Treasures of New York: Lincoln Center with Patti LuPone

it's a treasure build for the world's greatest performers how is it created and sold to New Yorkers it's being built not just for us of today but for generations to come from the concept to the concepts come with us behind the scenes as architects and artists share never told stories about a secret late-night soundcheck and some wild ideas for reimagining the much-loved fountain the transformation of Lincoln Center one of the world's leading performing arts centers this program is made possible by Rosalind P Walter and the Metropolitan media fund and now from the Tisch wnet studios at Lincoln Center treasures of New York Lincoln Center with Patti LuPone as a little girl growing up in Northport Long Island acting singing and dancing were all I cared about from the time I first took the stage as part of Miss Margaret's dancing studio when I was four so when I saw my first opera herd my first symphony and watched great acting I knew somehow someway I was going to make it to the place it all happened right here at Lincoln Center I auditioned and was admitted to the first class of Julliard drama division and over the years I've performed on every Lincoln Center stage except one I haven't made it to the Metropolitan Opera House yet like a great actor Lincoln Center never rests on its laurels so we're going to take you places and introduce you to people who are instrumental in the transformation of this beautiful landmark so as we say in my business let's take it from the top this is Lincoln Center today 16.3 acres in the midst of Manhattan's busy Upper West Side with its picture postcard central plaza and year-round performances Lincoln Center draws five million visitors a year stretching from 62nd Street on the south to 66th Street on the north and from Amsterdam to Columbus avenues Lincoln Center is the largest Performing Arts Center in the United States from the most famous operas to student recitals from $10 tickets to opening night galas that cost thousands there is something for everyone and every year Lincoln Center presents hundreds of free events it takes a cast of thousands just to keep up appearances here so not surprisingly as Lincoln Center approached its 50th birthday in 2009 an enormous facelift got underway I think of Lincoln Center is one of New York City's jewels and this was a jewel that needed to be repolished and rethought a little bit from the original version of it Katharine Farley now chair of Lincoln Center's Board agreed to head up the Lincoln Center development project in 2006 what had begun a few years earlier as an architectural renovation had become a rethinking of Lincoln Center's role the one thing that I think everyone agreed on from the beginning was that Lincoln Center needed to be more open to the public more user friendly more welcoming to new yorkers as a terrific public space not just as a performance space before Lincoln Center was built New York's performing arts organizations were scattered around the city the Metropolitan Opera is original home was on Broadway between 39th and 40th Street the Philharmonic performed in Carnegie Hall on 57th Street the Juilliard School was uptown on claremont avenue and a hundred and twenty second street and all were looking for new homes so in the 1950s when john d rockefeller the third agreed to lead a campaign to build what would become Lincoln Center he had to do much more than raise the money he and backers of the project had to explain what exactly a Performing Arts Center was because there had never been one anywhere in America to create public support Lincoln Center's leaders made films featuring some of America's most famous performers they called on the New York Philharmonic music director the already legendary Leonard Bernstein I'd like to take advantage of these few minutes break in our rehearsal to talk to you about the new Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center it's being guilt not just for us of today but for generations to come and not just for the people of New York but for all the millions who will visit New York from all over the world Bernstein set the stage for building the Philharmonic a brand new home all of us who are going to be working in this new Hall all of us have just one concern to make it the best that can be built and his music director of the orchestra I have an understandably passionate interest myself in what it's going to be the filmmakers explained why acoustical engineers needed to travel to concert halls around the world with their then state-of-the-art techniques for studying sound they set up a dummy figure with microphones attached to record the performance as a member of the audience would hear it they made recordings upstairs and down with a house full and empty the leading lady of the Metropolitan Opera at the time Risa Stephens introduced viewers to the new project from her old dressing room ever Jonah Stephens thank you Mike Oh secure a number of times we have listened to that call in this old house we will be hearing it much longer Jenny not here do you suppose they'll call us by electronics and the new Opera House I'll have an electronic man running down that card that you house I can't wait neither can I Jenny it's going to be heaven the films were part of a massive public relations campaign that historian an independent curator Thomas melons says helped lay the groundwork for this first-of-its-kind construction of course Lincoln Center is the first Performing Arts Center at least on this scale and it becomes the model not only nationwide but really internationally because it was the first Performing Arts Center people didn't really know what it was they didn't know how to use it they didn't know why it was advantageous to have a Performing Arts Center when New York's premier performing arts organizations agreed to move to Lincoln Center they were asking their audiences to come to what was then a very different and sometimes dangerous Upper West Side of Manhattan Reynold levy is Lincoln Center's president today when Lincoln Center was built um crime was an issue in New York City and so it was built as a kind of moat protected from the city the films not only educated New Yorkers about the need for Lincoln Center they also addressed the protests and criticism the founders faced from moving residents of the old neighborhood to new homes hundreds of slum buildings standing row on row fight they would have to be cleared away somewhere new homes would have to be found for the people who live there the films are very very interesting they talk not only about the architecture but they show social workers going in to help with relocation efforts this is all thought out it's all part of a very well considered effort the plan to clear out the area was masterminded by Robert Moses the politically powerful city official behind many of New York's biggest public projects from Jones Beach to the Cross Bronx Expressway Moses knew how to build support for what was called urban renewal when Robert Moses declared this as being an example of urban blight I don't think that there was a lot of disagreement there was of course the issue of relocation but that there was a sense that this was indeed a blighted area there were a lot of people who protested against the removal of an entire neighborhood to make way for Lincoln Center Paul Goldberger a Pulitzer Prize winning architecture critic for the New York Times and now the architecture critic for The New Yorker magazine says looking back it's clear that the old neighborhood didn't stand much of a chance the power was on the other side in those days so the the objections were minor and in the end you know the project just went through similarly a few years later the World Trade Center there were some objections to tearing down a big chunk of lower Manhattan for this project but the forces the forces promoting the project were a thousand times more powerful than the forces objecting to it with the bulldozers in motion there was still the matter of what the new Cultural Arts Center would look like the met the Philharmonic and the ballet all came complete with their own stars their own boards of directors and their own architects each of the buildings went through a lot of incarnations they were big budget problems there were political issues the most dramatic was certainly the Opera House which was redesigned multiple times and compromised a little more each time actually so the more interesting schemes are the very early ones that didn't get built and this is an early rendering of the Metropolitan Opera House as designed by Wallace Harrison and I think that what we see here is well the signature arches are in place it's a more fanciful design than what we ultimately know as the Metropolitan Opera House I always refer this to this one has good guesses because of the shape of the restaurant that was attached off to the side Judith Johnson is Lincoln Center's corporate archivist because it looks very modern istic it has this balcony that seems to be floating in mid-air it has the stairway that seems to be going to nowhere and it has this some what they had designed to be a restaurant coming as a pod out of the side of the building the sketches and the scrapbooks the archivists maintain tell the story of people who recognized Lincoln Center's place in history from the beginning they even saved publicity featuring hats designed to look like Lincoln Center's buildings so you have the Metropolitan arches you have the ribs in Avery Fisher Hall the public relations campaign to build support for building the campus also brought new attention to the city of New York and to its cultural institutions Lincoln Center is part of a timeline in which there really is a before and an after we think of Lincoln Center is simply part of the cultural richness of New York but before Lincoln Center New York really had a very different was perceived very differently and it was not thought of to nearly the extent that it is now as a cultural capital and Lincoln Center is part of that transformation the New York Philharmonic was the first to perform at Lincoln Center when its new home now called Avery Fisher Hall opened in 1962 the New York City Ballet and New York City operas home the David Koch theater then called the New York State Theatre opened in 1964 and in 1966 the Metropolitan Opera House had its first opening night those three buildings facing the central plaza and fountain how some of the first organizations to sign on to the plans for Lincoln Center but while they are the core of the campus there were others opening right alongside the big three in 1965 the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts opened with one entrance on the far west side of the campus on Amsterdam Avenue and another on the plaza next door to the Opera House the newly formed Repertory Theater Company of Lincoln Center agreed to share the building and staged its first production in 1966 and the campus continued to grow northward across 65th Street my alma mater the Juilliard School moved into a building that also houses Alice Tully Hall in 1969 the Film Society of Lincoln Center has a theater and the School of American Ballet has its studios in the Rose building next door to Julliard which opened in 1990 the newest performing arts organization Jazz at Lincoln Center has a home of its own a few blocks away from the main campus in the Time Warner building on Columbus Circle and on top of all that there is one more organization Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts known more commonly as just Lincoln Center that presents concerts runs educational programs and manages parts of the public spaces and the internal workings of this massive landmark the upkeep is enormous and over the years it wasn't just a matter of making repairs to the aging buildings in the 1950s the idea was to bring people to an island of art and culture an island removed from the streets but as the decades went by and the city changed its managers worried that Lincoln Center seemed not removed but remote but had a reputation as being pretty formidable and varying on the side of intimidating difficult to access and a place you went to when you were going to a performance but otherwise avoided not a destination in and of itself you know as I lived in New York and lived with it and I've lived on the Upper West Side most of my adult life now it became increasingly clear that Lincoln Center kind of stood apart from the neighborhood that the whole idea of isolating culture on this podium was not necessarily in the best interest of the city so in 2006 with the help of hundreds of backers and the city and state of New York Lincoln Center celebrated the ceremonial groundbreaking for a 1.2 billion dollar project leaving Lincoln Center the way it is was kind of would have been a terrible mistake because first it was increasingly inefficient and creaky and awkward architecture critic Paul Goldberger saw a procession of architects and administrators struggle with a problem created in a different era in some ways the problem was exacerbated by Lincoln Center's very success because while Lincoln Center wasn't connected to the neighbor at all in its original design over the years it had nonetheless had such a positive catalytic effect on the Westside that you know by the time we hit the 80s and 90s there was a big bustling very upscale neighborhood all around Lincoln Center goal Burger says the changing face of the neighborhood confronted Lincoln centers managers with a new question and the question really was how to make this place more inviting more connected more successful less a kind of travertine mausoleum to culture and more a part of the ongoing functioning city the tricky part turned out to be getting very independent and strong-willed organizations to agree on what should be changed when I arrived in 2002 I think it's fair to say that the redevelopment of Lincoln Center was at a standstill and more than a few people were angry at one another and there wasn't a consensus on either the content of what was to be done or how to go about doing it it took a few years but eventually there was agreement this would be more than a series of architectural renovations the real change would be to make the campus more open to the public the next task was finding an architect with the vision to tackle the transformation of a landmark the choice was surprising I think Lincoln Center when it finally felt ready to begin rethinking this campus and rethinking the totality of this ended up making a unusual and for a traditional and somewhat conservative cultural institution almost radical choice of the architects you know Diller Scofidio and Renfro led by Elizabeth Diller the firm of Diller Scofidio and Renfro was known at the time more for its art installations than its architecture famously creating things like blur a building a cloud of mist over a platform in a Swiss lake and a series of video screens that greet international travelers arriving at JFK Airport they were not known as people who were particularly practical they were not known as people who were big problem solvers they were almost known more as thinkers and radical thinkers who tended to be often very critical of establishment architecture it was a very brave move and it happened because they made a stellar presentation and they convinced the people who were choosing the architects that they could do a very imaginative job in being respectful of the existing architecture but still changing it in relatively subtle ways so that it was more open and user-friendly to the public the marriage of old and new connecting classical to modern was a challenge for the new architects it's also the key to understanding what drove the original designs Elizabeth Diller and her partner's got the job because they saw that Lincoln Center's future as they proposed it in an animated film was going to have to be built on its glorious past when we initially started Lincoln central we looked at some of the archival photos and and one of the most evocative was when Lincoln Center just opened it was the central plaza it was intermission there were people outside on the promenade level on the three major houses overlooking the fountain and the fountain was filled with people and we wanted to take some of that energy and really fill the whole campus without it takes a view of the plaza entrance before 2010 and then the same view after to realize what changed we made the proper monumental entrance that Lincoln's that are deserved because it was really kind of brutally greedy had entrance that you passed 11 lanes of traffic and then small sidewalk and then a couple of steps on to two more lanes of drop-off traffic and so forth instead of stopping at the curb cars and cabs can now safely drop off passengers one level below the plaza using a submerged roadway and pedestrians enter on the steps or on ramps covered by sweeping glass awnings that reach right down to the street we extended the stair made it truly in the spirit of this monumental architecture but at the same time we softened it we undermined it so it's a very thin bridge and the electronic risers dematerialize the the monumental gesture what that means to visitors is that the steps now sport electronic welcomes in dozens of languages and then there is the fountain from its beginning it was magic so when the new architect proposed moving and redesigning the fountain what they got were fireworks if the directors and boards and and patrons really regard anything as sacred it's that fountain we however thought as the entrance has the major view of Lincoln Center that's a thing that really should be entirely different they offer dozens of ideas from digitizing the whole surface of the plaza so the center of the fountain could be anywhere to a room of water four walls with a bar or cafe in the middle to one of Liz Dillards personal favorites I still love this idea it was a linear fountain that went east-west ended up right at the base of the Metropolitan Opera and it was it made a wall but the wall moved like a sprinkler basically back and forth and so it it was just this kind of animated dynamic but very very different animal all of those ideas and many more went into the graveyard Liz presented lots of alternatives so if anyone in New York is in the market for a film there are many options that Liz Dilla can provide you with the computerized wonder that is today's fountain is something all new that somehow seems exactly the same it's the same diameter is the same width it's even the same material but we sculpted it in a very particular way so that the rim looks like it's floating and then the fountain inside which is entirely replaced and now is computerized with various programs so now the exuberance of Lincoln Center can be expressed by the way the water behaves different times of year different times of day the fountain for me was actually one of the most surprising parts of this renovation because I thought it was one thing that really was okay the way it was and I was puzzled that they were even changing it I thought this was a case of you know if it's not broken don't fix it in fact the new fountains much better it makes the original idea better more what it should have been in the first place it is now technologically such that the fountain can be choreographed water ballet can occur and children's eyes simply glisten as they look at all this new fountain can do the work on the central plaza began in 2008 and took almost two and a half years to complete but the transformation of Lincoln Center actually started in 2006 around the corner to the north on 65th Street the renovation began almost in the reverse order that Lincoln Center had originally been built the North Campus most notably the building shared by the Julliard School and Alice Tully Hall was constructed after the buildings to the south and the tower known as the Rose building didn't open until 1990 stretch please first to be completed were two new studios for the School of American Ballet in the Rose building innovative design means there are now four studios where there had been two giving dancers from the ages of six to eighteen more room to move and grow next up was the Julliard building the phrase that the architects used to describe what they did at the Juilliard School is an architectural striptease and they they took the existing building they added roughly 40,000 square feet so that they created this proud that appears to be sliced away facing Broadway the Juilliard School where musicians actors opera singers and dancers trained and where I spent four years in the drama division shares its space with Alice Tully Hall in a building that stretches from 65th to 66th streets in keeping with the theme of open and accessible Alice Tully Hall now has a soaring glass lobby with a public restaurant replacing its 1960s era front entrance on the corner of 65th and Broadway we broke down all of the hard walls we brought a lot of transparency and a lot of communication between the street and the insides it is communication that goes both ways above the telly lobby a new Julliard school dance studio seems to leap out above Broadway they had the idea that they wanted to expose you know some of the art going on in Juilliard to the larger public and I was all for it Lawrence Rhodes is the artistic director of dance at Julliard there are a few faculty members who don't like being here who actually don't like this sort of obvious world you know just beyond the window but I don't mind at all in fact I think it's important I think it's wonderful to have a sense of life and humanity in the work all the time Juilliard got more rehearsal and performance space in every department but downstairs the architects were worrying the artists and audiences might think the new design for Alice Tully Hall wouldn't measure up Alice Tully Hall was loved by artists for its acoustics and by audiences for unique features like the extra leg room between rows but the question where is Alice Tully Hall was a constant refrain because somehow the original architecture left the building with a very hard to find entrance if you remember the old holly was pretty you know it's like a hidden jewel wuhan and her husband David Finkel are co-artistic directors of the Chamber Music Society they worked hand in hand with the architects they're obligated not only to make a building that looks good and you know people are going to look at it and say that looks good they're very concerned about the experience that people have when they go inside how they feel how they feel moving from one place to another how does the how does the architecture affect people which of course is exactly what we think about when we're practicing our music to enhance the hall the architects created glowing walls that dim as performances begin and just like their predecessors in the 60s they agonized over the acoustics we felt like we had a very good hall acoustically but you could never know until everything is completed so long before opening night architects and artists found a way to test the new Tully there was no stage yet there was no ceiling wasn't treated yet there was it was extremely incomplete and there was some kind of there was some moment when I thought well would it be interesting just to have a little test this called on one night and said hey David why don't you bring your cello down I'm dying to hear what this Hall sounds like in the middle of the night we snuck David in over the cello on his back past the construction security and and we turned on the lights and Luhan was in the audience with us and and David unpacked his cello and he was just in the middle of where the stage was to be and just started playing hmm it is a moment in Lincoln Center history that plays powerfully even on a cell phone recording we heard that sound and it was just it was probably a kind of emotional highlight of of this project was just that moment it was kind of like birth moment you know and actually it makes me tear up just to think about it but it was it was truly wonderful the g-major it just has that forgiveness julius of completion it was a blessing in the hall that's the way i like to think of playing a piece like bargain ii the first thing you play in a hall maybe you should bless it a little bit you know and I think that's what so we did like the music that blessed Alice Tully Hall there is a constant connection to the past in Liz Diller's work you can even see it where the old and the new walls come together this travertine came from the same quarry as the travertine just to the side of it in Italy the same family quarry and we were able to actually extract that travertine from the same part of that quarry so there was a great fat familial lineage here in the material you know maybe that epitomizes our attitude about this whole project that there's a continuity but and it and a total rethinking to truly open up 65th Street to the city the architects immediately tore down the very large bridge that connected the two halves of the campus a bridge that led from the north plaza near the reflecting pool to the Julliard building a new bridge let's light in and beckons new audiences 65th Street was a catastrophe it was a tunnel you wouldn't want to go there you felt like the Port Authority bus terminal practically I mean it was awful so something needed to be done to make that an attractive place again along the street from the small to the monumental every element is meant to be eye-catching what used to be static posters are now glowing info blades filled with movement we've tried to make the graphics and the wayfinding be much more obvious to the public so people can more easily find their way to what they want to see one of the things New Yorkers are finding their way to is the only entirely new structure designed as part of the renovation task with building two things in one space the architects came up with a building that is both a restaurant and a public green space we think of it as a bucolic urbanism so this is a place where you can just go to pasture here you're off the city street you're in the air you've got a great view of the North Plaza and it feels soft to the touch Dilek delights in what is called the illumination lawn which tops the brand new Lincoln restaurant she believes this roof lawn is a way of democratizing the arts it requires maintenance um it requires irrigation but it has a great effect and it doesn't take up more space so that's the great thing about it it's an extra that that you can just enjoy just for sure pleasure the structure containing the restaurant and the lawn above are you know completely new added by Diller Scofidio and Renfro as a way of both enlivening the north plaza and adding a little more energy and activity 260 65th Street at night the glass-walled Lincoln restaurant glimmers alongside the reflecting pool with its Henry Moore's sculptures seemingly floating on the water and underneath the restaurant at street level is another brand new facility that makes novel use of space a state-of-the-art home for the Film Society of Lincoln Center they found this space that were ultimately using on 65th Street underneath what most people think of as the Henry Moore sculpture architect David Rockwell carved out new theaters from part of Lincoln Center's vast underground parking garage and while he's not a part of Liz Dillards firm Rockwell says her plans for the campus played a part in his design so much of what's happened to Lincoln Center is really opening it up on all sides so it's much more porous and I think that now in retrospect when we think about the original Lincoln Center it was a you know an amazing group of buildings an extraordinary collection of cultural pieces but it was slightly futile it was slightly closed off from the city so I think the work Lincoln Center and Diller Scofidio and Renfro have done to make that much more porous on every side was something we were inspired by for the Film Society for 20 years films have screened in the Walter Reed Theatre in the Rose Building one level above 65th Street but with the film society's eclectic mix of independent films showing almost everyday the new theaters will make room for new audiences even the lobby here can be turned into a movie theater what we realized was by excavating down the lobby itself could be something specifically related to the DNA of the film Society so the lobby unlike any other lobby is actually a 80 seat screening room so there's a 16 foot tall garage door that can lift up so it's an extension of the lobby or that garage door can close and that piece of the lobby can be used for director series for shorts during the day so it gives them another programming element to to bring film closer to people rockwell says the interiors of the new theaters reflect the theatricality of Lincoln Center's original halls the walls are perforated metal that we pleaded so it looks like fabrics you have this folded piece that looks like fabric and has Sheen and has a kind of beauty to it we framed both screens with cast glass portals that will be the primary lighting in the screening room and you'll know the movies about to begin because the portal will start to dim so there is a kind of sparkly object although a much more modern sparkly object that will let you know the shows about to begin and the new Film Society construction is not the end of the new additions just above the Film Society Lincoln Center Theater is adding a new facility on top of its existing houses the Clare tau theatre will be the home of Elsie t3 an organization devoted to developing new artists and audiences and like the restaurant and its roof lawn below there will be another green roof here and an outdoor terrace the original theatres the Mitzi new house and Vivian Beaumont were part of Lincoln Center from the beginning priding themselves on the motto good plays popular prices the theaters are a real treasure for actors from all over the world the Beaumont is designated as a Broadway house the only one not in New York's traditional Times Square theater district that means those of us lucky enough to work there are eligible for Tony Awards for me personally stepping onto the stage for the first time at the Vivian Beaumont in 1987 gave me one of my greatest thrills it took 15 years from the time I graduated from Juilliard just across the street until I landed my first role on one of Lincoln Center stages marina Sweeney in anything else but that was only a small part of the story on a day off from anything goes I got married on the stage of the Vivian Beaumont a treasured memory in my family history from its opening night in 1966 the Beaumont theater meant actors now shared Lincoln Center with singers and musicians and dancers and in a move that planners found especially cost-effective the theater agreed to share its building with the branch of the New York Public Library the storefront is Lincoln Center theaters and ours is much smaller in fact it's amusing because I have to say to people you know the one between the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theatre that's the library Jacqueline Davis is executive director of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts after I first arrived here and I was wandering around and not noticing where I was going I was going up the steps and I went to a door and thought I wonder where this goes to and I found myself backstage because you literally can get to to the other building if you will to the other part of the building just by opening a door it was so scary I felt like I was trespassing I thought oh my well the libraries entrance got its own renovation in 2001 the work here is really about preservation a couple of years ago we acquired these scores that belong to Beverly Sills when you go inside this particular one you see that it's Julius Caesar which she performed at New York City Opera in 1966 and this was this is important because this is the rule that skyrocketed her as Cleopatra to great stardom the library treasures include opera scores choreographer Jerome Robbins Diaries are here too his Diaries are well notes but also tickets from everything from Buckingham Palace to various theaters around the world and more notes in between there are nine million items in the library's collections including miles of film and audio recordings precious material for anyone interested in the arts I can just imagine what would be like if you're attempting to make it in the Opera world and coming in here and listening to some of the old greats and being able to do that I mean I could spend my lifetime here and still not be able to see everything it's a it's a magical place with a lawn and a restaurant and even a new grove of trees right outside her door Davis is happy to see the campus becoming accessible even if you're not going to a performance it allows people to come on the campus and be with each other and bringing people together was the original idea of Lincoln Center and if ever it has come to fruition it's because of that renovation at each stage of the renovation the leaders of Lincoln Center looked for ways to invite new visitors they hired architects Billie Tsien and Todd Williams to create the David Rubenstein atrium right across the street from the main campus entrance now there is a new front door for the Arts where there had been a little used public space with a climbing wall our son grew up climbing on the climbing wall which was one aspect of the space the other aspect of the space was that it was poorly ventilated it was dark and it was a place where people came to sleep the location is with the city of New York calls I privately owned public space we were immediately thrilled with the possibility of the project because as I said we lived close to her it's our neighborhood and we wanted to make this bridge to Lincoln Center we want to do make the island less formidable the atrium opened in November of 2009 and was an instant hit free performances draw lines around the block vertical gardens cover the walls discount tickets are on sale and free Wi-Fi and simple food make it a user friendly space we had hoped that it would be a place where people could come to drop their shoulders and feel maybe as if they're in the front porch of Lincoln Center that they were part of nature and so we had the idea of the green wall we had the idea of the fountain we had the idea of a space with a lot of energy but which was also quiet and serene and could be for every person whether you're here to have a glass of champagne before the Opera or whether you're here because you don't have any place else to go you will be received and you will be welcomed in its first 16 months three hundred and seventy-five thousand people visited the atrium more than 20% of them had never been to Lincoln Center I think all the work that's being done is saying you know come to us you don't have to be wealthy you don't have to be white you don't have to be older we're here come to us you don't have to buy a ticket to use the atrium and the same is true for all kinds of new spaces throughout the 16 acres everywhere at every point every gesture is about breaking down the edges between a city and the campus to really trying to make it work like a campus and have it all useful have all parts of it available to the public even the public that doesn't have the wherewithal to buy the tickets for inside the halls the architectural transformation is a reflection of thinking that is changing even in places where the buildings are untouched almost half a century after its opening the Metropolitan Opera House is still revered the greatest singers in the world stand right here typically facing this audience and acoustically it is superb the Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb says the building has never needed a major renovation we met either got very lucky or just the stars were in the right position but this acoustics of this theater which is when the largest opera house in the world has 3800 seats are considered to be a real wonder of in the worldwide opera firmament but the Met too is always embarking on new ways to reach new audiences are part of this hasn't been not from an architectural point perspective but from a delivery of contents so you know the way we've opened the Met up has been by literally bringing our performances outside the Met to a worldwide audience through our live high-definition transmissions into movie theaters everything that we've done here is that we've been attempting to do as follows that architectural philosophy of opening of opening Lincoln Center up in our case we're doing it using our contents and by opening our doors experiencing art is what Lincoln Center is all about everywhere performances are always being polished and performance spaces continually upgraded at Avery Fisher Hall the New York Philharmonic is planning an interior renovation and across the plaza the New York State Theater home to both ballet and opera was refurbished and renamed as part of a project funded by a one hundred million dollar gift from David Koch Lincoln Center not only renovates to keep audiences and artists coming it has also created whole new institutions Jazz at Lincoln Center started out as a series of concerts but in 2004 jazz got a spectacular home of its own at the Time Warner Center a few blocks away from the original campus we think Jazz at Lincoln Center isn't like its owner we call it Lincoln Center South the Harvard Business School is not in Cambridge but it's part of Harvard and Jazz at Lincoln Center is very much a part of Lincoln Center it originated with presentations by Lincoln Center of jazz and of what Marsalis and quickly grew to be the largest jazz organization in the world and the largest jazz educator in the world just a phenomenal development in 15 years just as Jazz at Lincoln Center grew from performances into a world-famous player on the biggest stages you don't have to dig too deep to find that lots of people and not just performers get their start or their inspiration here and we are all proud to come back to contribute to Lincoln centers next chapters architect Liz Diller worked in the library when I was in high school I was working in summers at the library for the performing arts and while I was here I visited the Opera and I actually snuck in a lot I got a lot of made a lot of friends across the campus and and I just got to see a lot of the stuff firsthand and it was it was really a total transformational experience for me pianist Wuhan was still a student when she first saw Lincoln Center I remember when I first arrived in New York I was driven by my piano teacher to have a tour of New York and I remember driving by Lincoln Center and asking my teacher what is that there's one of those beautiful building and campus have a scene and I remember my teacher had a big smile and maybe someday you will play there it's Lincoln Center the opera's general manager Peter Gelb got started at the met I grew up knowing about the matter in fact I was a teenager uh sure here growing up in the Upper West Side when I was 16 17 years old and I remember my first visit to the Metropolitan Opera House the same way architect David Rockwell remembers his watching the magical chandeliers rising and dimming as the performance was about to begin I remember the first time I went to the mat and the chandeliers lifted up I you know almost lost my mind at the theatricality of that in the verticality of the space from the time it opened the artists of Lincoln Center have brought new patrons new audiences and new art to millions of people and the place itself defined what a Performing Arts Center can be some keys as you see I think the arts and culture have always been marks of a great civilization so Lincoln Center plays a very important role in New York in that way it's one of the things that makes New York liveable and a pleasure to live in like Central Park and like a few other of our cultural treasures there are those many many people out there for whom classical music is still something maybe a little bit scary or that they feel they wouldn't understand I think the welcoming presence of our new hall is something that says to people subliminally you know come in you'll feel comfortable here it's an exciting place to go it's kind of a gift to New Yorkers you know and it gestures in every way to open itself up and and I come carry I'm very very proud of what we've done and you're on the bus going down Broadway you have nothing you Europe your activity has nothing to do with getting culture you're not on your way to theater or from a dance class or whatever and you look up out of the bus and you now see these fantastically talented dance suit students doing practicing their ballet moves on the bar culture can become a part of your daily routine and that's I think a really a fundamental contribution of the rethinking of Lincoln Center life can be tough it's filled with lots of perspiration at Lincoln Center we're focused on inspiration and it's it's a thrill to see thousands and thousands of New Yorkers every week and visitors from around the world partake of that inspiration it is an inspiring place for audiences for artists and now for New Yorkers who have new places to stop for lunch or sit under a tree or lounge on a lawn or maybe to dream as I did when I looked out of the windows at Juilliard and wondered what it would be like to perform on any one of those magnificent stages it's still a dream come true to walk across that Plaza maybe you'll stop by and see what treasures Lincoln Center has in store for you this program was made possible by Rosalind P Walter and the Metropolitan media fund you you

Channel: THIRTEEN

Views: 109,681

Keywords: new, york, city, lincoln center, treasures of new york, patti lupone, arts, wnet

Id: xRpLGifRHnI

Length: 54min 13sec (3253 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 06 2012