“Talk of renovating or replacing Philharmonic/Avery Fisher/David Geffen Hall has been swirling for years,” writes Justin Davidson in Monday’s (12/2) New York magazine. In a new plan, announced on Monday, “a joint [New York] Philharmonic–Lincoln Center project … the auditorium stays where it is but gets gutted and rebuilt (again). In 2022, the orchestra moves out … from May to November, returns for an abbreviated season in the reconfigured but unfinished hall, and spends most of 2023–24 touring, floating, and sojourning…. The new Geffen reopens in March 2024 [with a new] lobby by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, and Diamond Schmitt’s curvaceous blond-wood auditorium…. [Acoustician] Paul Scarbrough, a principal at the firm Akustiks … dictated the major moves: Cut the number of seats from 2,700 to 2,200, slide the stage nine rows forward, raise the ceiling, lower the floor, and tear out most of the third tier…. Rejuvenating Geffen Hall is a high-cost, high-risk operation, but the reason it’s worth doing is … the people in the cheap seats … music students, kids, retirees, first-time ticket buyers, first-date couples, and hard-core aficionados … who can be turned on by a visceral experience.” The renovation is expected to cost $550 million.
Posted December 3, 2019
In photo: Artist’s rendering of David Geffen Hall after a renovation planned for 2024 completion. Image courtesy of Lincoln Center
