Monday, November 5, 2007

NYT Editorial : A Roosevelt for Roosevelt Island

NYT Editorial 2007 Nov 5 - Mini Pic

Today's New York Times includes an editorial supporting the construction of the Louis Kahn FDR Memorial:

"The eminent architect Louis Kahn was commissioned to design the memorial, and his concept was simple and elegant. Drawing inspiration from Roosevelt’s defense of the Four Freedoms — of speech and religion, and from want and fear — he designed an open “room and a garden” at the bottom of the island. Trees on either side form a “V” defining a green space, and leading to a two-walled stone room at the water’s edge that frames the United Nations and the rest of the skyline."

"There’s a magic to the project. That the task is daunting makes it worthy of the man it honors, who guided the nation through the Depression, the New Deal and a world war. As for Mr. Kahn, he died in 1974, as he passed alone through New York’s Penn Station. In his briefcase were renderings of the memorial, his last completed plan."

No mention is made in the editorial about the concerns of the residents of Roosevelt Island just praise for the design, FDR himself, and for Kahn.

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