Spying on LIC’s neighbors: Roosevelt Island breaks ground on FDR park

Construction begins on FDR Park on Roosevelt Island – shot from LIC

Us Hunters Pointers tend to ignore our little friend to the west, Roosevelt Island, but these days it’s a little hard to, considering the bulldozers and huge piles of dirt sitting around on the southern tip of the island. Turns out it’s the construction for the LONG stalled memorial park dedicated to Franklin D. Roosevelt which has been dubbed Four Freedoms Park, after FDR’s famous speech.

The park was conceived in the early 70s around the time when the island (known as Welfare Island) was renamed for Roosevelt. The architect, Louis I. Kahn, who had completed his designs, died unexpectedly in ’74 and the project was put on hold in ’75 due to the fiscal crisis. Now, in 2010, the proverbial shovels are hitting the ground after 36 years to make the memorial into a reality. But not without a need for donations for its expected $50M pricetag (!) – and.. some divisive local opinions.

You can pull it out of local blog Roosevelt Islander: concerns have ranged from the actual memorial obstructing panoramic views to wanting FDR to be accurately portrayed in a wheelchair, in special solidarity with the island’s many disabled residents in Coler-Goldwater hospital and elsewhere. Roosevelt Islander also wonders why taxpayer dollars are still being directed to a so-called ‘vanity project’ while Paterson suspends funds for existing projects, while other residents support the project and others still aren’t too crazy about the designs, either.. Whew!

Detailed info on designs can be found on the park’s website, but NYT sums it up:

“Visitors to the memorial will enter past a stand of copper beech trees. They will ascend a monumental stair to allees of 150 linden trees flanking a sloped lawn and culminating in a granite-lined open-air plaza called the ‘room,’ which will house a bust of the former president and will be engraved with the Four Freedoms (speech and religion and an absence of want and fear) he proclaimed in a 1941 speech.”

But that isn’t all the upheaval going on over on the southern tip of the isle. Just north of the Four Freedoms site, the next phase of the Southpoint Park project is apparently underway and scheduled to open next fall. The park includes 10 acres of “green rooms” and “wild gardens” surrounding the spooky yet gorgeous Gothic smallpox hospital a.k.a. Renwick Ruin, which is landmarked and currently being stabilized.

Yes, this technically has nothing to do with Long Island City, but we can’t be all xenophobic. LIC shares the pink bridge with Roosevelt Island, off Vernon Blvd at 36th Ave. It’s a fabulous bike ride around the island, for LIC adventurists.

• FDR Four Freedoms Park [Website]

• FDR Memorial finally breaks ground on Roosevelt Island [Curbed]

• A groundbreaking 36 years in the making – 2010 [City Room]

• Plans for long-stalled FDR Memorial move forward – 2008 [NYT]

• Roosevelt Islander blog [Website]

• More posts on the FDR Memorial [Roosevelt Island 360]