Roosevelt Island Living Library & Think Park - New York City

Community Organizing, Planning, Conceptual Site & Program Design Cultivating The Human & Ecological Garden
© 2003-04 Bonnie Ora Sherk & Life Frames, Inc.

The Community Living Library Plan, would bring momentous opportunities for the local and global communities, while attracting and involving multiple sectors and ages of people while presenting diverse cultural and ecological expressions. Our Plan to "Cultivate The Human & Ecological Garden" includes the following elements:

Culture
International Performances; Films; Celebrity Events
World Stage with Map of World Hardscape / Softscape
Green Global Center for Civil Society & Comprehensive Sustainable Development / International Media Center
International Cafe / Restaurant With Integrated Cultural & Ecological Expressions
International Nutrition / Agro-Ecology Plots & Greenhouses
International Arts Gallery / Gifts
International Gardens with Digital Communications Linkages
International Boathouse / Workshop (that could function as First Phase Living Library Community Center to house programs to begin building the Park)
Ecology
Native Ecology Under-story & Grasses; Monarch Butterfly Meadow
Native Trees
Wind Turbines
Solar Panels
Education
Interdisciplinary, Hands-On, Standards-Based Curricula for PreK- College;
Life Long Learning Opportunities for Whole Community Incorporating A.L.L. Learning Zones
Communications Technology
Green-Powered Digital Gateways For Live Interactive Broadcast Between Global Sites
Green-Powered Roosevelt Island History / Ecology / Culture Kiosks
International Media Center
Infrastructure
Pathways
Ferry- Water Taxi Landing(s)
Benches; Barbecues; Picnic Tables

The Roosevelt Island Living Library & Think Park Conceptual Community Master Plan for Southpoint was published in the Main Street Wire (the local Roosevelt Island newspaper), on March 20, 2004, with a color centerfold and comments from many local participants involved in the process. The following issue, April 3, 2004, published a Letter To The Editor from Dr. Noel J. Brown, former Regional Director of the UN Environment Programme and President of Friends of the United Nations, supporting the Plan and saying,

“I am very impressed with the Roosevelt Island Living Library and Think Park Master Plan developed by Bonnie Ora Sherk and Life Frames, Inc., for Southpoint, which seems as timely as it is prophetic.

The idea of a “United Nations”was based on President Roosevelt's vision of a postwar world and the need for new mechanisms for cooperation and conflict resolution if the world were to avoid another global catastrophe of the World War II variety. The United Nations Charter itself was based on his Four Freedoms. As such, the UN can be considered as an expression of a U.S. value system.

Next year will be the United Nation's 60th anniversary, and I can't think of a more fitting tribute to the Roosevelt legacy than the Living Library plans for Roosevelt Island, a “Living Legacy, especially as the UN works its way through a very difficult transition, where its very future is at stake. I also envision very creative year-long opportunities and festivities for local and global communities that would include New York's Sister Cities and other places in the world, and mark the anniversary of the UN, while simultaneously launching the long-term proposed Living Library transformations of Southpoint.

As I review the Roosevelt Island Living Library and Think Park plans, I can imagine the following:

 -A World Headquarters for Global Civil Society, which has been one of the most significant developments since the founding of the organization. It could literally become a kind of “We the Peoples Center.”

-Opportunities to link, programmatically and electronically, this Roosevelt Island Living Library with the San Francisco Living Libraries for UN World Environment Day, also in 2005, which is being held in SF, where the UN Charter was signed.

-A World Gathering Place

-A World Stage

-A world-class World Conference Center. The UN is now space-deficient. All its facilities are strained. Besides, its conference facilities are quite dated for this kind of world. We need larger conferee facilities and A Living Library provides an answer.

-Office space for the growing number of nongovernmental organizations, many of which lack places to “hang their hats while in New York.

-The World Gardens & Monarch Butterfly Meadow

-The World Cuisine Center with periodic World Food Festivals

-A World Room which would be accessible to the public and where UN events could be simulcast

-The World Health and Nutrition Agro/Ecology Gardens and Greenhouses

 I can envisage also a water-taxi system which would run continuously and which would provide another link to Manhattan.

I encourage the community of Roosevelt Island, and the City and State, to move forward with this exciting and relevant plan.”

An important element of the ALL proposal is the stabilization and development of the Renwick Ruins as a mixed-use complex, housed in a new green building to include a Global Center for Civil Society & Comprehensive Sustainable Development / International Restaurant / Café with Integrated Agro / Ecology Gardens/ Greenhouses and International Gardens with Green-Powered Digital Gateways linking to diverse parts of the world.

It is our opinion that the greatest amount of indoor space should be developed here, in order to maximize usage by multiple stakeholders and generate maximum income from mixed uses. As such, it would become an extremely interesting local / international magnet and venue, if developed creatively and systemically. This, of course, would help economic and community development of the whole Island.

Another feature to develop is the International Boathouse / Workshop as part of First Phase Development that could function as a Community Center to house ALL programs to begin building the Park. This visibility would also help with the fundraising. The International Boathouse / Workshop could become an exciting place for developing an international working waterfront where the ports of call from around the world could be better understood and celebrated, and international boats built and used.

 It is a significant opportunity for all of us: local, regional, and global communities - and should not be overlooked or left to languish.

Additionally, we continue to envision great opportunities in which different parts of the Island can be linked together, both physically and programmatically, as well as with the larger community, including our diverse Branch Living Library sites.

At this time, funds are needed to implement these concepts, plans, and integrated community programs with the greatest elegance in order to fulfill this grand and important vision and opportunity that will benefit all concerned.

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email:bonnieora@alivinglibrary.org