In a presentation last week of TPL's final preliminary design for the park, the organization's New York City director told residents that, while TPL is not a planning agency, “We agreed to do a master plan because we wanted to work with government to get a park built at one of the City's most spectacular sites.   We still want to do this,” Andy Stone said.   “If we continue in this process, the next step is a full-fledged schematic design and phase-one construction documents.   We can't take this step without additional funding, and we're going to be talking with the RIOC Board and with the State.   Clearly, there are other parties who might fund this – the City or private parties – but we're clear that the State of New York would need to take the lead on this if we were to go to the next step.   That's going to be one of our goals – to talk to the State about a leadership role here.”

TPL's project director for Southpoint, Charles McKinney, estimated that a first-phase project would cost $10 million.   In the meeting, he and landscape architect Mark K. Morrison offered some details of what might be included in a first phase.

“The sloping lawn for performances was favored for its ability to improve the economy and cultural vitality of Roosevelt Island,” McKinney said.   He told the 75 residents attending the session that, of the three plans presented here at earlier meetings, a simple and distinctly non-commercial plan called “Wild Gardens / Green Rooms” was the clear winner.

Another feature that won high marks was “the mount,” a rise that would build upon and replace a pile of rubble about 100 feet inside the current park gate.   “It was judged to enhance the park's natural attributes as well as to provide opportunities for solitude and quiet,” Morrison said.

Other items favored by community evaluators were:

• A stabilized Renwick Ruin, with a cafe.
• A perimeter circulation system that would bring visitors near “touchable” water.
• Waterfront overlooks.
• A gatehouse/visitor center.
• A wintertime landscape, with ice skating.
• A boat dock, primarily for kayaks.

In ice-skating weather, an outdoor rink would cover an area immediately north of the smallpox hospital (known as the Renwick Ruin because it was designed by James Renwick, who also designed the Island's lighthouse and, not incidentally, St. Patrick's Cathedral).   In warm months, Renwick Plaza, as it is called in planning, would provide a performance area at the foot of a sloping amphitheater.   The present land forms lend themselves to this adaptation.

McKinney said that a Louis Kahn-designed memorial to President Franklin D. Roosevelt which would cover the southern half of the site received the third-largest number of “don't want this” votes from those commenting on the three designs, one of which incorporated Kahn's design.   But the winner of the “don't want this” competition was a “village crescent” incorporated into the “Parc Ville” plan.   It would have involved three floors of “speculative rental space.”

McKinney said that one thing many evaluators had in common, with regard to Southpoint, is a “high regard for the site.”   “There are people who love the wild nature of this place, and they don't want the ruins 'neatened up.'”

But funding is the critical issue.   McKinney told residents, “The project will not move unless there's quite a bit of popular support for it.   It only gets harder from this point on.”   Later, ending the meeting, Stone told residents, “We hope to continue, but we're very well aware that there are some major challenges ahead.   We hope to enlist some of you as supporters in our next steps.”

Whether enterprises in the park could provide the funding necessary for a $250,000 to $400,000 annual operating budget is another critical issue.   “There seems to be quite a bit of support for the idea that the ruins could be the centerpiece of a park, and that the ruins could be an appropriate location for park-related revenue generation,” Stone said.   “The idea of a restaurant and a cafe comes up a lot, but there are tremendous questions about feasibility – [for example,] access to the site:   Can you get people here from off the Island?   Can this really generate revenue?”

Stone said project participants had visited the site with some experts and restaurateurs.   “This is one of the most spectacular sites in the City, and just one intriguing idea is that this is a very special place for weddings, banquets, and events.   Those might be appealing to restaurateurs as the lead uses.   We've heard a lot of ideas; we'd like to look into them more.”

But TPL's assessment is that more ideas will come along once actual creation of the park is under way.   Stone:   “If we feel that money can be raised for phase one, to stabilize the ruin, we could start to do things like issue requests for proposals, so you could see the full range of what's out there.   Our initial sense is that nobody's going to invest in a facility at the site unless the ruins are stabilized first.   Our sense is that if the ruins were stabilized first, then you could develop an appropriate revenue generator inside, and you could issue an RFP for that.”

McKinney added, “Government would first need to pay to stabilize the ruin, and then the restaurateur, or a conference center person, or some non-profit – whoever took responsibility for building inside the ruin – would then have to pay the entire cost of [creating a facility].   We explored a little bit how much a restaurant can generate.   You want something there to serve as a park amenity, but you also want something there that's going to generate sufficient revenue to operate the park – something on the order of $250,000 to $400,000 a year.”   He outlined ways in which performance events might generate revenue from ticket sales, but also from ancillary services like transportation and event sponsorship.   He described the site as being eminently “television worthy.”

A ferry landing is in the plan, but both Morrison and McKinney made the point that there's a kind of chicken-and-egg problem – a ferry can help bring people to events, but the events must be there to make ferry service financially viable.

In a $10 million phase one, Morrison told the gathering that several visible components, in addition to necessary infrastructure, could be completed:   the comfort station, main pedestrian access on the Manhattan-side shore, stabilization of the Renwick Ruin, a couple of overlooks, regrading of the sloping lawn in the large performance area, and initial creation of the Renwick Plaza north of the ruin.   He said temporary structures might be provided for kayak storage, deferring a boathouse and workshop until later.   “There'll be a noticeable difference and a great platform to build on from there,” he said.   “It will provide everybody with a great deal more than you have now.”