Congratulations and thank you to GIPEC, and to all the teams, for an incredibly successful competition and for developing such exciting visions of Governors Island's future.
The Governors Island Alliance has long held that defining and building the Island's parks and public spaces will create the physical reality and economic amenity - the place-making - that is needed to drive the Island's redevelopment and find paying tenants for its priceless historic buildings.
The prospects created by the five teams are an important and successful step in this process. The Alliance appreciates this opportunity to present our thoughts on the five entries. Some specific observations follow. But we want to first underscore our deep concern that the Governor and Mayor must now follow through with the political commitment and funding needed to make this more than a studio assignment.
The Governors Island Alliance has long held that defining and building the Island's parks and public spaces will create the physical reality and economic amenity - the place-making - that is needed to drive the Island's redevelopment and find paying tenants for its priceless historic buildings.
The prospects created by the five teams are an important and successful step in this process. The Alliance appreciates this opportunity to present our thoughts on the five entries. Some specific observations follow. But we want to first underscore our deep concern that the Governor and Mayor must now follow through with the political commitment and funding needed to make this more than a studio assignment.
We remain hopeful that the Governor will match the Mayor's offer of
$ 37.5 million this year to begin to remove structures in the south
Island, clean and green this area, and do other site preparation needed
to open up the esplanade and the ball fields in the south for
additional early uses. We call on both Mayor and Governor to commit to
the balance of the funding needed to build the park next year, so that
ground can be broken in 2009.
The surveys completed by this year's visitors reaffirm that Governors Island is a wonderful destination for New Yorkers and tourists alike. Nobody who visits the Island is disappointed by the Island or its setting.
But right now the Island serves but a fraction of the people it could. It's potential to benefit New York - green space for families, amenity for downtown businesses, a destination for tourists, space for students - is hamstrung by the lack of investment.
These designs offer great promise. Regardless of which team is selected, we hope that the Governor and Mayor will follow through on the commitments made in 2003 and see the promise realized starting now.
As required by GIPEC's RFP, all of the proposals could create the park-like character for the Island at the heart of the Alliance's agenda and the park and public space guidelines we published last year. From a design perspective, there is much to admire in how all five teams dealt with what should be the driving physical parameters of the Island's public spaces:
• A Harbor orientation;
• A large contiguous (40 acre-plus) waterfront park;
• A continuous and permeable waterfront promenade with active maritime uses;
• An affirmation of the importance of the campus quality of the Island as a whole, with circulation organized around pedestrian pathways that connect the southern Island with the Historic District, and the public spaces and the areas to be leased for redevelopment.
But the Alliance's specific comments this evening are rooted in our concern for getting the Island started, and sooner as opposed to later.
There are three things that the winning team and its vision need to embody to ensure that Island's public spaces truly do drive the Island's rebirth.
• A strong public space framework that enables phasing of park and Island development. We believe that early establishment of a public framework of parks and public space is essential. Phasing is a reality of yearly capital budgets and the need to stage construction. The Island's development agenda will surely evolve over
time. Firmly establishing the network of public spaces will protect the public's interest in the Island, and create the garden on which future programs can grow.
Several of teams made especially strong cases about the need for phasing and public circulation. While REX's explicitness in this regard is right-on, their matrix format implies more of an incremental rather than phased approach. WRT and Hargreaves had perhaps the clearest expression of the physical structure needed to meet this need.
• Creation of a compelling destination by providing space for current and prospective programs year round- The Island should be a great canvas for artists, a stage for performers, a sports field for kids, a haven for boaters and birders, and a playground for everybody. We need to include uses that will attract people on a year
round basis. The park space must also accommodate the specific needs of the Harbor School and prospective Island tenants.
We appreciated that the Hargreaves team provided clear space for active sports - a specific City-wide need that is also of concern for the Harbor School and other future educational tenants. Clearly such fields could be accommodated in other schemes going forward. Several of the teams connected the hotel/conference centers with a performance space and provided for lawns or meadows that could be flexibly used for festivals. We also liked the idea of agriculture and nurseries as an early use as
expressed by REX and WRT.
• Make it sustainable financially and ecologically. The Alliance does not subscribe to the notion that the Island must pay for itself; the City and the state have a general responsibility for managing public parkland. Like Central Park, the economic reward for the Island redevelopment should be realized in lower Manhattan and elsewhere. At the same time, we need to design and build public spaces that can be maintained affordably, especially given possible needs to subsidize maintenance of the Island's historic buildings. While exposing the visitors to the harbor's waters must be a driver in the design, we need to be convinced that the more elaborate in-water structures, tidal inlets, and hill forms are reasonable in their management implications.
At the same time, we are strongly supportive of the possibilities for making the Island a model of sustainability. The more practical proposals - such as those presented by WRT and Field Operations - for innovative storm and drinking water management, reuse of building rubble, energy generation, native, wildland plantings, and shoreline
protection are responding to growing global imperative and can actually help reduce maintenance costs. Its location and nature makes Governors Island a candidate to be a public showcase for such practices.
Thank you again for organizing this competition, and focusing all this talent on the
Island.
The surveys completed by this year's visitors reaffirm that Governors Island is a wonderful destination for New Yorkers and tourists alike. Nobody who visits the Island is disappointed by the Island or its setting.
But right now the Island serves but a fraction of the people it could. It's potential to benefit New York - green space for families, amenity for downtown businesses, a destination for tourists, space for students - is hamstrung by the lack of investment.
These designs offer great promise. Regardless of which team is selected, we hope that the Governor and Mayor will follow through on the commitments made in 2003 and see the promise realized starting now.
As required by GIPEC's RFP, all of the proposals could create the park-like character for the Island at the heart of the Alliance's agenda and the park and public space guidelines we published last year. From a design perspective, there is much to admire in how all five teams dealt with what should be the driving physical parameters of the Island's public spaces:
• A Harbor orientation;
• A large contiguous (40 acre-plus) waterfront park;
• A continuous and permeable waterfront promenade with active maritime uses;
• An affirmation of the importance of the campus quality of the Island as a whole, with circulation organized around pedestrian pathways that connect the southern Island with the Historic District, and the public spaces and the areas to be leased for redevelopment.
But the Alliance's specific comments this evening are rooted in our concern for getting the Island started, and sooner as opposed to later.
There are three things that the winning team and its vision need to embody to ensure that Island's public spaces truly do drive the Island's rebirth.
• A strong public space framework that enables phasing of park and Island development. We believe that early establishment of a public framework of parks and public space is essential. Phasing is a reality of yearly capital budgets and the need to stage construction. The Island's development agenda will surely evolve over
time. Firmly establishing the network of public spaces will protect the public's interest in the Island, and create the garden on which future programs can grow.
Several of teams made especially strong cases about the need for phasing and public circulation. While REX's explicitness in this regard is right-on, their matrix format implies more of an incremental rather than phased approach. WRT and Hargreaves had perhaps the clearest expression of the physical structure needed to meet this need.
• Creation of a compelling destination by providing space for current and prospective programs year round- The Island should be a great canvas for artists, a stage for performers, a sports field for kids, a haven for boaters and birders, and a playground for everybody. We need to include uses that will attract people on a year
round basis. The park space must also accommodate the specific needs of the Harbor School and prospective Island tenants.
We appreciated that the Hargreaves team provided clear space for active sports - a specific City-wide need that is also of concern for the Harbor School and other future educational tenants. Clearly such fields could be accommodated in other schemes going forward. Several of the teams connected the hotel/conference centers with a performance space and provided for lawns or meadows that could be flexibly used for festivals. We also liked the idea of agriculture and nurseries as an early use as
expressed by REX and WRT.
• Make it sustainable financially and ecologically. The Alliance does not subscribe to the notion that the Island must pay for itself; the City and the state have a general responsibility for managing public parkland. Like Central Park, the economic reward for the Island redevelopment should be realized in lower Manhattan and elsewhere. At the same time, we need to design and build public spaces that can be maintained affordably, especially given possible needs to subsidize maintenance of the Island's historic buildings. While exposing the visitors to the harbor's waters must be a driver in the design, we need to be convinced that the more elaborate in-water structures, tidal inlets, and hill forms are reasonable in their management implications.
At the same time, we are strongly supportive of the possibilities for making the Island a model of sustainability. The more practical proposals - such as those presented by WRT and Field Operations - for innovative storm and drinking water management, reuse of building rubble, energy generation, native, wildland plantings, and shoreline
protection are responding to growing global imperative and can actually help reduce maintenance costs. Its location and nature makes Governors Island a candidate to be a public showcase for such practices.
Thank you again for organizing this competition, and focusing all this talent on the
Island.