms' location, siting, massing, and exterior detail as well as its institutional history all relate to the original plan for Roosevelt Hospital and to the architecture of its early buildings. Roosevelt Hospital was established by the bequest of James Henry Roosevelt (1800-1863) who left about $1,000,000 to build a hospital "for the reception and relief of sick and diseased persons. 2 Roosevelt Hospital occupies the full block bounded by 11 58th and 59th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues. Although

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