Blog

On the Boards: Deep­en­ing the expe­ri­ence of vast water and big sky

Feb 20, 2009 11:30 am

As build­ings have been demol­ished on the south­ern tip of Gov­er­nors Island, raw open space has been cre­at­ed in the foot­prints of the old struc­tures. We’ve been work­ing with the West 8 design team to imag­ine ways of giv­ing this space char­ac­ter and turn­ing a flat bar­ren area into a great des­ti­na­tion. This trans­for­ma­tion will hap­pen in a num­ber of ways. 

For exam­ple, the tip of the Island is one of the few places in New York City to see a broad hori­zon but today it is a sea of asphalt next to a des­o­late motor pool and old ware­hous­es. The views here out to the water are spec­tac­u­lar, but it’s not an enjoy­able place to spend time. 

We’ve asked the West 8 team for a park design that deep­ens a vis­i­tor’s expe­ri­ence of the vast water and big sky. In response, the design team has been study­ing the Island at all times of day — in the rain, the wind, the sun, and the snow. They’ve walked the water’s edge over and over and got­ten to know the spe­cif­ic moods and qual­i­ties of the site — like the aspects of shift­ing light, the sen­sa­tions of the waves and chang­ing tides, and the smells and sounds of var­i­ous spots along the water’s edge. Their research is inform­ing each design deci­sion big and small — every­thing from where to place the walk­ing paths in rela­tion­ship to the water, to what types of trees to plant and where for shade, to the design of seat­ing for boat-watch­ing and peo­ple watch­ing, to the com­fort of a guardrail for lean­ing against when at the water’s edge. This sum­mer, you’ll be able to walk to the tip of the Island and see for your­self — what exists there now and con­tem­plate what could be there in the future