Up With the Arts, at Lincoln Center

Photo by myself at Lincoln Center, at 63rd Street and Broadway.

Parts of this landmark in the background have been undergoing major redesign, so there are temporary walls and scaffolding everywhere. Many of the performance halls are being updated.

Most notably, Alice Tully Hall has been completely transformed. Once a limestone building matching the other buildings of the Lincoln Center complex, the lobby of Alice Tully Hall is now a modern glass atrium. The resulting space is striking and visually engages the street.

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The streetscape in New York is constantly changing - there is always something coming down and something else going up. Don't get too attached to anything!

Lincoln Center was a huge modern project in its day. City blocks were torn down in the 1960's to make way for a vast urban space dedicated to the arts. It is now home to the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet and the Julliard School of Music.

The original design was modeled on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, where three related buildings surround an open square.

The Lincoln Center redesign has been in the works for years. At one point I'd heard that Frank Gehry had planned to cover the outdoor plaza with an enormous sculptural glass roof. For whatever reason (perhaps structural?) his design never went forward.

Related posts: The Majestic Ansonia, Living in Style on Riverside Drive and The Sky is Falling.