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On the Boards: Meet­ing with the Gov­er­nors Island Alliance and the Gov­er­nors Island Advi­so­ry Council

Mar 13, 2009 4:08 pm

[cap­tion id=“attachment_1077” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“This image, which was shown to the GIA and the GIAC on Tues­day, shows the kinds of plant­i­ngs being con­sid­ered for the four dra­mat­ic new hills. While spe­cif­ic tree species are not deter­mined in the mas­ter plan, the mas­ter plan describes the strat­e­gy that will guide their selec­tion in future phas­es. ”][/​caption]

This past Tues­day morn­ing, West 8 and GIPEC pre­sent­ed the Gov­er­nors Island Alliance (GIA) and the Gov­er­nors Island Advi­so­ry Coun­cil (GIAC) with an update on the park and pub­lic space mas­ter plan process. The pur­pose of the meet­ing was not only to update the groups, but to get their thoughts on design ques­tions being con­sid­ered by the team. The GIA is a coali­tion of orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als who sup­port the reuse and devel­op­ment of the Island, and the GIAC is com­prised of elect­ed offi­cials and oth­ers who advise GIPEC on cur­rent oper­a­tions and future planning.

The pre­sen­ta­tion pro­voked sev­er­al thought­ful debates about the fea­si­bil­i­ty of cre­at­ing a soft edge water­front, the role that native plants should play in the Island’s plant­i­ng strat­e­gy, and how to find the right home for the Island’s hun­dreds of icon­ic wood­en bicy­cles. Some com­ments were very gen­er­al, such as a request that we con­sid­er cre­at­ing spe­cial habi­tats for wildlife in some of the hills, while oth­ers were very spe­cif­ic, such as a pitch for hav­ing white birch trees, which are espe­cial­ly beau­ti­ful in the winter.

GIPEC and the plan­ning team have tak­en note of these and oth­er con­cerns expressed and are look­ing for­ward to hear­ing more of peo­ple’s thoughts pri­or to the com­ple­tion of the park and pub­lic space mas­ter plan at the end of May. In addi­tion to the week­ly ​“On the Boards” blog series about the design process (where you can always leave a com­ment), Adri­aan Geuze of West 8 will be pre­sent­ing progress on the park and pub­lic space mas­ter plan to the pub­lic on April 24 at the Cen­ter for Archi­tec­ture. Stay tuned for more event details.