Rooselvelt Island Park receives $10 million

The Alphawood Foundation of Chicago will award a gift of $10 million to help fund construction of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island. The park is a private-public partnership between the state, the city and the private sector. Groundbreaking for the park is scheduled for January. Construction of the park will create 200 jobs for more than two years and deliver an extraordinary new public space in the city. "We are thrilled to help build this park in memory of President Roosevelt whose leadership and investment in people and infrastructure brought us through the Great Depression," said Fred Eychaner, chairman of the Alphawood Foundation. "We are extremely grateful to Mr. Eychaner and the Alphawood Foundation for the generous support," said William J. vanden Heuvel, founder and chair emeritus, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. "Now it's time to build. The park will be a majestic addition to New York's offering of public spaces and an instant N.Y.C. institution. It will be a reminder of what we as New Yorkers stand for and fight for, and want with all our hearts to leave to our children, and they, to theirs." In 1973, governor Rockefeller and New York City mayor Lindsay presided over the dedication ceremony of Roosevelt Island to pay tribute to the great president. Welfare Island, in the center of the East River, was re-named Roosevelt Island and four acres at its southern tip were set aside to build the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park designed by the renowned architect Louis Kahn. The Alphawood Foundation has been funding operating expenses of the project since 2006, which makes it possible for construction to begin in 2010. The $10 million gift, triggered by construction milestones in phase 1, will allow the second of three construction phases to proceed immediately after phase 1 is complete.