THE NEW YORK SUN HAS AN ARTICLE TODAY ABOUT THE LOUIS KAHN DESIGNED FDR MEMORIAL PROPOSED FOR THE SOUTHERN TIP OF SOUTHPOINT PARK. THE MEMORIAL IS INTENDED TO BE PLACED AT THE LOWER RIGHT SIDE OF THE ABOVE PICTURE. THE ARTICLE STATES:
Although the institute is nearly $35 million away from its target, the executive director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Four Freedoms Park project, Gina Pollara, said she is confident the money will be raised in time. “It’s going to happen,” she said yesterday, after poring over digital renderings of the memorial in her office near Herald Square. “We’re kind of in a now or never situation.”
THE ARTICLE INCLUDES STATEMENTS FROM RIRA OFFICIALS OPPOSING THE MEMORIAL AT SOUTHPOINT:
The president and CEO of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association, Matthew Katz, said he is concerned that the memorial will cut off views to the east and west. A survey of residents found that most want “the greenest thing possible” in that space, he said.
“The Roosevelts were gods in my house, growing up,” Mr. Katz said. “Whether this is the appropriate memorial is another question.”
The association’s secretary, Sherie Helstien, said that by resisting Kahn’s memorial design, residents are trying to “save the last big community park” in the city. “I think a lot of us are just hoping they don’t get the money,” she said. “We don’t want that thing here.”