Join FRIENDS and John Arbuckle (Assoc. AIA, President of DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State) for a walking tour exploring the rich layers of modern and contemporary architecture on Roosevelt Island. This tour will begin with Nelson Rockefeller’s ambitious efforts to redevelop the island, previously occupied by institutions such as the New York City Lunatic Asylum serving the city’s sick and destitute, into a mixed-income “new town in town” following a master plan prepared in 1969 by Philip Johnson and John Burgee. While the master plan was only partially completed due to the fiscal crisis of 1975, buildings were built designed by leading Modern architects of the day: John Johansen, Josep Lluís Sert and Kallman & McKinnell. Four decades later, Cornell Tech, a new graduate campus of Cornell University, opened in 2017 on a site previously occupied by Goldwater Hospital, and earlier by a penitentiary. Prominent contemporary architects including Pritzker Prize recipient Thom Mayne of Morphosis, Snøhetta, Weiss Manfredi, and Handel Architects have combined bold design with energy efficiency to house the new institution. At the island’s southern tip, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Four Freedoms Memorial, designed by the eminent architect Lou Kahn in 1973, was derailed by the fiscal crisis but finally realized in 2012, very true to Kahn’s original design intent.

*John Arbuckle, Assoc. AIA, is President of DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State, a local chapter of an international organization dedicated to preserving Modern architecture. He guides architectural tours for the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter, the Municipal Art Society and private clients.