I pushed the process forward by saying, 'We should do this, this, and this right now. Please find the budget for me to find a structural engineer, a mechanical engineer, a civil engineer, so we can do the preliminary work.

I hope for the experience of people standing together, turning their backs to the city and facing this, and hearing the leaves rustle. Well, maybe it won't be as bucolic as at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, but I know you will feel removed from the city.

I'm a little more measured. That sense of urgency I thought accompanied things - it can take a little longer. You have to take the long view.

I had a dual role: designer and advocate.

For two years nobody talked about anything other than the name arrangement. There was no fund-raising and no progress being made on construction and design.

How do you design it so that people can form a space of their own, and feel quiet and contemplative?

There are bound to be differences in any artistic collaboration with landscape elements, or theater, of lighting elements.