Story Archive

Freedom from Access

At a new New York park, a lawsuit says, “the combined effect of the increased distance, uneven surfaces, and vertical incline makes the monument substantially inaccessible to those with mobility disabilities.” There’s even an area overlooking the East River that visitors can only reach via stairs. That presents a problem for the class action’s named plaintiffs, who — like the man in whose honor the Four Freedoms Park was built, Franklin D. Roosevelt — use wheelchairs. The design for the park, by Louis Kahn, predates the Americans with Disabilities Act, but its construction doesn’t. (AC/New York Times) ...Did Kahn even know FDR used a wheelchair?