From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a
16.3-acre (6.6 ha) complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of
New York
City.
Tenant
organizations
Lincoln Center serves as home for 12 arts organizations:
History
and facilities
A consortium of civic leaders and others led by, and under the
initiative of John D. Rockefeller III, built
Lincoln Center as part of the "Lincoln Square Renewal Project"
during Robert
Moses' program of urban renewal in the 1960s. Rockefeller
was its inaugural president from 1956 and became its chairman in
1961. He is credited with raising more than half of the $184.5
million in private funds needed to build the complex, including
drawing on his own funds; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund
also contributed to the project.[1]
The first structure to be completed and occupied as part of this
renewal was the Fordham Law
School of Fordham University in 1962. Located
between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, from West
60th to West 66th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the Lincoln Center complex was the
first gathering of major cultural institutions into a centralized
location in an American city.
Lincoln Center cultural institutions also make use of facilities
located away from the main campus. In 2004 Lincoln Center was
expanded through the addition of Jazz at Lincoln Center's newly
built facilities (Frederick P. Rose Hall) at the
new Time
Warner Center, located a few blocks to the south. In March 2006
Lincoln Center launched construction on a major redevelopment plan
that will modernize, renovate, and open up the Lincoln Center
campus in time for its 50th anniversary celebration in 2009.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. is
one of the 12 resident organization listed above, and serves three
primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader
in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the
Lincoln Center campus. As a presenter of more than 400 events
annually, its programs include American Songbook, Great Performers,
Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer
Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Emmy Award-winning
Live From Lincoln Center.
In July 2006, LCPA announced it will join with publishing
company John Wiley & Sons, Inc. to publish at least 15 books,
which will focus on performing arts, and will draw on Lincoln
Center Institute’s educational background and archives.[2]
In March 2006, and continuing through 2010, Lincoln Center
launched the 65th Street Project--part of a major redevelopment
plan--to create a new pedestrian promenade designed to improve
accessibility and the aesthetics of that area of the campus.
Subsequent projects were added which addressed improvements to the
main plazas and Columbus Avenue Grand Entrance. Diller Scofidio +
Renfro are the designers in association with FX Fowle Architects
and Beyer Blinder Belle Architects. Turner Construction Company and
the RC Dolner Company are the Construction Managers for the
projects. [3][4]
Performance facilities
- Alice Tully Hall: 1,095-seat
concert hall located within the Juilliard School building; home stage
of The Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center.
- Avery Fisher Hall:
2,738-seat symphony hall; home stage of the New
York Philharmonic; formerly Philharmonic Hall
- The Metropolitan
Opera House: 3,900-seat opera house; home stage of the
Metropolitan Opera. This is the
second Metropolitan Opera House; the original one opened in 1883
and was demolished in 1966, the year of the opening of the new
Metropolitan Opera facilities at Lincoln Center.
- David H. Koch Theater:
2,713-seat theater; originally known as the New York State Theater
and constructed to be the home of the New York
City Ballet, now also serves as home to the New York
City Opera. Many Broadway musicals have also been revived
there.
- Vivian Beaumont
Theater: 1,080-seat Broadway-style
theater operated since 1985 as the main stage of Lincoln Center Theater.
Previously occupied by The Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center
(1965-1973) and The New York Shakespeare Festival (1973-1977).
- Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (originally known as
the Forum): intimate 299-seat theater operated by Lincoln Center Theater for its Off-Broadway-style productions. See Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater
at the Internet
off-Broadway Database for a list of productions in the
venue.
- The Walter Reade Theatre: 268-seat movie
theater; used by the Film Society of Lincoln
Center; features a raised dais used for post-screening
filmmaker discussions.
- Jazz at Lincoln Center, while a
part of Lincoln Center, is located separately in the Frederick P.
Rose Hall complex within the Time Warner Center at Columbus
Circle. It consists of the following performance and related
facilities:
- The Allen Room: 508-seat amphitheater with
50-foot (15 m) glass wall overlooking Central Park; part of Jazz
at Lincoln Center's facilities.
- Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola: nightclub-style venue
in the Jazz at Lincoln Center facility; allows jazz to be performed
in its traditional venue.
- Rose Theater: 1,094-seat concert hall designed
for jazz performances.
- Irene Diamond Education Center: rehearsal,
recording, and classroom facility at Jazz at Lincoln Center
Other
associated and local theatres and facilities
- Church of St. Ignatius Loyola: Roman Catholic
Church located on Park Avenue between 83rd and
84th Streets on the Upper East Side; used by Lincoln Center
for its great acoustics and its pipe organ (allowing expanded organ
repertoire, since the Metropolitan Opera House and Alice Tully Hall
are the only Lincoln Center venues with a pipe organ)
- Clark Studio Theater: 120-seat dance theater; part of the
facilities of the Lincoln Center Institute for
the Arts in Education
- Damrosch Park: outdoor amphitheater with bowl-style stage known
as the Guggenheim Band Shell, used for free Lincoln Center Out of
Doors presentations
- Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Rehearsal Studio: rehearsal studio of
The Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center
- The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College: theater at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice; used for the Lincoln Center Festival and
Great Performers series
- Josie Robertson Plaza: central plaza of Lincoln Center
featuring its iconic fountain; the three main buildings
(Metropolitan Opera House, Avery Fisher Hall, and David H. Koch
Theater) face onto this plaza; used as an outdoor venue during
Midsummer Night Swing and Lincoln Center Out of Doors
presentations
- Juilliard
School: facility housing the school of the same name; building
also incorporates Alice Tully Hall, Morse Recital Hall, Paul
Recital Hall, the Juilliard Drama Theater, and the Peter J. Sharp
Theater
- Peter J. Sharp Theater
- Morse Recital Hall: recital hall within the Juilliard
School
- New York Public Library for the
Performing Arts
- Paul Recital Hall: recital hall within the Juilliard
School
- Pope Auditorium: theater located in Leon Lowenstein Hall of Fordham
University's Lincoln Center campus (located across West 62nd
Street from Lincoln Center)
- Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse: nightclub-style venue; used for
intimate concerts, “Meet the Artist” and Great Performers events,
lectures, and other events where a small, intimate space is
preferred; was also used for jazz performances prior to the
construction of the new Jazz at Lincoln Center facilities
Resident
organizations
Lincoln Center houses several cultural companies and
institutions, including:
Architects
Architects who designed buildings at Lincoln Center include:
Historical
events
- April 21, 1955: Lincoln Square designated for urban
renewal.
- June 22, 1956: Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
incorporated.
- May 14, 1959: Ground breaking ceremony with President Dwight D.
Eisenhower.
- September 23, 1962: Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall)
opened. A two-hour live CBS special, Opening Night at Lincoln
Center, preserved the event on videotape.
- April 6, 1964: Lincoln Center Fountain opened.
- April 23, 1964: New York State Theater opened.
- October 14, 1965: Vivian Beaumont Theater and the Forum (now
Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater) opened.
- November 30, 1965: The Library & Museum of the Performing
Arts opened.
- September 16, 1966: The Metropolitan Opera House opened.
- May 22, 1969: Damrosch Park and the Guggenheim Band Shell
opened.
- September 11, 1969: Alice Tully Hall opened.
- October 26, 1969: Juilliard School opened.
- October 19, 1976: Avery Fisher Hall re-opened after renovation
to improve acoustics.
- December 4, 1981: The Big Apple Circus performed at its
winter home in Damrosch Park for the first time. The circus has
performed every winter at Lincoln Center ever since.
- September 7, 1982: New York State Theater re-opened after
renovation to improve acoustics.
- September 2, 1986: Former Jewish Defense League National
Chairman Victor Vancier throws a tear gas
grenade during a performance of Soviet ballet in the Metropolitan Opera
House as a protest against the Soviet practice of not letting its
Jews emigrate to Israel.
- November 19, 1990: The Samuel B. and David Rose Building
opened; houses the Walter Reade Theater, the Stanley H. Kaplan
Penthouse, the Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Rehearsal Studio, the
Clark Studio Theater, and Juilliard School student residences, as
well as office space for a number of the member organizations.
- December 3, 1991: The Walter Reade Theater opened within the
previously completed Samuel B. and David Rose Building.
- July 12, 1997: The Paul Milstein Plaza dedicated.
- October 18, 2004: Jazz at Lincoln Center opened.
- March 2006:
Preliminary construction on the West 65th Street Project
begins
- June 8, 2006: Plans for Lincoln Center to transform the nearby
Harmony Atrium into a public space for the arts open to the public,
neighbors, students, and Lincoln Center patrons are announced.
- June 12, 2006: The Lincoln Center Promenade initiative to
revitalize Lincoln Center's Columbus Avenue frontage and the iconic
Josie Robertson Plaza is unveiled.
- August 20, 2006: Paul Milstein Plaza dismantled as part of 65th
Street Redevelopment project.
See also
Notes
Further
reading
- Young, Edgar B. Lincoln Center: The Building of an
Institution. New York: New York University Press, 1980.
External
links
Coordinates: 40°46′20″N 73°59′00″W / 40.772311°N
73.983403°W / 40.772311;
-73.983403
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