New Life within the Ruins: Roosevelt Island Visitor Center
Historic Preservation Studio
Spring 2013
Belmont Freeman, critic
The students in this Studio 2 each designed a visitor center for the recently opened Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island. The designs for the center, located adjacent to Louis Kahn’s Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, were to incorporate the ruins of the Smallpox Hospital designed by James Renwick in 1856. Therefore the students were challenged in their proposals to create a structure compatible to the historic ruins, while also stabilizing the site and conserving valuable material. The Four Freedoms Park Conservancy is utilizing the designs to gain feedback from the preservation community and as a precedent for future designs engaging landmarked ruins.
Andrea Tonc A/B
Chelsea Brandt C
Jee Eun Ahn D/E
Zaw Lin Myat F