Aerial Photos of The Encampment at Southpoint Park Roosevelt Island

Photo by Stephen Amiaga

Photo by Stephen Amiaga

Anyone who attended the recent Encampment public art project at Roosevelt Island's Southpoint Park knows that it is a truly unique waterfront site with exquisite views of the East River and Manhattan/Queens skyline. Southpoint should not be the site for the Louis Kahn/FDR memorial.

Roosevelt Island 360 adds his voice on the subject of the memorial:

What I am fully against is what this is becoming … a hyphenated memorial to Louis Kahn in addition to FDR.

My primary concerns regarding the design of this memorial are (1) the potential loss of the natural 360 degree views afforded by the current space, (2) the loss of the natural green space itself, and (3) my concern that the space will no longer be allowed to play host to events like the summer time outdoor movies series and projects on the scale of "The Encampment". Certainly The Encampment would not have had the same sense of a pitched campground sitting between granite walls inscribed with FDR’s Four Freedoms speech.

Having a memorial would be acceptable if it does not impinge on the access the island population enjoys. It would be one thing if the memorial was built either before the resident population grew to its current level or before the original WIRE buildings were completed but now the voices of the island’s residents should be given weight over the Kahn fanatics and the memory of a former President especially since there are other memorials to FDR here in NYC and elsewhere.

Aerial images of The Emcampment are from Thom Sokoloski.