NYU Langone Seeks to Remove Schwartz Name From Building

NYU Langone has petitioned a court for permission to remove the late benefactors’ names from the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Health Care Center, arguing that the facility needs to attract new donors with a promise of naming rights to fund a $250 million renovation.

Such a request is proper, lawyers for NYU Langone wrote, because Arnold and Marie Schwartz have both long since passed away.

“Consistent with current practices around charitable giving and fundraising,” lawyers for NYU Langone argue, “donors prepared to make a major donation to NYU Langone Health for the Schwartz Center Renovations expect to receive naming rights over the renovated Schwartz Center in recognition of their generosity.”

It’s already clear that at least one surviving family member of namesake donors Arnold and Marie Schwartz takes issue with the petition, as first reported by Crain’s New York Business, although it is unclear if any objections will result in a legal battle.

“I don’t like it,” Arnold Schwartz’s daughter Constance told the publication. “But I don’t know if I have any legal recourse because I’m not part of the foundation.”

The Schwartz Center, located at 530 First Ave., was formally dedicated in March 1979 after the Schwartzes spurred its creation with a $2.5 million donation. Arnold Schwartz passed away suddenly six months later, while Marie Schwartz died in 2018.

In their petition, lawyers for NYU wrote that the hospital system has dutifully kept “Schwartz” on the building’s façade since. Yet, the lawyers added, times and expenses have changed.

At its inception, the Schwartz Center was conceived as a hub for an in-vogue model of care called “Cooperative Care,” which involved patients bringing a layperson “partner” to the hospital to assist in their care.

NYU Langone now says that this unique approach to health care has since largely fallen by the wayside throughout its Manhattan campus, including at the Schwartz Center itself. Rather, the center has “been extensively adapted to” various transplant and cardiac specialty services, with the floor plan substantially altered.

“The Cooperative Care model of health delivery that the Schwartz Center was designed to accommodate has been replaced by today’s model of inpatient care,” lawyers wrote. “This philosophy is the opposite of the philosophy that guided the Cooperative Care model, which emphasized allowing patients with less acute conditions and their partners to stay in the hospital for longer periods of time.”

Furthermore, NYU Langone says that they have racked up no less than a 655 percent increase in operating expenses since 2007 alone, as well as expanded their physical footprint by 279 percent over the same period of time.

“NYU Langone has had to spend approximately $99.1 million on capital maintenance on the Schwartz Center over the years,” the petition emphasized.

The topline figure that the petition is centered around, however, is the aforementioned (projected) total cost of renovations at the center: $250 million.

NYU Langone says that $176.2 million worth of these renovations has already been invested, but that securing a “major donation” will be instrumental for covering the remaining gap. Hence, the apparent need to ax “Schwartz” off the building, and attract a donor seeking naming perks.

The names of Arnold and Marie Schwartz also grace the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences of Long Island University.

As pointed out by Crain’s, an uncannily similar drama unfolded during the 2015 renaming of the Lincoln Center home of the New York Philharmonic, now known as the David Geffen Center—and formerly known as Avery Fisher Hall.

Geffen, a media mogul, asked that his name take the place of arts philanthropist Fisher’s after he put $100 million toward a renovation of the center. Fisher’s family conceded after being paid $15 million.