November 5, 10 am
Roosevelt Island
In the late 1960s, during a period of national urban renewal, New York City Mayor John Lindsay proposed to reinvent Roosevelt Island (then called Welfare Island) into a vibrant, residential community. The New York Times championed renaming the island for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and constructing a memorial to him. The man chosen to give shape to this idea was the architect Louis I. Kahn, one of the masters of 20th century architecture.
Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Mayor Lindsay announced the project in 1973 and the appointment of Louis Kahn as its architect. In short order, the Governor became Vice President of the United States, Louis Kahn finished his work and died unexpectedly, and the City of New York approached bankruptcy. It required patience, memory and determination – and 32 years before the Roosevelt Institute resurrected the partnership with the City and State and undertook to raise the funds and construct the Four Freedoms Park. On March 29, 2010, construction of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park began. *
Join us as Gina Pollara executive director of the Four Freedoms Park leads us on a site visit of park as it is nears completion.
