by Dick Lutz

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) will present three possible plans for Southpoint Park in meetings Tuesday (September 14) at 2:00 and 7:30.  The concepts respond to a wish-list developed by the organization in interviews with some three dozen community leaders in a process begun in April.

The three plans are shown in a two-page spread in this week's issue and on a website maintained by the landscape architecture firm that created the concepts, Mark K. Morrison Associates.

The Tuesday meetings are intended not only to present the concepts to the community, but also to generate reaction that will guide the project team in selecting elements for a preferred plan.  Charles McKinney, project director for TPL, notes in a late-August report, "Simplification is likely."

The plans provide performance spaces, outdoor classrooms, art, picnic areas, ferry and boat facilities, and shoreline access to the river.  They vary in their use of the Renwick Ruin, a smallpox hospital built in the mid-19th Century, and in other specific ways suggested by their names: Wild Gardens / Green Rooms tends toward the natural, Visionary includes the Louis Kahn design for an FDR memorial, and Parc Ville, which contains the most commercial elements, is envisioned as an extension of the Main Street community.

In a "vision" for the park based on a survey of the site and community and advisory council input, planners are charged to "Create a dynamic park that resonates with the spectacular Island site, its ruin and landforms, as well as the 'egalitarian and multi-cultural promise of Roosevelt Island.'  Enhance the shoreline, the wild and natural landscape, and the ecology of the site for communal enrichment...  Use the architecture and landforms to create performance venues and environmental art that will attract large numbers of visitors from the rest of the world."

A listing of principles touches on the question of visitors:  "Help make Roosevelt Island an economically sustainable and culturally vibrant urban Island village."  It calls on the planners to "program the park so visitors are drawn to its unique character and spectacular events, thus contributing to the economic health of the community and the operating costs of the park," but also to respond to the "rhythms and majesty of the river," "to provide for special-needs visitors," "provide times of solitude and quiet," and for "times of communal gathering and celebration."

"Make the park a source of pride and community identity."

Here are condensed versions of the text descriptions of the plans, which are illustrated in a two- page spread available by clicking here.

A rustic stone gatehouse with a small tower and an archway greets visitors.  It offers a place to eat and rest on stone terraces and balconies overlooking the East River.  Through the gateway, a wide shady path meanders along the top of the rugged shoreline through dense trees.  The bank of the East River is so rocky you can get down to the water only along a narrow winding path.  The shoreline offers places to sit on rocks, to listen to the river, and to watch crabs play on the rocks.  Sitting low, near the water, the sounds and sights of others fade.  There are frequent opportunities for solitude.

Another path offers the visitor a chance to climb a modest rugged mount.  From its top, there are views of the sunrise, the sweep of the metropolis, the twinkle of the Queensboro Bridge lights, and the gliding Tram.

On the way down, the visitor is drawn by glimpses of sunny lawns and the sounds of a cascade tumbling into a pool where rocks lie, half-covered by water, providing places to sit and walk.  A succession of winding paths through clumps of trees leads to a rustic wall and then an opening.  It is the ruin, stabilized, but weathered; it is sunny and filled with ferns.  A brick floor is dappled with moss; it is a beautiful room, open to the sky.  Windows offer glimpses of bright green lawns and a hedge-enclosed garden.

Through the arch, into the space beyond, is an artistic building housing a theater or caf‚.  On its roof is a shady terrace; here the ruin's windows reveal a sweep of the river extending into the distance.  In the foreground is an oval of shimmering water, embraced by stone steps and an artistic planting.  In the winter, the plants form a winter garden, the oval of water an ice rink, and the hill behind offers sledding.  In the summer, this slice of hill slopes gently to the point, providing a place for large-scale musical performances, movies, or weekend picnics.

Sculptural walls and a spiral of artistic plantings draw visitors into large sweeps of plantings that change color with the seasons.  They encounter park environments and artistic elements that draw on the environment for their inspiration.  Art enhances the visitor's experience and appreciation of the site, its living things, and natural phenomena like the river, the stars, the movement of the sun, and the wind.  Artistic structures incorporate the large quantities of the site's salvaged stone.

A crystal-shaped building of glass hovers inside the stabilized ruin.  At night, it glows, casting rays of light through the windows.  Its four floors of interior space could accommodate a variety of uses including a gallery, a retreat or conference center, a theater, or a museum.  Certainly, it would include a restaurant and publicly accessible rooftop terrace.  At ground level, mossy brick paths lead to a walled garden inside the southern portion of the ruin.

South of the ruin is the Kahn memorial to Franklin D.Roosevelt.  A monumental set of granite steps raise the visitor to a wedge of grass surrounded by pollarded linden trees.  After traversing successive funnel-shaped gardens, the visitor enters a granite room at the tip of the Island.  Walled by masonry of unquestionable tectonic honesty and ceiled by the light of the sky itself, the memorial room allows outward views only to the south, down the river and past the UN toward the Williamsburg Bridge.  The nearby tumult of Manhattan and its spiky midtown skyline are screened from sight.

A modest ensemble of imaginative contemporary buildings are arranged in an arc to create a remarkable street.  Their terraces, loggias, and public spaces provide comfort in all weather - a place to meet your friends or someone new.  The public rooms will accommodate a variety of uses including dining, boat building, entertainment, and commerce. 

Below, a strolling garden for romance and reverie undulates.  It beckons with the expectation you will experience something wonderful.  Artful water, sunny lawns, and shady groves embrace the Renwick ruin.  Its windows and doors offer views of its interior, its vine-covered walls and theatrical deterioration.  Paths lead to the naturalistic shoreline, enhanced with arcs of deck that allow sitting, sunning, and fishing.

A wedge of lawn on a soft hill accommodates performances and spectacles, such as the fireworks.  The stage and lawn are shaded with artistic structures like sails, softly illuminated at night.  The wedge of lawn will accommodate all manner of spectacles including light shows and large-scale art performances.  Theatrical lighting makes this a place of unparalleled night beauty.