Hasta La Ideas

These new shots by photographer Ty Cole document the scene at Louis Kahn’s Four Freedoms Park in New York, which opened to the public in autumn 2012 almost 40 years after it was designed (+ slideshow).

American architect Louis Kahn was appointed to design the park in 1973 to commemorate the life and work of President Roosevelt, whose seminal Four Freedoms speech in 1941 called for freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

Stretching out across the East River at the southernmost tip of Welfare Island, the park was envisioned as a triangular plain that directs a forced perspective towards a statue of the then president.

The architect died shortly after completing the design and funding issues prevented construction for another 38 years, during which time the island was renamed Roosevelt Island. In 2010, as part of the mayor’s plans to develop the area into a new residential community, Kahn’s plans were put back into action.

The completed park opened to the public on 24 October 2012, with a bronze bust of Roosevelt created by artist Jo Davidson as its focal point.

A granite terrace sits beyond the artwork, creating a contemplative space that Kahn referred to as “The Room”.

Five copper beech trees mark the entrance to the park, while two rows of linden trees line the edge of the triangular central lawn.

Louis Kahn is revered as one the greatest architects of the twentieth century. Four Freedoms Park is his final work, but his best-known designs include the Phillips Exeter Academy Library in New Hampshire and the Kimbell Art Museum in Texas.

In 2008 we featured new photographs of Kahn’s 1961 project Esherick House, which was just about to be sold at auction.

See more photography by Ty Cole on his website.

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by Louis Kahn appeared first on Dezeen.