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Four Freedoms Park and Modern Memorial Design

2012-11-05T17:47:00-05:00

The creation of a public monument is a fraught business these days. That the pristine work of an architect nearly 40 years dead should rise intact, in today’s contentious political, legal and aesthetic climate, is a wonder. And how timely it is that the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt should be honored in such eloquent fashion at a moment when powerful political forces in this country seek to dismantle it.

Why is the design of memorials so fraught? Belmont Freeman reviews the design and politics of diverse memorials to American presidents, with a focus on Four Freedoms Park in New York City, the memorial to Franklin Roosevelt designed by Louis Kahn that opened last month.

Louis Kahn’s Memorial to FDR opens on Oct. 24

2012-10-12T16:10:00-04:00

Kahn drew up the design in 1973, rendering it with soft charcoal on yellow tracing paper. He had readied it for construction in 1974, but New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, a prime mover of the project, became vice president to Gerald Ford and got distracted by mightier demands... Then Kahn died of a heart attack in a public bathroom in New York’s Pennsylvania Station at age 73.

An early look at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park

2012-05-18T20:17:00-04:00

Archinect Editorial Contributor Aaron Plewke recently visited the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, which opens officially Fall 2012. Designed by Louis I. Kahn the park is on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island, New York City. Check out more photo's via his Flickr stream.