In 1961 shopping mall pioneer Victor Gruen proposed constructing a platform 22-feet above Roosevelt
In 1961 shopping mall pioneer Victor Gruen proposed constructing a platform 22-feet above Roosevelt Island for a residential community of 70,000 people with schools, stores, public facilities, and housing towers – all connected by air-conditioned malls. The plan, which would have renamed the island then known as Welfare Island, East Island was never realized, partly because of competing proposals to turn the island into a park and because the city was wary of giving such a large tract of land to one developer. East Island was just the first of many proposals that were considered during this period, none of which gained significant political favorability. One far-fetched proposal included digging up bodies in Queens and Brooklyn cemeteries and reburying them on the Island to free up development space in the two Boroughs. Other ideas included linking the island to Midtown via landfill and multiple causeways, funneling the East River and shipping traffic through a narrow canal. (at Roosevelt Island) https://www.instagram.com/p/CbxkzUIunf0/?utm_medium=tumblr -- source link