Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park

{{multiple image

|align=left

|direction=vertical

|total_width=250

|image1=FDR Statue Roosevelt Island.JPG

|image2=Four Freedoms Park - FDR quote.jpg

|footer=Bust of Franklin D. Roosevelt (top) and a quote from his 1941 Four Freedoms speech (bottom)

}}

President Roosevelt made his Four Freedoms speech to the United States Congress in 1941. The Four Freedoms speech has inspired and been incorporated in the Four Freedoms Monument in Florida, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., and Norman Rockwell's series of paintings called the Four 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.{{cite web |url=

http://archweb.cooper.edu/exhibitions/kahn/history_01.html |title=Memorial Park Honoring Franklin D. Roosevelt |first=William J. |last=vanden Heuvel |author-link=William vanden Heuvel |publisher=Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921235124/http://archweb.cooper.edu/exhibitions/kahn/history_01.html |archive-date=September 21, 2022}} In 2005, William J. vanden Heuvel, a former U.N. ambassador and a founder of the Franklin 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.{{cite news |last=Tyrnauer |first=Matt |title=Hyde Park on the East River |url=http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/11/architecture-fdr-memorial-louis-i-kahn |access-date=November 14, 2012 |newspaper=Vanity Fair |date=October 19, 2012}} The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute subsequently kept the project going over time.{{cite news |title=As No. 44 Arrives, a Park for No. 32? |first=Gregory |last=Beyer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/nyregion/thecity/25fdr.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 23, 2009 |access-date=July 23, 2011}} 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."{{cite news |last=Foderaro |first=Lisa W. |title=A Monument to Roosevelt, on the Eve of Dedication, Is Mired in a Dispute With Donors |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/nyregion/fdr-monument-mired-in-a-legal-dispute-over-placement-of-donors-names.html?ref=nyregion |access-date=October 16, 2012 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 15, 2012}}

Louis Kahn was asked to design the monument in 1972. Four Freedoms Park is one of Kahn's last works.{{cite news |title=An Elegy for a Memorial, and for the Man Who Designed It |first=Julie V. |last=Iovine |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/arts/design/09iovi.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 9, 2005 |access-date=July 23, 2011}} He was carrying the finished designs with him when he died in 1974 at New York City's Pennsylvania Station.{{cite news |title=For a Roosevelt Memorial, a Groundbreaking 36 Years in the Making |first=Sam |last=Roberts |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EFDF1438F936A25757C0A9669D8B63 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 15, 2010 |access-date=July 23, 2011}} After Kahn's death, his designs were continued by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, who kept to Kahn's original intentions.{{cite news |title=Its Quiet Optimism Maintained, Louis Kahn's Roosevelt Island FDR Memorial Moves into Construction |first=Zach |last=Mortice |url=http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/0814/0814d_fdrmemorial.cfm |work=AIArchitect |date=August 14, 2009 |access-date=July 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723031200/http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/0814/0814d_fdrmemorial.cfm |archive-date=July 23, 2011 |url-status=dead }}

Earthwork for the future memorial was started in 1994 by Langan Engineering as part of a project to demolish the Delacorte Fountain and City Hospital.{{cite web |year=2005 |url=https://archweb.cooper.edu/exhibitions/kahn/status_01.html |title=Building the Roosevelt Memorial: A Conversation |website=Cooper Union |access-date=January 9, 2025}}{{cite web |url=https://a860-collectionguides.nyc.gov/repositories/2/accessions/3463 |title=Maintenance logs for Delacorte Fountain on Roosevelt Island from 1968 to 1987 |website=New York City Department of Records and Information Services |access-date=January 9, 2025}}{{Cite news|last=Gray|first=Christopher|date=October 16, 1994 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/16/realestate/streetscapes-charity-hospital-roosevelt-island-piles-rubble-where-grim-gray.html |title=Charity Hospital on Roosevelt Island; Piles of Rubble Where Grim Gray Walls Once Stood |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 9, 2025}}

An exhibition at Cooper Union in 2005 brought additional attention and helped to advance the project.{{cite web |url=http://archweb.cooper.edu/exhibitions/kahn/index.html |title=Coming to Light: The Louis I. Kahn Monument to Franklin D. Roosevelt for New York City |year=2005 |website=Cooper Union |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060617192018/http://archweb.cooper.edu/exhibitions/kahn/index.html |archive-date=June 17, 2006}} 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.{{cite news |title=Kahn's Four Freedoms Park Finally Breaks Ground |first=Alyssa |last=Nordhauser |url=http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=4816 |newspaper=The Architect's Newspaper |date=September 14, 2010 |access-date=July 23, 2011 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023216/http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=4816 |url-status=dead }} However, the park was tied up in litigation during its construction.

The park was dedicated in a ceremony on October 17, 2012. Tom Brokaw served as master of ceremonies. Participants included former President Bill Clinton, Governor Andrew Cuomo, former Mayor Michael 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 the U.N., which he, more than any other soul, created."{{cite news |last=Foderaro |first=Lisa W. |title=Dedicating Park to Roosevelt and His View of Freedom |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/nyregion/roosevelt-four-freedoms-park-is-dedicated.html |access-date=November 14, 2012 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 17, 2012}}{{cite web |url=https://news.yahoo.com/decades-fdr-memorial-park-dedicated-nyc-150400725.html |title=Decades late, FDR memorial park dedicated in NYC |website=Yahoo! News |agency=Associated Press |date=October 17, 2012 |last=Ilnytzky |first=Ula |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023010639/https://news.yahoo.com/decades-fdr-memorial-park-dedicated-nyc-150400725.html |archive-date=October 23, 2012}} Four Freedoms Park became a New York State Park when it opened to the public on October 24, 2012.

In June 2015, 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton chose the park site for her first major campaign rally.{{Cite web |last=Woolner |first=David |date=2015-06-14 |title=Seeking the Four Freedoms Is as Important Today as It Was 74 Years Ago |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/seeking-the-four-freedoms_b_7577334 |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=HuffPost |language=en |quote=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.}}{{Cite web |last=Joseph |first=Cameron |date=2015-06-13 |title=Four Freedoms Park offers visual complement to Hillary Clinton's first rally |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/2015/06/13/four-freedoms-park-offers-visual-complement-to-hillary-clintons-first-rally/ |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=New York Daily News |language=en-US |quote=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.}}

File:FDR Four Freedoms Park New York October 2016 panorama.jpg]]

In a 1973 lecture at Pratt Institute, Kahn said:{{cite journal |first=Louis |last=Kahn |title=1973: Brooklyn, New York |journal=Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal |volume=19 |year=1982 |page=90 |doi=10.2307/1567053|jstor=1567053 }}

{{blockquote|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 {{convert|4|acre|adj=on|spell=in}} park{{cite book |title=2014 New York State Statistical Yearbook |chapter-url=http://www.rockinst.org/nys_statistics/2014/2014_Yearbook_Section_O.pdf |publisher=The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government |year=2014 |chapter=Section O: Environmental Conservation and Recreation, Table O-9 |page=672 |access-date=June 2, 2016 |archive-date=April 28, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428231718/http://www.rockinst.org/nys_statistics/2014/2014_Yearbook_Section_O.pdf |url-status=dead }} stands at the southernmost point of Roosevelt Island. Looking south, the visitor has a clear view of the headquarters of the United Nations (particularly the United Nations Secretariat Building); to the north of the park is the Queensboro Bridge, which spans the East River. 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. The memorial is a procession of elegant open-air spaces, culminating in a {{convert|3600|sqft|adj=on}} plaza surrounded by 28 blocks of North Carolina granite, each weighing 36 tons. The courtyard contains a bust of Roosevelt, sculpted in 1933 by Jo Davidson.

At the point, the monument itself is a simplified, roofless version of a Greek temple in granite. 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 in Mount Airy Granite sourced from the North Carolina Granite Corporation. Over {{convert|140000|cuft}} of Mount Airy Granite was used in the memorial's construction. In contrast with the hard granite forms, Kahn placed five copper-beech trees at the memorial's entrance and 120 little-leaf lindens in allées leading up to the monument.

{{clear}}

{{wide image|Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park from Manhattan.png|960px|The park, as seen looking east from Manhattan Island}}

• In Showtime's Billions (Season 4, Episode 6), Taylor Mason and Wendy Rhoades meet at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park and discuss Louis Kahn's genius and his relationship with his estranged son.{{cite journal| title=The past haunts just about everyone on a table-setting Billions| first=Scott| last=Von Doviak| url=https://www.avclub.com/the-past-haunts-just-about-everyone-on-a-table-setting-1834079214| journal=The A.V. Club| date=April 21, 2019 |access-date=April 22, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422041454/https://tv.avclub.com/the-past-haunts-just-about-everyone-on-a-table-setting-1834079214 |archive-date=April 22, 2019}}

• List of New York state parks
• Presidential memorials in the United States

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Refbegin}}

• [http://archweb.cooper.edu/exhibitions/kahn/index.html Coming to Light: The Louis I. Kahn Monument to Franklin D. Roosevelt for New York City, an exhibition at Cooper Union. Essays and drawings]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/opinion/05mon4.html "A Roosevelt for Roosevelt Island" (editorial), New York Times, November 5, 2007, New York Times]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20101205232355/http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=3614 Rago, Danielle. "FDR Finally Comes Home," in The Architect's Newspaper, June 26, 2009]
• [https://news.yahoo.com/decades-fdr-memorial-park-dedicated-nyc-150400725.html Ilnytsky, Ula. "Decades late, FDR memorial park dedicated in NYC," October 18, 2009]
• {{cite journal |last1=Sully |first1=Nicole |title=Architecture from the Ouija Board: Louis Kahn's Roosevelt Memorials and the Posthumous Monuments of Modernism |journal=Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand |date=2019 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=60–85 |doi=10.1080/10331867.2018.1540083 |s2cid=191998111 }}

{{Refend}}

{{listen|title=State of the Union (Four Freedoms) (January 6, 1941) |filename=FDR's 1941 State of the Union (Four Freedoms speech) Edit 1.ogg |description =Franklin Delano Roosevelt's January 6, 1941 State of the Union Address introducing the theme of the Four Freedoms (starting at 32:02)|image=}}

{{Commons category|Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park}}

• {{official website|http://www.fdrfourfreedomspark.org}}
• [http://www.fdr4freedoms.org FDR Four Freedoms Park digital education resource]
• [http://nysparks.com/parks/186/details.aspx NYS Parks website]
• [http://www.guiaturisticanuevayork.com/four-freedoms-park.php Four Freedoms Park (pictures and info in spanish)]

{{Roosevelt Island}}

{{Louis Kahn}}

{{Protected areas of New York City}}

{{Protected areas of New York}}

{{Franklin D. Roosevelt}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Parks in Manhattan

Category:Four Freedoms

Category:Monuments and memorials to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States

Category:Roosevelt Island

Category:Louis Kahn buildings

Category:Headquarters of the United Nations

Category:State parks of New York (state)

Category:Monuments and memorials in Manhattan

Category:Protected areas established in 2012

Category:2012 establishments in New York City