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« The Park Service Listens | Main | GIPEC's Plan for a Plan »

Park Design Competition Launched

Five multi-national teams have been selected by GIPEC (Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation) to submit designs for the Island's park and public spaces. Their proposals will be made public in June at a series of exhibits and forums. The winning team and their design approach will then be selected in July by a panel of experts, not yet identified, with the Team being put under contract to plan the park shortly thereafter. The framework of the assignment to the five teams is described by the Request for Proposals (RFP) that GIPEC published on March 7. It is almost 50 pages of welcome detail and graphics that guide each team as they prepare their designs. The Alliance will be submitting comments in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, you can read the RFP here.
  
GIPEC President Leslie Koch announced the teams to an audience of more than 150 at the January 17 Design Forum - co-sponsored by the Alliance - at the AIA Center for Architecture in Greenwich Village. The five are: • Field Operations/ WilkinsonEyre Architects, of New York and London. • Hargreaves Associates/Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc., of New York and Los Angeles. • Ramus Ella Architects (REX)/ Michel Desvigne Paysagistes (MDP), of New York and Paris. • West 8 urban design & landscape architecture b.v./ Rogers MarvelArchitects / Diller Scofidio + Renfro, of Rotterdam and New York. • WRT LLC/ Weiss/Manfredi / Urban Strategies. Inc., of Philadelphia, New York, and Toronto.

They were chosen from among 29 teams that responded to GIPEC's Request for Statements of Qualification (RFQ's) last October. The request went out to firms that practice landscape architecture, planning, architecture, art and engineering.

Linda Neal, Superintendent of the Governors Island National Monument, opened the forum with a discussion of the National Park Service's General Management Plan for the Monument's 22 acres. The plan favors a concept that focuses on larger harbor history, ecology and waterfront revitalization efforts. It includes construction of a new dock and visitor center at Buttermilk Channel and improvements to the two forts and pathways around them.

Following GIPEC's announcement of the design teams, GIA Executive Director Rob Pirani highlighted the key elements for a successful park, as featured in guidelines issued by the GIA last June - which can be found at: http://www.governorsislandalliance.org/pdf/giparkguidelinessm.pdf.

The guidelines emphasize a large contiguous park in the southern end of the Island oriented on the harbor, a connection to the Island's history, an overall park-like character for the Island, and the importance of phasing in early improvements.

The panel of professionals at the forum, moderated by Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, addressed the question: What will bring the public to the park? Urban designer Jane Thompson of the Thompson Design Group stressed the importance of having a park that is unimpeded by development, a place where people can go to escape the built environment. Planner-architect Mark Strauss from FXFOWLE speculated on whether the park space on the Island would be enough of a magnet to the public. Laurie Olin of Olin Partnership focused on the fact that Governors Island is the "true center" of New York City, and that a park on the Island should be a park for the entire city.

The panel was followed by questions from the audience. A person who had grown up on the Island asked that planners strive to reveal the wonderful scale and historic character of the Island.

http://www.governorsislandalliance.com/pdf/OnlineOffshorevol2_1.pdf

Posted by Jen Steinberg on November 25, 2007 1:01 PM |