| Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park | |
|---|---|
 View from the park toward Lower Manhattan | |
 Interactive map of Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park | |
| Type | State park |
| Location | Roosevelt Island,Manhattan,NY |
| Coordinates | 40°44′59″N73°57′41″W / 40.74972°N 73.96139°W /40.74972; -73.96139 |
| Area | 4 acres (1.6 ha) |
| Created | October 17, 2012 (2012-10-17) |
| Owned by | New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation |
| Operated by | Four Freedoms Park Conservancy |
| Visitors | 176,372 (in 2021)[1] |
| Status | Open all year |
| Website | https://fdrfourfreedomspark.org/ |
TheFranklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park is a four-acre (1.6 ha) memorial toFranklin D. Roosevelt that celebrates theFour Freedoms he articulated in his 1941State of the Union address. It is located inNew York City at the southernmost point ofRoosevelt Island, in theEast River betweenManhattan Island andQueens. It was originally designed by the architectLouis Kahn in 1974, but funds were only secured for groundbreaking in 2010 and completion in 2012.
President Roosevelt made hisFour Freedoms speech to theUnited States Congress in 1941. The Four Freedoms speech has inspired and been incorporated in theFour Freedoms Monument in Florida, theFranklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., andNorman Rockwell's series of paintings called theFour Freedoms.
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.[2] In 2005,William J. vanden Heuvel, a former U.N. ambassador and a founder of theFranklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, launched the effort to get the four-acre park built to Kahn's specifications, gathering more than $50 million in private and public funds.[3] TheFranklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute subsequently kept the project going over time.[4] Two foundations that became major donors, the Reed Foundation and the Alphawood Foundation, initiated a lawsuit against the corporation that managed the development of the memorial in a dispute over how their contributions should be acknowledged. The foundations said they were promised their names would appear close to the bust. Those responsible for the memorial's construction did not dispute that. Rather, vanden Heuvel said: "Yes, we have a contract that we believe is now a mistake. As we came to the spring of 2012, we understood that we had a work of art, and the forces that represent the artistic and cultural integrity of the project are concerned about preserving that work. The purity and integrity of the Kahn memorial is what made it so stunning."[5]
Louis Kahn was asked to design the monument in 1972. Four Freedoms Park is one of Kahn's last works.[6] He was carrying the finished designs with him when he died in 1974 at New York City'sPennsylvania Station.[7] After Kahn's death, his designs were continued by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, who kept to Kahn's original intentions.[8]
Earthwork for the future memorial was started in 1994 by Langan Engineering as part of a project to demolish theDelacorte Fountain andCity Hospital.[9][10][11]
An exhibition atCooper Union in 2005 brought additional attention and helped to advance the project.[12] In 2006, ENYA (Emerging New York Architects) made the island's abandoned southern end the subject of one of its annual competitions. Groundbreaking took place in 2010.[13] However, the park was tied up in litigation during its construction.[5]
The park was dedicated in a ceremony on October 17, 2012.Tom Brokaw served as master of ceremonies. Participants included former PresidentBill Clinton, GovernorAndrew Cuomo, former MayorMichael Bloomberg, and relatives of Roosevelt. Cuomo said that "New York became the laboratory of progressive democracy, and F.D.R. was the scientist creating formulas for a broad range of national problems and social ills." He praised vanden Heuvel as a "juggernaut of determination". Clinton noted the memorial's location: "As we look out on this bright new day, we are close to theU.N., which he, more than any other soul, created."[14][15] Four Freedoms Park became aNew York State Park when it opened to the public on October 24, 2012.[14]
In June 2015,2016 presidential candidateHillary Clinton chose the park site for her first major campaign rally.[16][17]
In June 2019, to coincide with the fifty-year anniversary of theStonewall riots,[18] steps at the park were turned into the largestLGBTQ pride flag.[19] The rainbow-decorated 12-by-100-foot (3.7 m × 30.5 m) staircaseAscend With Pride was installed June 14–30.[19]
In a 1973 lecture atPratt Institute, Kahn said:[20]
I had this thought that a memorial should be a room and a garden. That's all I had. Why did I want a room and a garden? I just chose it to be the point of departure. The garden is somehow a personal nature, a personal kind of control of nature. And the room was the beginning of architecture. I had this sense, you see, and the room wasn't just architecture, but was an extension of self.
The four-acre (1.6 ha) park[21] stands at the southernmost point of Roosevelt Island. Looking south, the visitor has a clear view of theheadquarters of the United Nations (particularly theUnited Nations Secretariat Building); to the north of the park is theQueensboro Bridge, which spans the East River.[3] 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.[6] The memorial is a procession of elegant open-air spaces, culminating in a 3,600-square-foot (330 m2) plaza surrounded by 28 blocks of North Carolina granite, each weighing 36 tons.[3] The courtyard contains a bust of Roosevelt, sculpted in 1933 byJo Davidson.[8]
At the point, the monument itself is a simplified, roofless version of a Greek temple in granite.[6] Excerpts from Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech are carved on the walls of this room-like space, which is open to the sky above.
The memorial is constructed entirely inMount Airy Granite sourced from the North Carolina Granite Corporation. Over 140,000 cubic feet (4,000 m3) of Mount Airy Granite was used in the memorial's construction. In contrast with the hard granite forms, Kahn placed fivecopper-beech trees at the memorial's entrance and 120little-leaf lindens in allées leading up to the monument.[3]
Clinton's decision to hold the first major public rally of her campaign at Four Freedoms Park in New York City reminds us not only of the many challenges the United States has faced in the past, but also the many challenges we face today as we seek to build a better future for ourselves and for our children… Four Freedoms Park, where Secretary Clinton will speak, stands in the shadow of the most visible of these institutions -- the United Nations, which for all its imperfections has done more to advance the cause of peace and the four freedoms since its founding in 1945 than any other international body.
Four Freedoms Park offered a visual complement to Hillary Clinton's first big campaign rally – and a clear symbolic marker of her principles as she kicks her campaign into high gear. Clinton backers say the park… is the physical embodiment of the concept that government can help people… "Four freedoms are a testament to our nation's unmatched aspirations," Clinton said… has long publicly admired Franklin Roosevelt, but she's much more apt to quote his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, in her speeches.
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