Park History

In 1973, New York State Governor Rockefeller and New York City Mayor Lindsay presided over the dedication ceremony of Roosevelt Island to pay tribute to this great president. Welfare Island, in the center of the East River of New York City, was re-named Roosevelt Island and four acres at its southern tip were set aside to build the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park designed by the renowned architect Louis I. Kahn.

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park will be a majestic addition to New York City's offering of public spaces. Every visit to this park, every glimpse of its simple grandeur, will be a reminder to us all of what we stand for, fight for, and want with all our hearts to leave to our children and their children's children.

Park Chronology

1828 - City of New York purchases the approximately 2-mile long, 800-foot wide island in the East River from the Blackwell family, then named Blackwell’s Island, uses as a site for its prisons, hospitals, and charitable institutions. (New York Lunatic Asylum, 1839; Smallpox Hospital, 1856; Charity Hospital, 1857; New York Foundling Hospital, 1869; Strecker Laboratory, 1892.)

1968 - Mayor John V. Lindsay appoints the Welfare Island Planning and Development Committee to study possible uses for the redevelopment of the island. The committee, which includes the architect Philip Johnson, recommends residential development.

1969 - The Master Plan for Welfare Island, commissioned by the UDC and designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, is published as ‘The Island Nobody Knows.’ An exhibition is held in October at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in conjunction with the publication.

1970 - The Four Freedoms Foundation (the predecessor to the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute) initiates conversations with the city and state to plan a memorial for Roosevelt in New York. The New York Times editorial advocates for a memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt on Welfare Island, and proposes the renaming of the island inRoosevelt’s honor.

1972 - Architect Louis I. Kahn is commissioned by the Four Freedoms Foundation and the UDC to design the Roosevelt Memorial. It is to be situated on a roughly 3-acre site at the southern tip of Welfare Island, south of the Renwick Ruin.

1973 -The official dedication ceremony renaming the island takes place at Southpoint Park. Louis I. Kahn presents a model of an early stage of the design. Others present include Mayor Lindsay, Averell Harriman, Edward J. Logue, members of the Roosevelt Family, and Joseph S. Robinson, then president of the Four Freedoms Foundation.

1974 - Kahn dies unexpectedly of a heart attack at Pennsylvania Station in New York while traveling back toPhiladelphia from Bangladesh.Mitchell/Giurgola Associates enters into an Architect’s Agreement with the UDC to complete the project as a Joint Venture with Kahn’s former associate David Wisdom, Architect.

1975 - New York City undergoes a fiscal crisis and the project is put on hold.

1980 - The Four Freedoms Foundation receives a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to produce a film about FDR and the Memorial. It is narrated by Orson Welles.

1981 - Senator Patrick Moynihan reintroduces “a bill to establish a national memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt…to be built on Roosevelt Island in the city of New York according to the plans…on that site prepared by the late, preeminent American architect, Louis I. Kahn.”

1985 - Governor Cuomo establishes the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Commission to assess the realization of Kahn’s design. The bi-partisan Commission, co-chaired by Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz and former NYC Mayor Robert F. Wagner, unanimously recommends that the project be built.

1991 - Under the leadership of RIOC President Jean Lerman, and Director of Planning and Development, Alyce Russo, Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc. is contracted by RIOC to design seawall stabilization and site preparation measures for the area of Southpoint Park.

1992 - A retrospective of Kahn’s work is held at the Museum of Modern Art. The Roosevelt Memorial is included in the exhibition. An editorial in The New York Times calls the Memorial by “the renowned architect Louis I. Kahn….one of the noblest unbuilt projects in New York,” and advocates its construction.

1994 - Certain site preparation measures at Southpoint, as designed by Langan, are realized. These include the demolition of the Old City Hospital and long-abandoned Delacorte Fountain. A temporary stabilization program forSmallpox Hospital is also installed. Arising solely upon construction cost savings, and based upon engineering documents prepared by Langan, the memorial site is cleared, graded, sculpted, and compacted to the specifications of the Kahn design.

1995 - As a result of the sitework funded by RIOC, the public is allowed access to Southpoint Park for the first time to view the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks show.

1998 - The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute submits a folio of materials to President Dr. Jerome Blue, President of RIOC, for a renewed review of the project. Project put on hold.

2005 - January/February – Coming to Light: The Louis I. Kahn Monument to Franklin D. Roosevelt for New York City, an exhibition on the history of the Four Freedoms Park, is held at The Cooper Union.

January 9 – The New York Times runs an article by Julie V. Iovine, An Elegy for a Memorial And for the Man Who Designed It, about the exhibition. As a result, the Alphawood Foundation in Chicago contacts the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute to offer seed money to establish a project office to raise money to build the Memorial.

2006 - Trust for Public Land (TPL) issues a Request for Proposals for Phase I Redevelopment of Southpoint Park. The scope of work focuses on clearing the central portion of the park site and stabilizing the Renwick Ruin.Gina Pollara, one of the co-curators of the Kahn exhibition, assumes the duties of executive director for the project office. Additional financial support is provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, one of the original supporters of the project.

2007 - Stephen Shane, President of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, publicly endorses constructing the Memorial Park. Governor Spitzer issues a letter pledging the assistance of the relevant State agencies to help bring the FDR Memorial Park to completion. An editorial in The New York Times advocates for the FDR Memorial saying: “That the task [of raising the money to build it] is daunting makes it worthy of the man it honors, who guided the nation through the Depression, the New Deal and a world war.”

2008 - The Architecture & Engineering Team begins “Scoping Phase,” during which the entire original design is fully reviewed for current code compliance. Council Member Jessica Lappin with support of Speaker Christine Quinn secures $4 million for the project, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer awards $500,000.

September 11 – The RIOC Board of Directors vote to give Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute “conditional designation,” which means that no other project will be considered for the site while the regulatory permits and reviews and funding are secured.

September 30 – The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park Limited Liability Corporation is established as a fully owned subsidiary of the Institute. The sole purpose of the LLC is to raise the funds and construct the Park.

2009 - Site visits are made to quarries in Quebec, Canada and Vermont to consider alternate granite choices. The RIOC Board of Directors votes approval of the SEQR and gives the Institute final designation, which allows them to enter into a development agreement with RIOC to build the Park.