Ever since Mayor Michael H. Bloomberg purchased Governors Island from the Coast Guard for the historic sum of a dollar (Manhattan cost Peter Minuit 25 times as much almost 400 years ago!), I’ve been enchanted by the possibilities of what will become of this magnificent, un-urban, 172-acre island in New York Harbor. Over the last few years it has been evolving as a weekend destination particularly appealing to people on bikes, with free ferry service from both Manhattan and Brooklyn. Art installations abound, with a major retrospective of Mark de Suvero’s massive sculptures last summer.

As work on the Master Plan continues, unofficial versions of what the island might become periodically emerge. Here’s the latest, courtesy Urban Omnibus, in which this peaceful, almost-too-good-to-be-true escape hatch becomes New York City’s Sixth Borough. Rendering above: The Future History of New York City | View of Manhattan Looking South | Muchan Park, Luc Wilson, Leigh D’ambra and Scott Hayner, courtesy Urban Omnibus.

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