Secret Lives Tour: Modernist Roosevelt Island
Join the Historic Districts Council for an exciting tour of the modernist built Main Street and residential buildings of Roosevelt Island.
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
11:00 AM
Roosevelt Island, the sliver of land that sits between Manhattan and Queens, once home to prisons, asylums and welfare facilities, was redeveloped in the early 1970s as the most ambitious effort of the New York State Urban Development Corporation. The master plan for the island included a “utopian” vision of a car-free island, with a centralized pneumatic garbage collection system, a commercial corridor, public spaces and a waterfront promenade. The civic, residential and commercial architecture of the island, built largely between 1974 and 1977, reflects the modern urban design aesthetics of the period in a concentrated way, not seen elsewhere in the city. Indeed, the architects responsible for this tableau form a veritable “who’s who” of modern design including Phillip Johnson, John Burgee and Josep Lluis Sert. Join Ashok Bhavnani, who with his partner John Johansen, built many of the residential buildings, for an island tour and a secret peak inside Rivercross, one of his well-loved residential buildings.
$35 for Friends of HDC, $45 for general public
If you have any questions, please contact [email protected] or 212-614-9107.
The exact meeting location will be emailed to registrants the week prior to the tour. Space is limited.