While I truly enjoy covering all of the architectural projects that we come across at Stone World, I will admit that there are certain ones that get me particularly enthusiastic — even after more than 20 years here. One of them can be found on pages 110 to 117 of this issue, where we have an in-depth spread on the Four Freedoms Park, a memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York City.
First of all, while Four Freedoms Park was just dedicated this past fall, it was actually conceived in the early 1970s. The architect was legendary Louis I. Kahn, FAIA, and he died just after finishing the drawings for the project, which was slated to be his first in New York City. In addition to Kahn’s death, financial woes by the city government caused the project to be scrapped indefinitely, and so these plans sat untouched for decades.