http://www.nypost.com/seven/06212007...ich_calder.htm
APPLE'S ENCHANTED ISLE
PLANS FOR GOVS I ENVISION GRAND PARKS & PLAYFUL PASTIMES
By RICH CALDER
June 21, 2007
They went back to the drawing board, and now some of the world's most prominent landscape architects have come up with dramatic new visions for transforming Governors Island.
The city-state Governors Island Preservation and Education Corp. yesterday unveiled the five final proposals to convert the abandoned former military base into one of the world's greatest open spaces, including up to 87 acres of park space.
The designs, revealed during a public forum at Fashion Institute of Technology, include each team's ideas for a new 25- to 40-acre park on the southern end with incredible views of the Statue of Liberty, a 2.2-mile promenade encircling the island and pocket parks in the historic north end.
The goal: to make Governors Island a world-class destination and help lure future development.
"Building a world-class park is the first step in bringing Governors Island back to life," said GIPEC President Leslie Koch.
Many of the plans are as breathtaking as the island's views of New York Harbor.
A team led by West 8, based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, has a unique plan that includes giving the public free access to 3,000 wooden bikes to ride along a looping pathway. "Our premise is that Governors Island has to be a world park, and we've set up a very organic structure of pathways that intertwine and cross like a butterfly's wing so that bikers and walkers feel like they've occupied the island immediately," said Rob Rogers, of West 8.
The planners WRT and Urban Strategies envision forested ravines, gardens and farms to help visitors feel as if they've discovered "a living, breathing organism" on Governors Island.
Hargreaves Associates and Michael Maltzan Architecture is comparing its plan to a "necklace" in which the buildings are jewels linked to a grand looping promenade with multiple strands that offer separate areas for biking, walking and in-line roller skating.
REX and MDP focus on pushing active recreation - sports fields, beaches, etc. - to the island's perimeter in an attempt to make it more lively, while part of the interior would give New Yorkers a chance to get their hands dirty by digging in public gardens.
And a proposal by Field Operations and Wilkinson Eyre tries to keep it simple by avoiding cluttering activities and focusing on creating grand open space modeled after the mollusks that once flooded the island's shoreline.
Joshua Prince Ramos, a principal with New York-based REX, called the design competition "the only plausible way left to induce private development," considering the island is so isolated because it can only be reached by ferry and water taxi.
GIPEC in November tossed out all the proposals it had received from developers, including one by cable-TV giant Nickelodeon to create a children's theme park. Instead, it shifted focus towards first improving island access, creating the new parkland and finding tenants for the historic buildings on the north end.
Koch said GIPEC wants as much public input as possible before she and the rest of a eight-member jury select a winning team this summer.
GIPEC officials said the designs presented last night represent the architect's current visions but not necessarily their final product.
All the open space in the north end's historic district must preserve the district's character and its historically significant features.