Governors Island - Redevelopment and Future Uses

Redevelopment and Future Uses

In a near last minute act while still in office, President Bill Clinton designated 22 acres of the island, including the two great forts, as the Governors Island National Monument on January 19, 2001. In the next year on April 1, 2002, President George W. Bush, Governor Pataki, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the federal government would sell Governors Island to the people of New York for a nominal cost, and that the island would be used for public benefit. At the time of the transfer, deed restrictions were created that prohibit permanent housing and casinos on the island. On January 31, 2003, 150 acres of Governors Island were transferred to the people of New York. The remaining 22 acres was legally reaffirmed by presidential proclamation on February 7, 2003 as the Governors Island National Monument, to be administered by the National Park Service.

On February 15, 2006, Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for "visionary ideas to redevelop and preserve Governors Island" to be submitted to Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC). The announcement said proposals should "enhance New York's place as a center of culture, business, education and innovation," include public parkland, contribute to the harbor's vitality and stress "environmentally sustainable development." Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff said whatever group or entity is selected to develop the island would assume the $12 million annual maintenance costs that are now split between the city and state. In early 2007, GIPEC paused in the search for developers, focusing on the development of a major park on the island as called for in the deed that conveyed the island from the federal government to the city and state of New York.

With transportation to and from the island, one idea considered was an aerial gondola system designed by Santiago Calatrava.

In the fall of 2006, GIPEC announced that The Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, a small public high school in Bushwick, Brooklyn, would relocate to Governors Island. The school was the island's first tenant and opened in 2010. Also opening in 2010 will be artist studios, run by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. These studios will open in historic Building 110.

In 2007, GIPEC announced five finalist design teams that were chosen to submit their ideas for the future park and Great Promenade. In December 2007, Governor Eliot Spitzer and Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the acclaimed team, led by West 8 with Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rogers Marvel Architects, would design these new signature open spaces.

In 2009, a 3-acre (12,000 m2) commercial organic farm, operated by the non-profit organization Added Value, was launched.

In 2010, New York University, a private institution, announced a plan to expand its campuses, including building a campus on the Governors Island "complete with dorms and faculty housing."

In April 2010, the city entered an agreement to take full control of the island's development from the State, and unveiled a new master development plan. Under the plan, the historic northern end will remain structurally unchanged, the middle of the island will be developed into a park stretching to the southern tip, areas on the east and west sides of the island will be privately developed to generate revenue, and the entire island will be edged by a circumferential promenade. The 40-acre (160,000 m2) park, designed by Adriaan Geuze of the Dutch landscape architecture firm West 8 will feature playing fields, woodland, and hills built of the rubble of the disused 20th-century buildings sculpted to frame views of the Statue of Liberty and other New York landmarks. The southern end of the park will meet the water in a series of wetlands.

In November 2011, the Center for Urban Real Estate (CURE.) at Columbia University proposed a fanciful idea of using fill to physically connect Manhattan to Governors Island. This proposal would require 23 million cubic yards of landfill and allow for up to 88 million square feet of new development while providing new subway stations and a bridge to Red Hook, Brooklyn.