Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park |
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View from the park toward Lower Manhattan
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| Type | State park |
| Location | Roosevelt Island, Manhattan, NY |
| Area | 4 acres (1.6 ha) |
| Created | October 17, 2012 |
| Owned by | New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation |
| Operated by | Four Freedoms Park Conservancy |
| Status | Open all year |
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park is a special memorial park that covers about 4 acres. It honors Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a president of the United States. The park celebrates the idea of "Four Freedoms" that he talked about in a famous speech in 1941.
You can find this park in New York City, at the very southern tip of Roosevelt Island. This island is located in the East River, between Manhattan and Queens. The park is right next to the old Smallpox Hospital.
A famous architect named Louis Kahn first designed the park in 1974. However, it took a long time to gather enough money. Construction finally started in 2010, and the park was finished in 2012.
Contents
Why Was This Park Built?
President Roosevelt gave his important "Four Freedoms" speech to the United States Congress in 1941. In this speech, he talked about four basic human rights that everyone in the world should have:
- Freedom of speech and expression
- Freedom of worship
- Freedom from want (meaning people should have enough to live)
- Freedom from fear
This speech has inspired many other memorials and artworks. For example, there's a "Four Freedoms Monument" in Florida and a "Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial" in Washington, D.C. The famous artist Norman Rockwell also created a series of paintings called Four Freedoms based on the speech.
How the Park Idea Started
In 1973, Roosevelt Island was named to honor the former president. At that time, planners decided they wanted to build a memorial for him at the island's southern end.
Years later, in 2005, a former U.N. ambassador named William vanden Heuvel started a big effort to get the park built. He wanted it to follow Louis Kahn's original designs. He helped raise more than $50 million from private groups and public funds. The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute also worked hard to keep the project going over time.
Building and Opening the Park
Louis Kahn was asked to design the memorial in 1972. The Four Freedoms Park became one of Kahn's very last projects. He was actually carrying the finished designs with him when he passed away in 1974 in New York City.
After Kahn's death, other architects, Mitchell |Giurgola Architects, continued his work. They made sure to stick to Kahn's original ideas for the park.
An art show at Cooper Union in 2005 helped bring more attention to the project and move it forward. Construction officially began in 2010.
The park was officially opened in a special ceremony on October 17, 2012. Many important people attended, including former President Bill Clinton, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Relatives of President Roosevelt were also there.
Governor Cuomo said that New York became a place where new ideas for democracy were tested. He praised William vanden Heuvel for his strong determination. Former President Clinton pointed out the park's location near the U.N. headquarters. He said that Roosevelt helped create the United Nations more than anyone else.
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park officially became a New York State Park when it opened to the public on October 24, 2012.
Park Design and Architecture
In 1973, the architect Louis Kahn explained his idea for the memorial. He said he thought a memorial should be "a room and a garden." He saw the garden as a way to control nature in a personal way. The "room" was the start of architecture, an extension of oneself.
The 4-acre park is located at the very southern tip of Roosevelt Island. If you look south from the park, you can clearly see the headquarters of the United Nations. To the north of the park, you can see the Queensboro Bridge crossing the East River.
As you walk towards the memorial from the north, you pass between two rows of trees. These trees get closer together as you approach the end of the island. This design frames the beautiful views of the New York City skyline and the harbor.
The memorial itself is a series of elegant outdoor spaces. It ends in a large plaza that is about 3,600 square feet. This plaza is surrounded by 28 huge blocks of granite, each weighing 36 tons. In the center of this courtyard, there is a statue of President Roosevelt. This statue was made in 1933 by Jo Davidson.
At the very tip of the island, the monument looks like a simplified Greek temple without a roof. It is made entirely of granite. Parts of Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" speech are carved into the walls of this room-like space. The space is open to the sky above.
The entire memorial is built using Mount Airy Granite, which comes from North Carolina. More than 140,000 cubic feet of this granite was used. To create a contrast with the hard granite, Kahn also included trees in his design. He placed five copper-beech trees at the entrance and 120 little-leaf lindens along the paths leading to the monument.
See also
In Spanish: Parque de las Cuatro Libertades de Franklin D. Roosevelt para niños
