Governors Island, the second park of Manhattan

‘World Park Governors Island, the Un-Central Park’

West 8 wins prestigious international design competition.

On December 19th 2007, the design team led by West 8 was unanimously chosen as the winning team of the international design competition for Governors Island. This announcement was made by mayor Bloomberg of the City of New York and governor Spitzer of the State of New York.

West 8 will therefore be appointed to develop a masterplan and detailed design for Governors Island to be transformed into a new park for New York, the second park of Manhattan, in a way –being located in the bay in front of the City- now becoming the ‘un-Central Park’. Governors Island, partly owned by the State of New York and partly by the City of New York, as history takes its course, was once discovered by a Dutch explorer.

The competition was held in the spring of 2007, organized by GIPEC (Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation).

After a shortlisting process, design proposals were made by:

• WRT/Urban Strategies (Philadelphia)
• Hargreaves Associates/ Michael Maltazan (New York)
• REX/Michel Desvigne (New York/Parijs)
• Field Operations/WilkinsonEyre(Philadelphia/London)
• West 8 (Rotterdam)

The winning team of West 8, led by Adriaan Geuze and Jerry van Eyck, also consisted of: Rogers Marvel Architects (New York) and Diller Scofidio & Renfro (New York).