Lincoln Center Submits Plans to City

Lincoln Center prepared to submit its redevelopment plan to the city of New York this week, after months of bickering that led to several radical revisions and the resignations of the center’s president and the development project’s head. The powerful performing arts organizations with residencies at Lincoln Center, which include the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Jazz at Lincoln Center, agreed to set aside their differences and submit a very tentative plan in order to move forward with the project.

The city had agreed to fund the redevelopment project to the tune of $240 million over ten years, which would leave the remainder of the $1.2 billion project to be covered by private donations. However, the true cost of the project is still up in the air, as the redevelopment plan that was submitted is by no means final. The hottest disputes concern the fate of the open spaces surrounding Lincoln Center’s arts spaces, with the major battle centering on New York City Opera’s desire for a new home in Damrosch Park and the Metropolitan Opera’s desire for them not to have a new home there.

Most of the plan, however, proposes a comprehensive upgrading of the performance halls to bring them into line with the latest acoustic science and to provide the amenities to which concert-going audiences have become accustomed. The NYPO must cover the biggest chunk of the cost, as it will spend $326 million in an attempt to rectify the acoustic and aesthetic nightmare that is Avery Fisher Hall.

Originally Published November 17, 2001