About the Park
Aerial image courtesy Amiaga Photographers, Inc. www.amiaga.com
In the late 1960s, during a period of national urban renewal, New York City Mayor John Lindsay proposed to reinvent Roosevelt Island (then called Welfare Island) into a vibrant, residential community. The New York Times championed renaming the island for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and constructing a memorial to him, remarking: "It has long seemed to us that an ideal place for a memorial to FDR would be on Welfare Island, which...could be easily renamed in his honor... It would face the sea he loved, the Atlantic he bridged, the Europe he helped to save, the United Nations he inspired." The man chosen to give shape to this idea was the architect Louis I. Kahn, one of the masters of 20th century architecture.
Map showing FDR Four Freedoms Park at the south tip of Roosevelt Island, New York City.
Plan of Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park.
Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Mayor Lindsay announced the project in 1973 and the appointment of Louis Kahn as its architect. In short order, the Governor became Vice President of the United States, Louis Kahn finished his work and died unexpectedly, and the City of New York approached bankruptcy. It required patience, memory and determination – on March 29, 2010, 38 years after its announcement, construction of Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park began.
The Park will be complete Fall 2012 and will be an inspiring civic space and a beacon of America's purpose and commitment to freedom.
In the 1980s, through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Park organization directed a short film, narrated by Orson Welles, on President Roosevelt and the importance of Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, please find an updated version of the video here.