Governors Island Alliance’s new Harbor Map is on it’s way to Govenors Island! GIA has been hard at work this winter figuring out how to make a move-able 30′x30′ scale representation of the New York New Jersey Harbor, and just received this picture of the map being fabricated! The map is composed of 225 foam mats, and will be used this summer by the Governors Island Alliance, National Park Service, and New York Harbor School students to help orient visitors and Island visitors to the natural, cultural, and economic resources of the Harbor. Click here to see more about our harbor ed programs on the island. You can see the new map in action – along with clowns, children’s theatre, and music on Saturday, May 26th, 12:00 to 4:00 PM, at the Governors Island Alliance’s Opening Day Family Festival. The Harbor Map is made possible by the generous support of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, the US Coast Guard and the Hudson River Foundation.
Harbor Map on its Way to Governors Island
Posted in Events
GIA Gala: A Birthday Party for Castle Williams
Join the Governors Island Alliance on June 12th 2012 for our annual gala on Governors Island. This year we will celebrate 200 years of Castle Williams by honoring Colonel John Boulé, the New York District Commander for the US Army Corps of Engineers and West Point Graduate, and the US Army Corps of Engineers for their 200 years of leadership on Governors Island.
This year Castle Williams will celebrate its 200th birthday by reopening to the public after a major renovation. Visitors will be able to enter the former prison cells and gun emplacements in the iconic 1811 Castle and access the Castle’s roof for spectacular views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyline. Designed Colonel Johnathan Williams, Chief Engineer in the Army Corps of Engineers and first Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point – also a nephew of Benjamin Franklin, the Castle protected New York Harbor from naval invasion during the War of 1812. It is the first American-designed military structure and inspired the logo and uniforms of the Army Corps of Engineers. Continue reading
Posted in Events, History, Uncategorized
Governors Island Alliance Family Festival May 26, Noon-4PM
Governors Island Alliance is kicking off another exciting season on the Island with the 8th Opening Weekend Family Festival on Saturday May 26 noon – 4PM. Children and their families will gather in Nolan Park on Governors Island to enjoy music, theater, dance, arts & crafts, face painting, maritime activities and more. There will also be a free bike helmet fitting and give away with NYC DOT! (while supplies last)
Posted in Events
Hard hats rehabbing Soissons ferry dock, night and day
picture from govislandblog.com
picture from govislandblog.com
Reconfiguration of the Island is well underway, in particular key work on infrastructure to update how you come ashore through the Soissons ferry dock. You may not notice the changes when you land, save for the disappearance of the small building on the right as you walk up the ramp. But the hard hats have been out there night and day – yes, in even the bitter cold of winter nighttime – to have the job done when the Island reopens for the season at the end of next month.
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Posted in Online-Offshore, The Island's Future
Harbor School Film Wins EMMY!
Harbor School grad Luis Melendez, now a licensed ferry pilot
A half-hour documentary about the Harbor School has won a 2012 New York EMMY, awarded by the New York branch of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Continue reading
Posted in Events, In The News, Media, Online-Offshore
Volunteer with GIA!
Harbor School interns are helping GIA this summer season and you can too! Corporate volunteer groups come to Governors Island for one day activities such as pre-season clean up, contact us here for more info. Individual volunteers also work with GIA staff and Harbor School Interns all summer through our individual volunteer program, helping at our welcome station, surveying visitors, maintaining plantings in the historic district and more, click here to learn more and sign up! Meet Pelumi and Todtiyana, two of our Harbor School interns who are already helping us get ready for the summer:
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Posted in Events, Online-Offshore
Big Years Ahead: GIA Needs Your Help
While the Island lies quiet for the winter, big changes are afoot. Phase I of the Park and Public Space Master Plan and critical infrastructure improvements GIA has long advocated are about to become a reality with a groundbreaking next spring. GIA has been critical in moving these plans forward, with advocacy and building a constituency for the Island. But it is your support that makes our work possible. Generous contributions from people like you have enabled us to be a voice for the Island.
It has been a great year, but there are better years ahead. It’s up to us to make it happen. Historic buildings need on-going stabilization and long-term tenants. The public programs that draw hundreds of thousands to the Island must be subsidized.
In hard economic times, funding for parks and historic preservation are often first to be cut. Competition for support is fierce.
It is more important than ever that we maintain the momentum that has made Governors Island into a new favorite playground for New York City, and to ensure its boundless potential. Click HERE to make a tax-deductible donation to GIA.
Posted in Online-Offshore
G.I.A. Inc.
The Governors Island Alliance has laid plans to become an independent organization, wholly separate from the Regional Plan Association, which created it and has nurtured it from the beginning.
Technically, the Alliance has been a corporation since 2002, when it launched a flotilla in the harbor to draw attention to the Island, and needed corporate status for insurance coverage against possible mishaps. (There were none.)
This creation of the original three incorporators – Albert Butzel, John Doswell and Rob Pirani – has now been reinvented with a newly reconstituted board of directors, new officers and a plan to break away from the R.P.A. Meanwhile, the two organizations continue to work together, R.P.A. in key roles as the Alliance’s fiscal agent and provider of staff support, not least the services of Rob Pirani as executive director.
Donna Milrod of Deutsche Bank, will still chair the Alliance’s board. There will be an executive committee and an advisory committee that includes representatives of like minded non-profits, such as New Yorkers for Parks, as well as Island partners FIGMENT and the New York Harbor School. Board members will have three-year terms, staggered so that the terms of roughly one-third will expire every year. High on the to-do list is an application to the Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)3 status, to allow fund-raising as a non-profit. Click here for a list of all 27 board members.
Posted in Events, In The News, Online-Offshore
For Old Seawall A New Facelift
The section of the Island’s seawall that takes the most pounding from the often stormy waters of New York harbor was originally a retaining wall, built as a boundary for the Lexington Avenue tunnel debris landfill that doubled the size of the Island. Now rounding out its first century, it’s about to get a economically and ecologically minded facelift.
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Posted in Online-Offshore, The Island's Future