Governors Island: Inspiring Transformation in Multiple Ways
Jul 23, 2015 1:00 pm
Two great articles caught our attention this week, each highlighting an example of how Governors Island has become a model for cities around the world, especially for being radically welcoming to arts and culture and for resiliency planning.
In City Plans to Transform Treasure Island with $50 Million for Public Art, we were exited to read how San Francisco’s Treasure Island is entering the exhilarating world of open and inclusive arts and culture that Governors Island helped to establish. Programs like Open HouseGI (OHGI) have helped expand the definition of culture by creating a “free zone” for people to create, do, and observe in a way that is free and publicly accessible. We look forward to seeing how more projects like Treasure Island develop inclusive new art programs to bring new life to forgotten spaces, drive local economies, and add to public life.
Meanwhile, Preparing Cities for Climate Change – Before it’s too Late, describes how Governors Island’s “transformation through topography” has become a benchmark in anticipating sea level rise and surge, and what other cities are doing to address it. From the earliest phases of design, and long before it was a buzzword, West 8’s extraordinary new park and public plan anticipated climate change and considered resiliency. Now, in the wake of recent superstorms and sea-level rise, more cities and countries are thinking about how to shore up their coast lines and riverbeds. We hope they will continue to look to Governors Island for inspiration.