New York Times Features Park and Public Space Master Plan
Apr 13, 2010 4:34 pm
[caption id=“attachment_3041” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“The West 8 team’s design for Governors Island adds a Hammock Grove where visitors can relax in hammocks under the shade”]
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On the front page of the Arts section of today’s New York Times, Nicolai Ouroussoff writes about the Governors Island Park and Public Space Master Plan. Ourossoff walks readers through many aspects of the plan, including the restoration of 33 acres of green spaces in the Historic District, the creation of a 2.2‑mile promenade along the waterfront and the transformation of the southern portion of the island with a new 40-acre park. One of the central features of the Park and Public Space Plan is the reshaped landscape on the Island’s southern end. The West 8 team’s design changes a flat, desolate landscape into one with new hills for playing, exploring and framing views. Ourossoff’s article states, “The movement within the design — the disappearance and reappearance of carefully framed urban views; the shift from a verticality that intentionally echoes the downtown Manhattan skyline to the flatness of the water’s surface — is its single most impressive feature.” 
[/caption]Ourossoff writes, “[The Island’s] wildly original array of parkscapes — including a “hammock grove,” a grottolike shelter, playing fields and marshlands — will give the island the kind of strong identity it currently lacks. When considered with Michael Van Valkenburgh’s Brooklyn Bridge Park, under construction across the harbor in Brooklyn, it represents a shift in the character of the city’s park system as a whole that is as revolutionary as Robert Moses’ early public works projects or Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s Central Park.”You can see the entire plan yourself and post your thoughts on the West 8 team’s design at www.govislandpark.com.