Park Design

     The site for Four Freedoms Park is extraordinary. Located at the center of the East River on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island, it offers panoramic views of the city skyline. The entrance to the Park is marked by a stand of five Copper Beech trees, located immediately south of the landmarked Smallpox Hospital, also known as the Renwick Ruin. Visitors arrive via perimeter paths along the east and west sides of the island. They can proceed directly along the river’s edge by way of granite-paved promenades protected by low granite walls, or, can climb a wide stair rising twelve feet to the “Garden,” a triangular shaped lawn bordered on either side by an allée of Little Leaf Linden trees, which gently slopes down toward the end of the island.

The Garden provides a view south along the axis of the river, while the promenades offer rare impressions of Queens and Manhattan: distant, tranquil, whole, and undisturbed by foreground buildings or rushing traffic. The United Nations complex appropriately dominates many views. Both promenades and the path through the Garden lead to the Forecourt, also bordered by Linden trees. Beyond, a sculpture court establishes a fitting site for the sculpture of Franklin D. Roosevelt created from life in 1933 by renowned artist Jo Davidson. The likeness of President Roosevelt marks the threshold to what Kahn called the “Room,” and a transition from a place of activity to a more contemplative setting.

The “Room” is, in fact, a 72-foot square plaza, open to the sky and to the south, defined on three sides by 6-foot x 6-foot x 12-foot high, closely spaced, granite columns. Excerpts from the text of President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech will be carved into the granite on the back of the sculpture niche. The open south side of the Room provides a protected overlook where visitors may stand or sit to consider the words of Roosevelt and the spectacular views of the United Nations, the city skyline, and the river.

The materials of the Park are those of a timeless civic place: granite and trees are organized to create both space and mass. Ornament comes in the form of light and shadow. As in all Kahn’s work, there is deliberate use of strong geometry and axial relationships whose composition and construction create a stable, reassuring, and contemplative setting. Being “inside” the park reveals the water, the United Nations, the skyline, the sky and, finally, the people who share the experience.

Four Freedoms Park will be a civic place of universal meaning and provide a permanent statement of President Roosevelt’s vision for a better, more peaceful world. It will preserve, in perpetuity, for the enjoyment of residents and visitors alike, one of most majestic open waterfront spaces remaining in New York City. It will become the City’s newest landmark, accessible to all, that will serve to educate future generations about President Roosevelt and his legacy.