This 70-hectare island is located at the mouth of the East River, near the shores of Manhattan and Brooklyn. There are wonderful views of the city and the Statue of Liberty from there. It now houses the old Nolan Park, a village of summer houses and an abandoned Coast Guard complex of buildings. At the same time, it is quite remote from the city, and you can get there only by a small ferry. The cable car suggested by Calatrava could be a solution to this problem - but this project is hardly feasible.
The federal government sold the island for $ 1 to the City and State of New York to reclaim the land. The only condition was the mandatory absence of residential buildings on the island. The first competition for a Governors Island renovation project was held back in 2005; then, not specific architectural solutions were proposed, but options for using the territory, including: the campus of the City University of New York, the New Globe Theater, several amusement parks and scientific centers. In 2006, the authorities were waiting for more concrete proposals, but private companies were not interested in the prospect of spending their funds for public purposes, in this case, a new park.
This year, five teams of architects and landscape designers were asked to design a 10-16 hectare park for the southern tip of the island, surrounded by a 3 km boulevard, and a new open space solution in its northern part.
Joshua Prince-Ramus' REX workshop together with the French landscape architect Michel Devin presented a project called "The Grid". They proposed to divide the territory of the island into squares with a side of 17 m. All of them will be different: some will be planted with grass or flowers, others will be turned into reservoirs, and others will be paved with stone tiles or cedar wood planks. Between them, without disturbing the general picture, beaches, sports grounds, summer theaters may appear. Later, a museum or research institute will be added to them. The "grid" should become a project with a minimum impact on the environment, in the new park people should not just walk, but master its space.
The Necklace is a project by Hargreaves Associates landscape design studio and architect Michael Maltzan, a former employee of Frank Gehry. They view the quest-defined boulevard as a multi-strand necklace adorned with precious stones. The latter are new buildings: a hotel with a congress center, an ecological station, a swimming pool, flower-like canopies over numerous ferry docks, and a bizarrely curved ceiling over a large amphitheater that turns into a meadow and sports grounds. A special point of the plan is the canopies of solar panels over the footpaths, and "plantations" of wind turbines, which also generate electricity for the island.
The Way was created by Dutch West 8, Rogers Marvel Architects and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. It is a hybrid between landscape design and architecture. The centerpiece there will be "Vertical Landscape", artificial hills at the southern end of the island, inside which will arrange a cafe, funicular, exhibition halls and caves for amateur cavers. The island will draw new canals and paths along which visitors can ride wooden bicycles - there will be 3,000 of them in the park.
Field Operations and Wilkinson Air developed Project Shellfish. The entire southern part of the island will be turned into a kind of shell with a ribbed edge. The authors wanted to preserve the flatness of the landscape, the feeling of openness to the elements - the wind and the sea. Gentle hills and flowering meadows will be used as material. Opposite Brooklyn there will be boat docks, beaches and pools of various types.
Philadelphia workshop WRT, along with Canadian landscape architects Urban Strategies, named their project "The Nest." It consists of intersecting ovals that form a large meadow with a playing field enclosed in it, an embankment mound among the wetlands. All buildings (hotel, spa center) are located along the perimeter of the site, merging with the terrain: they will be covered with “green” turf roofs.
