NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Four Freedoms Park Conservancy (“the Conservancy”) announced today the strategic hiring of two professionals for newly created positions: Suzy Brown, the first Director of Visitor Experience for the Park, and Alexander Mezzatesta, the Park’s first Operations Manager. Both Ms. Brown and Mr. Mezzatesta will be instrumental in managing the Park’s growing visibility and popularity as it enters its first spring and summer season since opening to the public in October 2012.
Ms. Brown oversees the development and creation of the visitor experience at the Park. This includes the hiring of an operations staff, development of policies and procedures, shaping and implementing public programming initiatives such as performances and ceremonial events, and developing the volunteer, docent and retail programs. Mr. Mezzatesta, a long-time employee of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, is the new on-site manager and supervises all aspects of operation and maintenance through the Park Rangers, maintenance personnel, and volunteers.
“Suzy and Alex are both incredibly experienced professionals who share a deep appreciation for the value of parks in people’s lives,” said Sally Minard, President of the Conservancy. “We could not have found two people better prepared to ensure the FDR Four Freedoms Park becomes an enduring and beautiful tribute to President Roosevelt as well as an exciting new destination for New Yorkers and visitors from around the world.”
Ms. Brown has a distinguished career advancing the missions of various non-profit cultural institutions in New York City. Previously, she was responsible for opening and managing operations of the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site and Visitor Center and developing the Memorial’s retail operation. Prior to that, Ms. Brown developed the High Line’s opening season Greeter Program, where she recruited and supervised a 60-person volunteer and docent corps, as well as the High Line Ranger program of 30 paid staff. She was Director of Visitor Services at Wave Hill, a public garden in the Bronx, and managed operations at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in Manhattan.
Ms. Brown said: “I feel deeply honored to have been asked to work for the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy. I immediately fell in love with the space and masterful design elements of the Park, and can’t imagine a more noble mission to advance than that of the Four Freedoms – the basis for the United Nations Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I look forward to making every aspect of visiting this site as enjoyable and educational as possible. I have had the good fortune to work at a number of remarkable public spaces in New York City, and it is a privilege to help oversee this spectacular new addition to our city.”
Mr. Mezzatesta joins the Conservancy from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, where he supervised 113 properties throughout Brooklyn ranging from large regional parks to small roadways and Greenstreets, in addition to managing 88 employees, a fleet of 20 vehicles, 20 comfort stations and scores of volunteers. In this capacity, he coordinated closely with community boards and park conservancies.
“I feel a profound personal attachment to FDR Four Freedoms Park since it was the last design of the late Louis Kahn,” said Mr. Mezzatesta. “My stepfather, an architect, studied under Kahn, and my mother was a curator at the Kahn-designed Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. I am very excited to focus my attention on working with the Four Freedoms Park team to maintain the Park’s unique beauty.”
About the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park is the only memorial dedicated to the former President in his home state of New York. Located on a triangular four-acre plot on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island in the East River in the heart of New York City, the Park includes walkways lined with trees, waterfront promenades, a portrait bust of President Roosevelt created by artist Jo Davidson, and, carved in the ‘Room,’ the Four Freedoms described in Roosevelt’s historic January 6, 1941 State of the Union address: freedom of speech and expression; freedom of worship; freedom from want; and freedom from fear. First envisioned in 1973 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Mayor John Lindsay, and other visionary urban planners, the monument’s design was the last work of the late Louis I. Kahn, an iconic architect of the 20th century. Dedicated on October 17, 2012, the Park is operated in partnership with New York State by the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy. For more information on FDR Four Freedoms Park, please visit: www.fdrfourfreedomspark.org.
