Groundbreaking for the Four Freedoms Park accessibility makeover finally kicked in after dodging late winter weather delays. Crews are now racing to meet a summer deadline for reopening.
By David Stone
New York State Parks, overseeing construction, vows completing the project by summer, although off to a slow start. Snow and rain delayed work for two weeks.
Four Freedoms Park Conservancy plans kicking off a slate of activities as soon as construction and post COVID reopening rules allow.
With a plan finally close to approval for securing the Smallpox Hospital ruins, a corridor of historic sites is taking shape.
After years of fits and starts, the FDR Hope Memorial in Southpoint got a jump start when RIOC agreed to take responsibility for funding and completion. Coupled with the Four Freedoms Park accessibility makeover, it creates a gateway for visitors.
Once the sculptures are unveiled, the memorial will become a destination in its own right.
On a sunny afternoon, last week, a crew was at work, setting up a foundation for a lift that will ease entry to the meadow for physically challenged visitors.
With accessibility awareness heightened decades after Lewis Kahn designed Four Freedoms Park, the the space evolves into the 21st Century.
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Before the Door Closed
The May 14 RIOC board meeting began with public concern over the steam plant and ended with two votes that revealed more than any report could. Some meetings announce themselves by what is said. This one announced itself by what the room permitted to move and what it stopped before it could breathe.
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