Harlem Gets First Look At New $400M Public Health Lab

HARLEM, NY — Harlemites got their first close look this week at the new public health lab that the city is seeking to build on the Harlem Hospital campus, an ambitious project that would move the nexus of New York's disease-fighting operations uptown.

During Monday's forum, hosted by Community Board 10, representatives from the city shared new details about the plan, which would replace three buildings on the hospital campus between West 135th and 137th streets with a 10-story, $400 million lab.

They also sought to answer neighbors' concerns about the facility's safety, its impact on the neighborhood and the historic hospital buildings being torn down to make way for it.

The city's existing lab, on First Avenue and East 26th Street, has played a key role in the city's response to COVID-19, as well as past crises like Ebola, H1N1 and Legionnaires' disease. But the facility is "outdated and no longer suitable for modern laboratory science," according to Sheila Benjamin, an assistant commissioner at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, who spoke Monday.

First announced in 2018, the Harlem lab will sit facing 137th Street, next to the hospital's Ronald Brown Ambulatory Care Center. It includes five lab floors and five administrative floors, as well as a 200-seat auditorium and a training lab, according to a fact sheet.

Its three-story base will match nearby brownstones along 137th Street, topped by a tower that will be set back from the street.

To make space, Harlem Hospital has demolished two buildings — a power plant and an old nurses' residence — will demolish the former women's pavilion by next summer.

Preservationists have launched campaigns to save the pavilion due to its historical significance, but city officials have rebuffed those claims. Benjamin said Monday that the demolition is not part of the lab project, and is instead being handled by New York City Health + Hospitals as part of Harlem Hospital's modernization plan.

Construction will take about three years, starting in 2022 once demolition is complete. The lab will be ready for move-in between 2025 and 2026, Benjamin said.

Many Harlemites' concerns about the project include questions like, "Is it safe? Is it secure?" and "What will be housed there?" according to Cicely Harris, who chairs the community board.

Responding to those questions, representatives stressed that all disease samples handled at the public health lab are "handled using strict protocols" to maintain safety. Negative pressure systems inside the lab will ensure that "things stay in the building and don't get out," said Scott Hughes, an assistant commissioner at the current public health lab.

The lab will also include a clinic called "Harlem Express," offering screening for sexually transmitted infections with rapid, same-day results — modeled after the Chelsea Express facility on Ninth Avenue.

Neighbors will get to take advantage of the new lab through student training programs and use of the auditorium, officials pledged.

Some of the lab's public spaces, including the auditorium, may also be named in honor of "important historical or modern-day public health warrior from Harlem," according to DOHMH representative Pauline Ferrante. Those names will be solicited through more community meetings, Ferrante said.

People with questions about the Harlem public health lab can email PHLinfo@health.nyc.gov.

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