David Geffen Hall Opens at Lincoln Center, Two Years Ahead of Schedule

John Hill
10. 10月 2022
Wu Tsai Theater inside David Geffen Hall (All photographs by John Hill/World-Architects unless noted otherwise)

Since it opened in 1962 as the first piece of the ambitious and controversial Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Philharmonic Hall was plagued by acoustics that could best be described as subpar. It was an inauspicious start for a decade-in-the-making project that displaced 20,000 residents, many of them from Puerto Rico, in the making of a cultural acropolis with facilities devoted to ballet, opera, symphonies, and theater.

The poor acoustics of Philharmonic Hall led to numerous renovations to the concert hall inside the building designed by Max Abramovitz. The first major one was carried out by Philip Johnson and completed in 1976, when the building was renamed Avery Fisher Hall. Minor tweaks followed but nothing helped bring the hall up to the level of great halls around the world, including the nearby Carnegie Hall that was home of the Philharmonic before the construction of Lincoln Center.

Historic photography of the then-Philharmonic Hall in 1964. (Photo courtesy of the New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon Levy Digital Archives)

In 2003, Lincoln Center and the Philharmonic, respectively landlord and tenant, explored tearing down the original building and replacing it with a competition-winning design by Norman Foster. Deemed too expensive and too time-consuming, the two players opted to carry out more minor tweaks instead — none doing the job of undoing the hall's problems. Then a $100 million donation by David Geffen in 2015 arrived as something of a godsend. That same year Heatherwick Studio and Diamond Schmitt Architects were hired to redesign the newly renamed David Geffen Hall, but their proposal came in costing double the anticipated $500 million budget, so the project was cancelled in 2017

With the reset button pushed once again, but also having learned from numerous false starts, Lincoln Center and the Philharmonic pared down the project to a gut renovation of the theater and improvements to the lobby and other interior public spaces; the exterior would remain intact and nothing would be added to the top of the building. Diamond Schmitt, working with acoustical designer Akustiks, stayed on as designer of the theater, and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects Partners (TWBTA) were brought in to design the public spaces. Planned to open in March 2024 when it was unveiled at the end of 2019, the timeline moved forward nearly two full years when the pandemic hit and concerts were suspended — one of the few upsides arising from the pandemic in New York City.

Historic photography of the then-Avery Fisher Hall in 1992. (Photo courtesy of the New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon Levy Digital Archives)

With the opening of the newly renovated $550 million David Geffen Hall on Saturday, October 8, the story of Philharmonic Hall came full circle: the Philharmonic debuted a piece composed by Etienne Charles, San Juan Hill: A New York Story, that acknowledges the complicated history of Lincoln Center. Additionally, the north facade of the building features a site-specific artwork by Nina Chanel Abney, San Juan Heal, that pays tribute to the residents displaced more than sixty years ago.

In line with contemporary calls for equity, diversity, and inclusion, the number of accessible spaces in the hall has been increased, even as the total number of seats was reduced (the large size of the hall was deemed an acoustic detriment). The lobby and other public spaces at Geffen Hall have also been improved with considerations toward people with limited mobility, from the car drop-off and movement through the building to the theater itself. The press tour of the building that World-Architects attended mainly moved through the public spaces, so the photos and captions that follow focus primarily on those areas.

David Geffen Hall sits on the northern edge of Josie Robertson Plaza at the heart of Lincoln Center.
The original colonnade, mezzanine, and exterior of the building designed by Max Abramovitz remain intact.
TWBTA inserted an overhead door in one bay of the exterior to better connect the Karen and Richard LeFrak Lobby to the plaza.
The ground floor lobby is open to the public all day without charge, though it also features a welcome center with cafe and a restaurant.
The back wall of the lobby features a large video display that will broadcast performances from the hall as they are happening; seen here is a newly commissioned video, An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time, by Jacolby Satterwhite.
Behind the back wall of the lobby are public gender-neutral bathrooms, entered opposite this long wall with mottled reflections.
Considerations of accessibility are evident in this tactile map produced by Tactile Studio. Note the location of the elevators and escalators at the far left and right as well as the Sidewalk Studio at top-right.
Stairs and one-way escalators (going up before performances and going down when they are over) connect the lobby to the two upper levels.
Blue is the most prominent color in the public spaces, recalling TWBTA's earlier LeFrak Center at Lakeside in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.
Blue covers the ceilings at the Leon and Norma Hess Grand Promenade outside the hall.
The walls outside the Wu Tsai Theater are covered in a red and blue rose petal design that is carried through to the seats inside.
Approximately 500 seats and the proscenium were removed in the hall in order to create an acoustically superior and more intimate space.
Back downstairs, the Sidewalk Studio occupies a corner of the building that was formerly offices (they are now located on the top floor of the building); it is meant to be a flexible space for rehearsals and performances that people outside can observe.
Looking toward the Sidewalk Studio from Broadway.
Around the corner from the Sidewalk Studio is Nina Chanel Abney's San Juan Heal on the building's north facade.

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