Preserving Lincoln Center
For more background on preservation at Lincoln Center see the recent article in the New York Times: “When Renovation Meets Redo” and the article in Landmark West!’s newsletter from 2000.
May 18, 2009
Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018
Re: Lincoln Center Redevelopment To The Editor:
With all of the anticipation and fanfare accompanying Lincoln Center’s redevelopment (“Lincoln Center: Mixed Reviews,” May 10; “Lincoln Center Upbeat About Face-Lift,” May 11; “Lincoln Center, New and Improved,” New York Times editorial, May 14), the role of preservation has been a glaring omission in spite of the center’s eligibility for listing on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Conceived, planned and designed by the largest ensemble of leading American planners and architects to have ever collaborated on a single project, Lincoln Center represents the apotheosis of American postwar planning and design just as Rockefeller Center embodies the splendor of the Art Deco movement. The redevelopment organization’s plan to correct many of the center’s ills, ranging from accessibility problems to programmatic deficiencies is timely-and, as many would insist-even long overdue. And yet these improvements should not obscure the fact that Lincoln Center has an awe-inspiring sense of place that warrants preservation and protection as a New York City landmark.
To cite one example, the current reconfiguration and re-design of the center’s North Plaza. Designed by pre-eminent modern landscape architect Dan Kiley with a site-specific sculpture created by Henry Moore, the North Plaza’s composition of landscape and art fronting Eero Saarinen’s magnificent Vivian Beaumont Theater prompted former New York Times architecture critic, Ada Louise Huxtable, to remark that it was “the only honestly contemporary vista in the place…[t]he sole moment that lifts the spirit of those to whom the 20th century is a very exciting time to be alive.” Upon reassessment, former Times architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, concurred, stating that the North Plaza ensemble was “one of the only things in Lincoln Center that has real architectural strength instead of presumed architectural strength.” Yet, in spite of its significance as a cohesive work of art, architecture and landscape design, the North Plaza has been swept up in the redevelopment plan and is being re-tooled as the new Juilliard School quad, complete with bosque, a substantially reduced reflecting pool, and a new café whose design and scale dominate the overall composition. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s reluctance to designate Lincoln Center and deference to the Department of City Planning on all matters of redevelopment (despite its role in the Uniformed Land Use Review Process) suggest that politics have trumped significance. Even the late Beverly Sills proclaimed that Lincoln Center was “an icon in the world.” Yet, as we can see from the current redevelopment under way, even icons are not sacrosanct and, at the very least, deserve the same considerations and protections afforded our City’s most significant resources.
Gregory Dietrich
Gregory Dietrich Preservation Consulting
Primary Author, Lincoln Center National Register Nomination on behalf of Landmark West!