Art: Barbara Bestor Architects What does Governors Island want to be when it grows up? That question has slouched around the place for a couple of decades now, frustrating officials who would like to see the place gainfully employed. All that empty land unbuilt, those stunning views unmonetized, the constant demands for public funds — the island is basically a moocher, and thank goodness.
The Trust’s proposal for a climate center. Art: WXY architecture + urban design/bloomimages And so, in pursuit of a way to preserve the island’s openness and horizontality, I got in touch with four firms whose works I admire for their ingenious fusions of design and nature: Anupama Kundoo from India, Estudio Macías Peredo from Mexico, Barbara Bestor in Los Angeles, and Reiulf Ramstad from Norway. They have built their practices in dramatically different cultures of design and construction.
Álvaro Siza, Boa Nova Tea House, Porto, Portugal; Francis Kéré, Xylem Pavilion, Tippet Rise Art Center, Fishtail, Montana. From left: Photo: View Pictures/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesPhoto: Iwan Baan, Courtesy of Tippet Rise/Iwan Baan/Please contact Iwan Baan before usage Álvaro Siza, Boa Nova Tea House, Porto, Portugal; Francis Kéré, Xylem Pavilion, Tippet Rise Art Center, Fishtail, Montana. From top: Photo: View Pictu...
Anupama Kundoo Art: Anupama Kundoo Kundoo, too, has developed a strategy for “restoring” the island to a primeval state that never actually existed here. She sees Governors Island as an experimental preserve, a platform for studying urban nature, where the rules of postindustrial capitalism are set aside and replaced with a communal spirit of cooperation. “I look at human beings’ time as a resource that we can use rather than something that needs to be saved.
JDavidsonNYC Send the homeless there
JDavidsonNYC Not a film set - should be open to the public for use - the others are nice
JDavidsonNYC Should be re-imagined as an Antifa / BLM occupied zone with no police allowed. Fun fir the whole family!
JDavidsonNYC Put the homeless vagrants there. Or maybe make the unvaccinated live there.