By Scott Etkin
Earlier this week, Lincoln Center announced a plan to gather input from the community about how to rethink and, possibly, reconstruct the west side of its campus, which runs along Amsterdam Avenue from 62nd to 65th Streets, in order to make it more accessible and inclusive of its neighbors.
This initiative is part of Lincoln Center’s renewed commitment over the last few years to focus on equity and service to the community, such as by recognizing the people of San Juan Hill, the immigrant population who were displaced when the performing arts complex was constructed in the 1950s.
The main architectural elements of Lincoln Center, such as Josie Robertson Plaza with its iconic fountain, face east and cater to pedestrian access via Broadway. By contrast, the west side of the campus — the three block span along the east side of Amsterdam — is mostly devoid of activity. A wall that’s over ten feet high lines the avenue, punctuated by driveways into parking garages and an entrance to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Over the next six months, Lincoln Center will gather feedback from its neighbors about what would improve this area through interviews, surveys, pop-up events, community events, focus groups and a workshop. Some of the dates for the pop-ups are listed here.
Lincoln Center has partnered in this project with NADAAA, the award-winning architecture firm, and Hester Street, a nonprofit that promotes the voices of people who are normally marginalized in civic decision-making. In particular, Lincoln Center mentioned the need to represent the residents of the New York City Housing Authority campus at Amsterdam Houses, and students from LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts and the six high schools at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Educational Complex.
It’s too early in the process to know what any potential reconstruction could look like, though one goal included in the announcement is to “create an improved performance park to meet artistic and community goals.” The findings from this research phase will be made publicly available.
More information about how to get involved and provide your input can be found here.
I work at Lincoln Center. I don’t see how they can do anything behind the Library or the Met Opera House: Behind that wall is important infrastructure which can’t be moved. This is also true of Damrosch Park but since the wall is lower there, perhaps they can move the equipment elsewhere within the garage.
Perhaps the entire idea is merely to have a more attractive design than the travertine wall (they did this during the pandemic with enormous murals).
I agree, I think a cosmetic makeover would be great. I liked the murals they had during the pandemic. Also flowers in tubs or in the tree beds always are welcoming. White lights on the trees are also a nice touch. The entrance on Amsterdam to the Library of the performing arts could be made much more attractive. Perhaps a sculpture out front. This project calls for more creativity than major construction. I always use the Amsterdam entrance to go to wonderful programs at Bruno Walter. The small lobby there could go from blah to beautiful.
You know better than I, but at the very least, could not a pedestrian entrance , however narrow , be created somewhere along that long stretch of Amsterdam? I think it would make a big difference—and a statement.
There are two pedestrian entrances. One of them is at 64th street which leads to various Lincoln Center constituents and most importantly to the subway and Columbus Avenue. The other is at the juncture between the Met and Damrosch Park and is always kept closed for security reasons (I remember in the 1970s it sometimes used to be open during daylight but was always closed at night).
Lincoln Center has always placed a premium on security. Since 9/11, the 64th street entrance/driveway has had a guard 24/7. If you haven’t noticed, there are cameras guarding the entire stretch of Amsterdam Avenue between 62nd and 65th street. With that in mind, I feel they can’t do more than cosmetic alterations.
Yes, the entrance between the Met and Damrosch Park was closed permanently after the fire at the big Apple Circus, in the early eighties. Before that it was opened during the day and closed at night.
It’s great that they’re at least aware of this problem. Almost the whole stretch around Lincoln Center except the front steps is really hostile to pedestrians. I’m sure an architect and engineering firm could find lots of opportunities to open parts of those walls and build storefronts or something engaging.
I don’t agree. 65th Street had its sidewalks widened in the last major renovation and the steps up to the plaza were tripled in width; the ugly concrete bridge was replaced and the entry along to the lower mezzanine along the Beaumont is much improved. You can’t do much along the sides of the Met and Geffen Hall structurally. 62nd Street has the same problem alongside the Koch Theater, but the rest of the block is attractive and inviting. The problem has always been Amsterdam Avenue, which was constructed that way aesthetically to shut off the campus from that part of the neighborhood.
Unless you have the blueprints you don’t know.
I wonder if that part of the Amsterdam Avenue wall south of the Met is actually a retaining wall that was originally built to level the land in that part of the LC campus? Is there an actual change in elevation? How would that impact any changes?
I respect the desire to make Lincoln Center more inviting to the diverse array of New Yorkers. But is it credible to think that the existence of a wall along Amsterdam is actually a barrier to New Yorkers-of-color? Will the removal of the wall really lead to more diverse audiences?
Instead of using funds to re-do the campus, how about providing consistent free lessons and classes to underserved students?
It’s not a wall keeping the surrounding community away. It’s the programming and the ticket prices,
Very well stated. You could also include the Lincoln Restaurant (pardon me…Ristorante!). It is impossible for families with children to enjoy an affordable trip to one of the Lincoln Center constituents, replete with performance tickets and a meal. Lincoln Center blew an opportunity to build out an affordable refreshment venue, but instead opted to cater (no pun) to the well-heeled. They thumbed their nose at 99% of the New York City population.
I’m a physician and I can’t comfortably afford that restaurant!
Eric,
Right – the decision to build the Lincoln restaurant during the last campus overhaul was mind-boggling.
It is one thing to add a restaurant but another thing to add a super-expensive one .
Plus the cost of construction of Lincoln was massive.
IMO adding Lincoln did send a message.
The consensus at the time was that bringing Lincoln Ristorante to the Plaza was the personal baby of then LC President, Reynold Levy. Clearly, his allegiance was to the moneyed crowd, not to the citizens of New York City. Surprising, given his professional background.
I haven’t noticed any shortage of LaGuardia (especially) and high school students in general enjoying the public areas of LC.
That photo is of the Amsterdam Ave side of Damrosch Park. That’s a city park, not technically part of Lincoln Center, no matter how much Lincoln Center pretends it is.
So what in NYC Parks saying?
The same could be said for Theodore Roosevelt Park where the Museum of Natural History stands. Despite the best efforts of the neighborhood, the museum’s expansion plowed ahead. Money talks. Citizens be damned.
Yes, but in the case of the AMNH there was an acknowledgement of the parks parkness, whereas here we’re presented with a photo of the park wall and told it’s LC.
Not clear to me also that the AMNH didn’t control some of the grounds that people suppose are Theodore Roosevelt Park.
Needs more lighting, more cameras, more security to be more inviting.
They could use that wall for artwork/murals. The way they did the San Juan Hill Mural. They could also add lights there too so the murals are visible during the night. Or have artist take over sections of the wall for a brief time period like the Bowery Mural.
Nothing is impossible. The bottom line is that, as Reagan said to Gorbachev, “Tear down this wall!” The Amsterdam wall must go, and the campus most be open – and welcoming – on that side. Whether that includes actual amenities or simple landscaping and cosmetics still needs to be determined. But it is WAY past time that the Lincoln Center stop being a “gated community” with a foreboding wall facing Amsterdam Avenue.
Oh please. There are giant stone walls lining huge blocks of both Riverside and Central parks, virtually their entire lengths. The wall is not pretty but it certainly doesn’t make LC a gated community.