developing

Governors Island Globetrotters Turn to the Park Service

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Photo: New Globe Theater


When the short list of potential Governors Island redevelopment plans came out in January, it didn’t include a proposal for a postmodern Globe Theater. But that hasn’t stopped project founder Barbara Romer and her supporters from pushing on with the idea. Romer mustered dozens of supporters — including Municipal Art Society majordomo Frank Sanchis — to a National Park Service “listening session” at downtown’s Federal Hall rotunda last night, where she pushed for a Norman Foster–designed glass-sheathed Globe in the harbor’s Castle Williams, where a museum now stands. The event was organized to collect bold ideas for ten nationwide projects the Park Service will fund in the next decade, and, since Parks controls the fort Romer has her eye on, she’s now lobbying to get her project named one of those ten. “The adaptive, culturally used forts are the ones people really visit,” she said at the session. “The service will choose projects by May 31, and I think it would be really exciting for New York to be on the list.” An added bonus: At least according to the rendering Romer displayed, the project would ensure large, pretty snowflakes for lower Manhattan each winter. Which would be much nicer than last week’s slush. —Alec Appelbaum

Governors Island Globetrotters Turn to the Park Service