Octagon Park and the East Channel Esplanades Master Plan and Site Design Octagon Park is the realization of the original Roosevelt Island plan that envisioned a large ecological landscape. Changes in the way open space is programmed and used — from more pastoral pursuits to a more demanding constituent-oriented series of spaces — necessitated a broad-based participatory planning process to determine these uses. This empowering process has facilitated a unique design consensus, which has helped enable timely implementation. The product of this planning process is a park that functions as a series of specific rooms that respond to an evolution of the current culture of recreation. That culture is activity-oriented. Lawn spaces allow for a range of athletic endeavors. Octagon Park is not only a series of sportsfields, it is a place where one can participate in sports activities, and at the same time, enjoy the rich tapestry of a traditionally landscaped park, all with the Manhattan skyline as the backdrop. The landscape serves as a foil and as a common thread, seamlessly weaving these discreet elements together and softening their presence, along over a mile of the East River.