Pleasant Spring Weekend Afternoon on Roosevelt Island for Some, Most Depressing Place in the World to Others
Saturday was a beautiful day here on Roosevelt Island. The warm temperature and sunshine gave us our first hint of spring. The farmers market was crowded and Dominos Pizza from Jackson Avenue in Long Island City was there showing some customer appreciation. (Do they really deliver until 1 AM, even to Roosevelt Island?)
Roosevelt Island Cherry Trees are blossoming. A very nice day!
Blogger Frying Pan had a different Roosevelt Island weekend experience on Sunday afternoon.
I’m not generally one to knock a place but the BF and I took our Sunday Walk this afternoon to Roosevelt Island and, well, I’ve wanted to go for years and was looking forward to it but man is the place depressing....The worst though was when we turned down into the ‘main street’ and discovered a series of apartment complexes that would fit in with the sad desolation associated more with an English small town than a section of a New York City. Throw in a few zombies and you’ve got a street perfect for the Worlds Most Depressing Location. I realize that they were going for “modern” and some sort of pre planned integration of living space and retail space.. but it looks too bland, too pre fab and just the ultimate in what I would think would be a soul-crushing place to live.
Image from Frying Pan
11 comments :
Oh wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursel’s as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
And foolish notion.
Robert Burns
Maybe the construction of the Roosevelt Memorial will bring many more outsiders with clear eyes to the island. It can only lead to improvement. (There is no way to go but up, considering that Roosevelt Island is the only neighborhood in New York that has declined rather than improved over the past decade.)
adding more cement and foreboding views to the island... right, THAT'll help.
clear-eyed visitors who seek greenswards and views are likely to FAR outnumber kahnunists who seek to worship at their avatar's monolith. the late-60s 'vision' entombed in kahn's memorial is precisely what GAVE us the gloomy downtown we have now. enough is enough of bankrupt architecture.
What an ass. Really, didn't he see the kids playing ball, people enjoying the sunshine? What's the point of his comments? Good riddens, better off keeping our beautiful place a secret.
The memorial is also adding an important allee of trees. Looking at the memorial in plan, as if from above, opponents can conveniently forget that the actual view will be experienced very differently, with the tree trunks acting as picture frames and serving much the same function. The trees will enhance the view, not detract from it.
if by 'enhance' you mean 'block.'
currently i can see from horizon to zenith. why on earth should i consider a design that shrinks my view to that akin to looking out a window an 'enhancement?'
You still get your view, and it will be ever-changing as you move along the path. It's the difference between looking out from a picture window and looking out from a multi-pane window. I prefer the latter; you probably prefer the former.
I wonder if any of the opponents have every experienced a Louis Kahn space.
i am reminded of a line from the simpsons: "this never would have happened had the wedding been in a church, instead of out here in the SHOWINESS of nature!"
have the kahnists ever seen a natural space, and NOT thought that their god could improve on it? mebbee we could slap this thing on the grand canyon.
the word for today is hubris.
I take it then, that the answer is no, you've never seen a Kahn space, then?
The type of park you support is not a "natural space" either. The entire southern end of the island beginning a couple of feet south of the Renwick ruin is landfill, put there for the purpose of the memorial.
Very interesting and humorous discussion going on between you two.
In regard to the 8:35 comment, I think you are factually incorrect. There is no evidence that the landfill south of Renwick Ruins was "put there for the purpose of the memorial"
In fact, The July 3, 2004 Main Street Wire reported that "Southpoint is 14 acres, 4 of which are landfill added since 1945. It’s 9.5% of Roosevelt Island."
http://www.nyc10044.com/wire/2420/sitefacts.html
I hardly think the Memorial was contemplated in 1945 or soon thereafter.
I think it is very telling that not once have you mentioned how the memorial honors FDR. To many supporters of the Memorial, it's all about Kahn. A memorial to FDR is just a sideshow. This design could just as easily be placed in the former Soviet Union as a memorial to Stalin or Brezhenv and nobody would be able to see any significant difference.
Also, The Simpsons are always right!
The Main Street Wire is a secondary or tertiary source. A review of contemporary maps of the island over the years shows the development of the landfill, the bulk of which took place during the construction of the subway and after the demolition of the hospital buildings in the late sixties. The landfill was to be parkland, rather than residential and commercial space, until the name of the island was changed from Welfare Island to Roosevelt Island in 1973 before any of the residential buildings had been constructed and the landfill was approved for use as a memorial to FDR.
As for Louis Kahn -- his buildings have a particular spatial quality that many people describe as spiritual. Regrettably, the discussion of the FDR memorial is more of a power struggle than an examination of the merits of the structure.
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