1968

• Mayor John Lindsay appoints the Welfare Island Planning and Development Committee to study possible uses for the redevelopment of the Island. The committee, which includes architect Philip Johnson, recommends residential development.
• Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller approves legislation that establishes the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) to help renew New York State's cities and towns and to encourage the orderly growth of urban areas. Its principal aims are to provide housing, jobs, and community facilities. Edward Logue is appointed President and Chief Executive Officer.

1969

• The UDC signs a 99-year lease with the City of New York to develop Welfare Island. This lease will expire in 2068.
• The Master Plan for Welfare Island, commissioned by the UDC and designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, is published as "The Island Nobody Knows." An exhibition is held in October at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in conjunction with the publication.

1970

• Roosevelt Island Development Corporation (RIDC), predecessor to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC), is established as a subsidiary corporation of the UDC.
• The Four Freedoms Foundation (the predecessor to the Franklin and Eleanor Institute) initiates conversations with the City and State to plan a memorial for Roosevelt in New York.
• April 12 - A New York Times editorial advocates for a memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt on Welfare Island, and proposes the renaming of the Island in Roosevelt's honor.

1972

• Architect Louis I. Kahn is commissioned by the Four Freedoms Foundation and the UDC to design the Roosevelt Memorial to be situated on the roughly 3-acre site at the southern tip of Welfare Island.

1973

• January 1 - Louis I. Kahn enters into a contract with the UDC for the design and construction of a memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• April 26 - Kahn presents a model of an early stage of the design at a Four Freedoms Foundation dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller is among others in attendance.
• September 24 - The official dedication ceremony, renaming the Island Roosevelt Island, takes place at Southpoint Park. Louis I. Kahn presents a model of an early stage of the design. Others present included Mayor John Lindsay, Averell Harriman, Edward J. Logue, members of the Roosevelt family, and Joseph S. Robinson, then president of the Four Freedoms Foundation.

1974

• January 8 - the completed model of the final, approved design is shipped to New York.
• March 17 - Kahn dies at Pennsylvania Station in New York while traveling back to Philadelphia from Bangladesh.
• June 27 - Mitchell/Giurgola Associates enters into an Architect's Agreement with the UDC to complete the project as a joint venture with Kahn's former associate, David Wisdom, Architect.
• A group of consultants is assembled by Mitchell/Giurgola to complete the construction documents. It includes: Pfisterer, Tor Associates, Structural Engineers; Luis Villa/Lois Sherr Associated, Landscape Consultants; Joseph R. Loring & Associates, Mechanical/Electrical Engineers; Howard Brandston Lighting Design, Inc., Lighting Consultants.
• Michael Rubenstein of Mitchell/Giurgola Associates and John Haaf, who had worked with Kahn and Wisdom in the Philadelphia office, work in New York City with the consultants to complete the construction documents.
• Governor Malcolm Wilson includes 2.2 million dollars for the Roosevelt Memorial in his budget. The Four Freedoms Foundation requests a matching amount of money from the City. The remaining 1.6 million dollars of the total 6-million-dollar estimate is to be raised through private donations.

1975

• New York City undergoes a fiscal crisis and the project is put on hold.

1984

• The Roosevelt Island Operation Corporation (RIOC) is created by the New York State legislature.
• The UDC submits to the New York State Supervising Landscape Architect all of its documentation, which includes site information, construction drawings, and cost estimates, on the memorial project for its review.

1986

• Governor Cuomo appoints a Roosevelt Memorial Commission, to assess the realization of Kahn's design. The Committee, co-chaired by Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz and former NYC Mayor Robert F. Wagner, strongly recommends that the project be built.

1987

• The Four Freedoms Foundation merges with the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. The new organization is named the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI).

1988

• RIOC replaces the UDC as the leaseholder for the master lease of Roosevelt Island with New York City.

1991

• Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc. is contracted by RIOC to prepare the area of Southpoint Park, including the demolition of the Old City Hospital and long-abandoned Delacorte Fountain, and the design for seawall stabilization. Langan contracts Sasaki and Associates to develop a park on the 10 acres north of the memorial site. Langan also contracts Mitchell/Giurgola as an architectural consultant for the Roosevelt Memorial project.

1992

• Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata constructs a large-scale, site-specific temporary installation in and around the Smallpox Hospital ruin.
• June 14 to August 18 - A retrospective of Kahn's work is held at the Museum of Modern Art. The Roosevelt Memorial is included in the exhibition.
• July 28 - In conjunction with the show, architect Robert Geddes delivers a lecture, under the auspices of FERI, on the Roosevelt Memorial in the context of Kahn's work.

1993

• April 27 - RIOC hosts a workshop for the architects, engineers and other consultants, many of whom had worked on the project in the early 1970s. Alyce Russo, Director of Planning and Development for RIOC, indicates the organization's commitment to complete the sea wall around the tip of Southpoint Park to the specifications of the Kahn design. The need to make adjustments for handicap-accessibility and other building-code requirements is discussed.
• RIOC commissions Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava to design a pavilion that would include comfort stations, a visitor's center, and restaurant to be sited in the 10-acre park north of the Roosevelt Memorial site.

1994

• Langan Engineering grades and sculpts the memorial site to the specifications of the Kahn design.

1995

• This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Roosevelt's death and the creation of the United Nations.
• As a result of the sitework completed by Langan, the public is allowed access to Southpoint Park for the first viewing of the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks show.
• RIOC holds a workshop to solicit ideas for island development. This includes the Southpoint site.

1997

• RIOC issues a Request for Proposals (RFP) to companies interested in submitting proposals for waterfront development on the Island. The RFP includes Southpoint.

1998

• The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute submits a folio of materials to Dr. Jerome Blue, President of RIOC, for a renewed review of the project.

2003

• The State of New York and RIOC engage the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to develop a plan for a park at Southpoint.
• The 13-acre area designated Southpoint, which includes the graded, sloped Roosevelt Memorial site, opens to the public for daily access.

2004

• FERI submits a project history of the Roosevelt Memorial to the TPL, so it can include the Kahn design in the three proposals it is creating for RIOC.
• TPL, in conjunction with Mark Morrison, Landscape Architect, puts forth three conceptual park proposals for Southpoint. Only one of them includes the Roosevelt Memorial design.
• December 9 - The TPL announces its final park proposal. Pursuant to public input, the design does not include the Roosevelt Memorial.

2005

• RIOC has not formally approved the TPL proposal for Southpoint Park, nor are there funds available to implement it. (Editor's note: As of the preparation of this timeline, the RIOC Board had not met subsequent to the TPL presentation.)