June 12, 2006
In Lincoln Center's Upgrade, the Main Plaza Gets a Gracious Entrance
By ROBIN POGREBIN
There is no cymbal-crashing flourish — nothing, say, like the soaring glass atrium that Frank Gehry proposed for Lincoln Center's plaza years ago. Nor has the fountain been reconceived as a linear lawn sprinkler on a monumental scale, although the architects in charge, Diller Scofidio & Renfro, considered the possibility.
In planning an upgrade of Lincoln Center's Columbus Avenue entrance and Josie Robertson Plaza, an entry point for the Metropolitan Opera House, the New York State Theater and Avery Fisher Hall, the constituent groups on campus were loud and clear: Don't mess with the 42-year-old fountain.
And while architects typically like to make bold design moves to leave their stamp on a project, Diller Scofidio & Renfro came to agree that it was best not to fix what wasn't broken.
"It's the most successful part of the campus," Elizabeth Diller, the lead architect on the project, said of the 1960's plaza, which — apart from its functional role — has entered the public consciousness as a symbol of New York. The conceptual designs for what Lincoln Center bills as "the Promenade Project" are to be unveiled today at a news conference attended by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. In addition to a slightly modified fountain, the designs call for a new grand staircase stretching over an underground drop-off point for cars. Currently people heading to a Lincoln Center performance from the east side of Broadway must cross 11 lanes of traffic just to reach the sidewalk, then ascend a short staircase and traverse two lanes of cars dropping people off. Taxis must stop for crossing pedestrians, creating a line of cars and congestion at curtain time.
"To us this was really the evil protagonist of the project," Ms. Diller said. "Not only is there no gracious way to enter, but you're assaulted by traffic lanes and then bump into the Jersey barriers," or concrete security rails.
About 40 percent of the traffic headed to performances comes from the existing roadway in front of the plaza, with 20 percent more at the Columbus Avenue curb and the rest at Lincoln Center's other access points. The new design aims to make drop-off and pickup traffic more evenly distributed.
In what is perhaps the most striking structural change, the new submerged roadway will dip to Lincoln Center's existing concourse level. A staircase will now extend over that area. From the underground concourse, visitors can take an elevator or escalator up to the plaza, or use concourse-level entrances to the three main performance sites.
The staircase above will grow from 13 feet to 40 feet. The steps have been made broader and less steep for a more gradual climb. And the staircase is flanked by ramps for the disabled topped by thin glass canopies, each one leading to the arcades of Avery Fisher and the State Theater.
Within each step, scrolling L.E.D. lights behind translucent glass will announce events at Lincoln Center. Ms. Diller called it "a kind of electronic welcome mat, that gives you the general marquee information about what's playing."
The upgrade is the second phase of an ambitious redevelopment project at Lincoln Center. For the first phase — a $650 million overhaul of West 65 Street that is already under way — Lincoln Center plans to announce today that it has raised $339 million, or 75 percent, of its $459 million share of the project ($50 million of which will go toward endowment). The constituent groups involved in the 65th Street project paid for the rest.
In collaboration with FXFowle Architects, Diller, Scofidio & Renfro also handled the 65th Street redesign, which includes an upgraded streetscape and a refurbished Alice Tully Hall, Juilliard School and Film Society.
"It's been 50 years," Ms. Diller said. "There are areas that need tweaking, areas that have entirely changed, areas they didn't get right in the first place. There are legends here, and there are ghosts in the air. As we go through every part of the site, we're really thinking through its own history."
In addressing the entrance and plaza — Lincoln Center's so-called south campus — the architects had a mandate to lighten the aesthetic of Lincoln Center, making it feel less like a hulking bastion of classical music and dance and more like an accessible contemporary arts center where people will come to relax and enjoy the scene even when they are not attending performances.
"One of the urbanistic problems of Lincoln Center is the campus is really divorced from the city, kind of a Acropolian structure — white — that sets itself off from the street," Ms. Diller said. "We wanted to make it transparent, make it float, open up as many surfaces as possible."
The architects tried to honor the center's original weighty aesthetic even as they updated it. "We're trying to riff off of some of this 60's stuff, even though these buildings were of questionable architectural merit," Ms. Diller said. "It's a particular mode of monumental Modernism that at this point, looking back, is pretty interesting."
Asked if she was disappointed that she was not doing something more dramatic with Lincoln Center's most visible real estate, Ms. Diller said, "It's a big balancing act," adding, "We're doing some very large gestures in other parts of the campus."
It was clear to all concerned that the entrance and plaza needed work. Aside from the traffic problems, there was the question of clutter — makeshift stages for plaza events like Midsummer Night Swing, temporary bars, security barriers, garbage cans. "It's kind of ad hoc blight," Ms. Diller said. "What we'd like to do is consolidate all the junk."
The Promenade Project also includes a complete repaving of the plaza and new grassy areas on either side of the staircase. Redoing the south campus is expected to cost about $160 million, said Frank A. Bennack Jr., Lincoln Center's chairman. The West 65th Street project has drawn more than $22 million in financing from federal agencies, $30 million from New York State and up to $90 million from the city. Private contributions so far total $197 million, including 19 gifts of $5 million or more. Of those, nine were $10 million or more.
Mr. Bennack said debate among Lincoln Center's constituents was robust but amicable. The fountain was initially a sticking point, he said, with some resisting the architects' suggestion that it be shifted off center and digitized, reconceived as a sprinkler, pulsing from one side to another or used to create a tranquil outdoor space, with four walls of water.
"I began to see how absolutely sentimental this thing was, caught up in the iconography of this place," Ms. Diller said. "If you pull it out, you're thwarting the identity of Lincoln Center."
The conceptual designs were ultimately approved in March. The architects kept the fountain where it was, but streamlined its design. As before, the rim is made of black stone and remains six feet wide. But rather than sitting on a heavy base, it will be suspended from three different points in a tension ring structure and will appear to float, with water cascading behind it and pooling underneath.
To the eye it will not look so very different. "It's something everyone has a sense of affection about," said Reynold Levy, Lincoln Center's president. "Meet me at the fountain."
