Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park is a memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Four Freedoms, located at the southernmost point of Roosevelt Island, in the East River between Manhattan Island and Queens in New York City. It was designed by the architect Louis Kahn.

Contents

History

President Roosevelt made his famous Four Freedoms speech to the United States Congress in 1941.

Roosevelt Island was named in honor of the former president in 1973, and the planners announced their intention to build a memorial to Roosevelt at the island's southern tip.[1] The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute raised funds for the park and kept the project going over time.[2]

Louis Kahn was asked to design the monument in 1972; this turned out to be only two years before his own death. Four Freedoms Park is one of Kahn's last works;[3] he was carrying the finished designs with him when he died in 1974 in Penn Station in New York City.[4]

After Kahn's death, his designs were continued by Mitchell | Giurgola Architects, who kept to Kahn's original intentions.[5] An exhibition at Cooper Union in 2005 brought additional attention and helped to advance the project years later.[6]

Ground breaking took place in 2010 and the park is scheduled to open in 2012.[7] After it opens, Four Freedoms Park will become a New York State Park.[7]

Design

The Park stands at the southernmost point of Roosevelt Island. Approaching from the north, the visitor passes between a double row of trees that narrow as they approach the point, framing views of the New York skyline and the harbor.[3]

A courtyard contains a bust of Roosevelt, sculpted in 1933 by Jo Davidson.[5]

At the point, the monument itself is a simplified, roofless version of a Greek temple in granite.[3] Excerpts from Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech are to be carved on the walls of this "room", which will be open to the sky above.

The Four Freedoms speech has inspired and been included in additional works of art, including the Four Freedoms Monument, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and, most notably, Norman Rockwell's series of paintings the Four Freedoms.

References

  1. ^ "Memorial Park Honoring Franklin D. Roosevelt," William J. vanden Heuvel, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.
  2. ^ Beyer, Gregory (January 23, 2009). "As No. 44 Arrives, a Park for No. 32?". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/nyregion/thecity/25fdr.html. Retrieved 2011-07-23. 
  3. ^ a b c Iovine, Julie V. (January 9, 2005). "An Elegy for a Memorial, and for the Man Who Designed It". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/arts/design/09iovi.html. Retrieved 2011-07-23. 
  4. ^ Roberts, Sam (April 15, 2010). "For a Roosevelt Memorial, a Groundbreaking 36 Years in the Making". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EFDF1438F936A25757C0A9669D8B63. Retrieved 2011-07-23. 
  5. ^ a b Mortice, Zach (August 14, 2009). "Its Quiet Optimism Maintained, Louis Kahn’s Roosevelt Island FDR Memorial Moves into Construction". AIArchitect. http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/0814/0814d_fdrmemorial.cfm. Retrieved 2011-07-23. 
  6. ^ "Coming to Light: The Louis I. Kahn Monument to Franklin D. Roosevelt for New York City," 2005. Cooper Union.
  7. ^ a b Nordhauser, Alyssa (September 14, 2010). "Kahn's Four Freedoms Park Finally Breaks Ground". The Architect's Newspaper. http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=4816. Retrieved 2011-07-23. 

Further reading