Governor's Island

Last weekend I took a ferry to Governor's Island to see the progress being made to turning the former army post into a preservation/park. Being an urban island undergoing environmental change, I immediately began to compare it to Treasure Island in SF. Like Treasure Island, a large portion is man-made out of land fill. Also, both islands played host to military posts. However, the big difference I immediately discovered between the two islands is how each city plans to transform them.

San Francisco is in the middle of environmental clean up of Treasure Island including demolition of most of the military buildings (mainly due to hazardous waste and cheap construction). Currently, most buildings are out in the open and deteriorating, which made for easy documentation. After the clearing and clean up, the city will begin constructing an ideal eco-friendly community with marshes, a farm, buildings constructed out of sustainable materials and a ferry to give residents the choice to go car-less.

From what I have read about Governor's Island, New York has turned most of it into park space with a free ferry ride. There are events hosted there during the summer and it is only open on the weekend during the warm months. Most of the buildings are being preserved as a spot for tourists to see the history of the island. The man-made section is currently fenced off. Part of some of the fenced off buildings are being reconstructed into a school and another cluster of buildings are being used by the fire fighters as a practice space. I am curious to see how this island will become fully redeveloped. There seems to be several groups interested and with it's limited hours of "operation", I am also curious to see how a school is going to function properly when it is completed.

I was disappointed to learn that Governor's Island is only open a limited amount of the week and season. You can only visit it from 11:00am-7:00pm during the summer, which means that the opportunity for interesting photography is very slim. Also, most of the buildings are locked up and roped off. I bypassed a few ropes for the photos you see here. I may contact the parks service to see if I can get into the more restricted areas. I would like to document the interior of the fort before it's turned into a glossy museum.

The planned redevelopment and restrictions for Governor's Island has really given me an idea of the cultural ideology in New York. How the two islands are being handled shows the difference between the histories of the two cities and the ideologies that exist.