Things To Do

Roosevelt Island Tramway - Island station

Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park

Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, designed by architect Louis Kahn in the 1970s but only completed in 2012, takes up the southern tip of the island. It’s a Zen-like space and contemplative memorial to the 32nd president: a long triangular lawn lined with 120 linden trees, culminating with a large bronze bust of FDR and his “four freedoms” engraved into a large slab of granite.

Lighthouse Park

There are fine views of the neo-Gothic Roosevelt Island Lighthouse (1872), a stone spire rising some 50 feet, as you approach on the eastern riverside pathway. The site is enhanced by a haunting installation, Amanda Matthews’ The Girl Puzzle, comprising five giant 7-foot bronze faces and three stainless steel spheres. The piece honors Nellie Bly, a pioneering journalist who went undercover to expose the mistreatment of patients at the nearby asylum in her book Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887).

Roosevelt Island Walkway

Panorama Room

Ascend for drinks with a view at the Panorama Room rooftop bar, which opens at 5pm. Watch the lights of Manhattan flicker on over a cocktail or two from inside the glassy space or out on the terrace. You can also eat at the hotel’s hip all-day restaurant, Anything at All, down in the lobby.