Improvments Schedule to the Centre

Renderings
West 65th Street Project: Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association with FXFOWLE Architects Promenade Project: Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners Harmony Atrium: Tod Williams Billie Tsien, Architects
West 65th Street Project
Designed by the critically acclaimed architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with FXFOWLE Architects, the plan will unite the street with the surrounding cityscape. The design embraces the spirit of the original 1960’s architecture, while incorporating elements of transparency to create a new language celebrating the vitality of the cultural complex today. The West 65th Street design will open up Lincoln Center to encourage the interaction of thousands of visitors and more than 5,000 artists, teachers, and students who work and practice every day in the 81 practice and 80 rehearsal rooms, 13 dance studios, and 13 stages and concert halls that border West 65th Street. The design will create a “Street of the Arts” lined on both sides with new building facades, innovative visitor information systems, dramatic lighting, new indoor and outdoor facilities for dining and refreshments. The Project includes major facility expansion and a new destination restaurant with a public roof lawn on the North Plaza, a spacious new retail shop, and a dramatic new street-level identity for six resident organizations: The Juilliard School, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center Theater, Lincoln Center, Inc., The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the School of American Ballet.
The innovative West 65th Street Project also features an extensive renovation of Alice Tully Hall. One of the most popular venues at Lincoln Center—hosting more than 750 activities a year—the Hall has not undergone a major renovation since its opening in 1969. To address its outdated public amenities and inadequate performer support, Alice Tully Hall is undergoing a major aesthetic and functional transformation to make it a more welcoming destination.
Lincoln Center Promenade
Drawing upon the same design vocabulary and palette of materials being used in Lincoln Center’s inaugural West 65th Street Project—glass, travertine, new landscape features, and integrated information technologies for enhancing the visitor experience—the Promenade Project, is designed to further unite Lincoln Center with the surrounding cityscape. Construction for the Project is being integrated into West 65th Street construction activity.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro have created a plan to rebuild Lincoln Center’s primary entryway along Columbus Avenue, and to upgrade and reenergize the adjacent Josie Robertson Plaza. The new design will reconfigure the vehicular and pedestrian approach to the Plaza from Columbus Avenue by sinking the existing service road that leads up to the Plaza below street level, and by dramatically expanding the current staircase to the Plaza from the street.
Considered by many as the main lobby to the entire campus, Josie Robertson Plaza—the open public space with its central Revson Fountain set into a distinctive patterned pavement designed by Philip Johnson—also will be updated. The Plaza pavement masonry will be totally renovated, and the Fountain will be enhanced with new lighting, improved seating, and technical upgrades.

Transforming Lincoln Center

Lincoln Center is the world’s leading performing arts center, uniting on one campus 12 of the finest performing arts and educational organizations located anywhere. After more than four decades of artistic excellence and service to its community, the nation, and to the world, Lincoln Center is embarking upon a major transformation initiative to fully modernize its concert halls and public spaces, renew its 16-acre urban campus, and reinforce its vitality for decades to come.
Much of Lincoln Center’s infrastructure and many of its notable performance and educational facilities require renovation, and in some cases, considerable expansion. Changes in the needs and interests of the public also inspire a thorough reconsideration of the campus’ original design in the context of current and future programming priorities. These factors became the framework for a campus-wide planning initiative, with the West 65th Street and Promenade Projects—scheduled to be substantially completed for Lincoln Center’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2009-2010.
A related project will be the transformation of the Harmony Atrium, a privately-owned public space between Broadway and Columbus Avenues and West 62nd and 63rd Streets, into a vibrant public community and cultural visitor center offering performances, information, and ticket services.