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 22 January, 2005 |
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by Marc Diamond In just a few months, the future of Southpoint Park has become the subject of greatly intensified interest, both on and off Roosevelt Island. An exhibition of Louis I. Kahn's design for an FDR Memorial has now brought that decades-old plan into fresh focus as a design competing with a plan advanced by the Trust for Public Land (TPL). The exhibition, at The Cooper Union's Houghton Gallery, brings together the most extensive collection of materials to date on the FDR Memorial. Original Kahn sketches, construction drawings, a model and a digital animation of a walk through the site are giving the public, especially Roosevelt Islanders, a timely opportunity to learn about, imagine and evaluate the experience that Kahn envisioned. The exhibition is open only for another two weeks, until February 5. A symposium is planned for Tuesday (January 25). [See ComingUp, page 3, and ad, page 5.] The exhibition opened early this month, just weeks after TPL presented its final preliminary design for all of Southpoint Park, a 13.5-acre site that includes the 3.5-acre southern tip where the FDR Memorial would be sited. TPL's plan, designed by landscape architect Mark K. Morrison, excludes the FDR Memorial, which TPL concluded was less preferred by Island residents and other site visitors than other, less formal options for the site. But the Board of Directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) has yet to act on TPL's plan, which is not on the agenda for its meeting Wednesday morning (January 26). TPL's conclusion that the FDR Memorial is not desired by residents and visitors was based both on the Memorial's inclusion as one component of a plan called Visionary Landscapes, which was rated second of three plans, and on the Memorial design's negative rating as a component. While this appeared to be the end of the 32-year effort to realize the FDR Memorial, it may actually be just another of many setbacks. The Cooper Union exhibition, in fact, seems to have revived interest in the Memorial. M.E. Freeman, who serves on the Board of Directors of Friends of Roosevelt Island Landmarks and a longtime advocate of the FDR Memorial, believes that misperceptions about the Memorial design have led to some of the negative views. "It's a problem of visualization," she said this week. "The project was not adequately conveyed and explained." She points out that, in TPL's presentation, the FDR Memorial received no more or less description than other proposed elements. Though TPL reported to the community that the Memorial as a component received a net negative evaluation, there was no clear majority, as a recent New York Times article (nytimes.com; search for "Louis I. Kahn") may have implied. Of 64 respondents, 29 (45%) indicated they "don't want this" and 18 (28%) considered the Memorial "very important" to include. The remaining 27% registered no opinion. Charles McKinney, TPL's project director for Southpoint, reports that respondents complained of "too many hard surfaces," "blocked views," and a "sterilizing" of the shoreline. Harriet Pattison, a landscape architect who worked with Kahn in the early 1970s, expresses surprise at these comments. Of the Memorial she helped design, she says, "It would be wonderful. It would be a very moving experience with a variety of vistas." The Design Kahn spoke of his design as "a garden and a room." A journey through the Memorial as it is conceived begins at a plaza just south of the ruins of the 19th-century Smallpox Hospital designed by James Renwick. A monumental stair leads up from the plaza to the top of a triangular lawn - the "garden" Kahn envisioned. Red gravel paths on the sides of the lawn are lined by linden trees and converge down toward another triangular tree-lined space, this one smaller and paved. At the southern edge of this plaza is a sculpture of a bust of Roosevelt and the entrance to the "room." Sixty feet square on the inside, this room is entered by passing between massive blocks of granite, 12 feet tall, six feet wide, and six feet thick, which continue around to form the room's east and west sides. There is no ceiling and no south wall, allowing a framed view of the river and shores beyond. The blocks of granite forming the walls are set one inch apart, giving occupants of the room a sense of their mass. During most of the year, once each morning and once each evening for several minutes, the one-inch slots would admit sunlight into the room. The tops of the granite walls are the same height as the top of the sloping triangular lawn. A visitor at the top of the lawn would have a view out over the granite room. At high tide, water would rise to the base of the walls on the exterior of the room, which extend below the room's floor level. Riprap would surround the shore along the full length of the Memorial, as it does elsewhere on the Island. An excerpt from Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" speech would be inscribed on the north wall of the granite room. In the speech, which was the President's annual address to Congress in January of 1941, eleven months before the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt rallied Americans to the defense of "four essential human freedoms" - freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear - that he said applied not just to Americans but to people throughout the world. "He is speaking in a global way about what the stake is in this war that's emerging, but of which America was not yet a formal part," explains Christopher Breiseth, president and CEO of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI). Reaction "I thought there was a mass of concrete or granite and stone paving all the way from the top of the steps to the room," says Margie Smith, Vice President of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association, who has now seen the exhibition. "I was surprised that it evoked such a strong feeling in me. It is so serene, with a lot of grass, a lot of trees, but you can see right through them. There's an air of solemnity there." Ethel Romm, a Rivercross resident who is on RIRA's Planning Committee, which will attempt in the coming weeks to determine a position on the Memorial that represents residents' views, also visited the exhibition. "All my fears were alleviated," she said. However, Judy Berdy, president of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society, remains opposed to the formality of the plan. Viewing the animation confirmed her feelings. The white granite, "the hot, dry place with pruned trees is passé. It's not what people want in this day and age." Ursula BeauSeigneur, the patients' librarian at the Goldwater campus of Coler-Goldwater Hospital, just north of Southpoint Park, feels the design is "not appropriate for this location. It changes the shape of the Island as seen from Queens and Manhattan. Miles of granite right to the water's edge are hard to maintain and New York City does not maintain its public spaces well." For some residents, there is the question of whether a Memorial designed more than three decades ago to a president who served more than six decades ago would still be appropriate for the current time. But Jonathan Kirshner, a professor of government at Cornell University, sees an FDR Memorial as "extraordinarily relevant" today. "President Roosevelt not only rallied our nation through its most difficult crises of the 20th century - the great depression and the Second World War - he also remains an inspirational figure for the courage he displayed in the face of terrible personal adversity." Breiseth argues that a monument to Roosevelt may be even more relevant today than it was when it was designed. "I don't think the whole accomplishment of World War II was in the public mind the way it is now. I think we now realize that that group of Americans coming out of the depression, and coming out of a country that was profoundly isolationist, really brought America into the world as the world leader. And absolutely at the center of that process was President Roosevelt." The Four Freedoms remains a vivid representation of democratic ideals. At a ceremony on the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Mayor Bloomberg's comments were limited to a reading of the Four Freedoms segment of Roosevelt's speech. And President Bush referred to the Four Freedoms on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in May, 2003, when declaring the end of major hostilities in Iraq. Elizabeth O'Donnell, associate dean of the Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union, relates an FDR Memorial to current U.S. politics, saying, "Institutions need to be cared for; they do not survive on their own." She cites, among other examples, Social Security, which was a central part of Roosevelt's Economic Bill of Rights, the future of which is now uncertain. Along with historical importance, the Memorial is also seen to have spiritual value. Says O'Donnell, "I think of the room as a contemplative space where one can feel safe." Nathaniel Kahn, whose documentary about his father, My Architect, was nominated for an Academy Award a year ago, believes "we need simple, contemplative space now more than ever, especially with what's happened in New York in the past few years." Nathaniel was 11 years old when his father died. "One of the strongest memories I have is him working on the Memorial. I remember my father's passion for this project. There was great concern that it serve the people of the Island, and that it be something that works with the existing landscape and is not imposed on it." History Kahn received the commission to design the Memorial in 1972. Planning for the FDR Memorial was the reason for the renaming of Welfare Island in 1973. After Kahn's death in 1974, Mitchell/Giurgola Associates and architect David Wisdom completed the construction documents. Funding, then estimated at $6 million, was to be split roughly equally among New York State, New York City, and private donations. The City's fiscal crisis in 1975 halted the project. A commission appointed by Governor Mario Cuomo in 1986 recommended that the Memorial be "moved to completion with all possible speed," but it was not until 1991 that RIOC contracted with Langan Engineering and Environmental Services for preparatory site work. Langan graded and sculpted the site in 1994. The sloping triangular field that exists today, a setting for Independence Day fireworks viewing since 1995, is a result of Kahn's design. A timeline detailing events surrounding the Memorial's history can be seen at the exhibition and with this issue of The WIRE on Website 10044 at nyc10044.com/wire/2510/fdrtimeline.html. Competing Plans The near simultaneous opening in the past month of the exhibition and TPL's presentation of a Southpoint plan that excludes the Memorial is coincidental. The current renewed effort to realize the Memorial began early in 2004 when Jane Gregory Rubin, who had been involved with the Southpoint site in the early 1990s, contacted William vanden Heuvel, past president of FERI and its current chair. With Harriet Dorsen of Plaza Construction, she collected documents on the Memorial design from FERI, the Kahn archives at the University of Pennsylvania, architects Mitchell/Giurgola, and other sources, in an attempt to determine their status and the project's potential. When Rubin contacted RIOC for documents in its archives, Rubin learned of TPL's project at Southpoint, which had also begun early in 2004. Rubin suggested to Cooper Union's Elizabeth O'Donnell that the materials collected warranted an exhibition. "Too fantastic to turn down," the exhibition was developed in a very short time, compelled both by O'Donnell's belief in the high value of the materials for architectural history and architectural education, as well as a fortuitous cancellation in the gallery's schedule. The Reed Foundation, on whose Board Rubin serves, is funding the exhibition. If built today, the Memorial would cost $30 million, according to a new cost estimate by Plaza Construction. Last month, another work by Louis Kahn, the Yale Center for British Art, received the 25-Year Award for Architecture of Enduring Significance from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). It is the fifth time Kahn's work has received the award, which only 36 buildings have received. Nathaniel says his father's work "retains its relevance, profoundness, and usability for many generations." The FDR Memorial is the only completed late work of Kahn that remains unbuilt. His last sketchbook, containing drawings of the Memorial, is on display at the exhibition. His son remembers, "one of the greatest wishes at the end of his life was that the Memorial be built." Could a future Southpoint Park include both the FDR Memorial and the favored Wild Gardens/Green Rooms concept? McKinney says TPL was "prepared to take a combination of plans" but it was not warranted because of the Memorial's high "don't want this" response. Nevertheless, he says there is nothing in the Phase I version of the plan "that precludes something else being built" south of the Renwick ruin. Nearly all of the features of the Wild Gardens concept to which survey respondents gave positive responses are located in the approximately 10-acre portion of Southpoint north of the Memorial site. Two exceptions are an oval plaza/skating rink with amphitheater seating located just north of the Renwick ruin where the initial plaza and monumental steps are in Kahn's plan, and a removable stage at the southern tip on the space to be occupied by Kahn's granite room. Margie Smith suggests that the paved plaza in front of the granite room "can be a stage and have a screen" for projecting films. As a seating area for such events and for fireworks viewing, the sloping lawn of the FDR Memorial would have a lower capacity than the sloping lawn of the Wild Gardens plan, which extends farther south and does not have red gravel tree-lined paths on either side. If revisions are considered, landscape architect Pattison would want to help ensure that the spirit of the design is carried through. She advises that the poplar trees shown pruned to rectangular form in the Mitchell/Giurgola construction documents, and to which Berdy objects, were originally intended to be in their natural form. Kahn's sketches and the model would confirm this. Also, prior to Kahn's death these trees were specified as beech trees, not poplar. "My hope is that people will engage in a discussion," says McKinney, whose extensive conversations and surveys with residents and visitors has already brought Roosevelt Islanders more into this design process than they are accustomed to. Nathaniel Kahn believes "it's important to take a moment and fully realize all possibilities before going forward. Members of Kahn's family and of the design community, and FERI, would be honored to meet with Roosevelt Islanders and talk about it." TPL expects to present its preliminary plan to the RIOC Board of Directors, perhaps as soon as February. If it were to reconsider the Memorial, TPL would first likely return to an Advisory Committee made up of community leaders from on and off the Island. RIOC Board member Patrick Stewart says one important question is whether prior approvals and contracts between the predecessor organizations of RIOC and FERI constitute legal standing for FERI with respect to the Southpoint site. Stewart says RIOC is "awaiting what the Trust recommends" and will "pay very close attention to community input." RIRA's Margie Smith says she mistrusts RIOC and sees the possibility that the Memorial could become the only open space at Southpoint, with RIOC approving a residential or commercial development for the rest of the park area. (The Residents Association has recently filed suit against RIOC and other defendants to stop construction of an apartment complex at the Octagon near the north end of Roosevelt Island, claiming it would violate a 2002 law protecting certain open space on the Island.) "I would love to see some kind of compromise where the area north of the ruin is less formal, where you can barbecue and play," and the Memorial is built south of the ruin. "I can't imagine not wanting the Memorial, but residents need to feel very secure that they can get behind this." Steve Marcus, president of RIRA, which organized a guided tour of the exhibition for residents earlier this week, says, "It would be nice if we could get as many people as possible to see the exhibit and register an opinion." The Cooper Union exhibition continues to grow even while it is open, as archivists Steven Hillyer and Gina Pollara assimilate additional materials. An audiotape of Orson Welles narrating a 1980 film about the Memorial was found last week. It may be added to the exhibition, along with the film, if that is found. The Cooper Union is located at Third Avenue and 7th Street; the exhibition is open 11-7 Monday through Friday and 12-5 Saturday. It closes Saturday, February 5. Speaking not only of the experience of viewing the exhibition, but also of the potential Memorial, Nathaniel Kahn invites Islanders to "take the journey that my father took." Along with community and RIOC approval, McKinney sees financing as determinative. "You would not build [just] anything that has funding behind it, but real approval is only obtained when you have money." It is expected that a combination of public and private funding will again be sought for Southpoint Park; none is yet in place.
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