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Lincoln Center Nixes Plans for a $500M Renovation of Geffen Hall

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On Tuesday, the new leaders of the Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic decided to scrap a $500 million renovation of one of the biggest cultural projects in the country, the David Geffen Hall and were seeking simpler ways to improve the theater that was built in 1962, according to a NYT report. This is a major setback for a project has consumed nearly 20 years of work for the center and the Philharmonic.

The latest plan attempted to preserve the shell of the building and to build a new concert hall around it. It was jumpstarted in 2015 with a $100 million gift from the entertainment mogul, David Geffen. This reversal is one of the several recent delayed, scrapped, or rethought major New York cultural projects.

Examples include the Metropolitan Museum of Art pushing back plans to build a new $600 million contemporary wing earlier this year, and the billionaire Barry Diller abandoned his plan his plan to build a $250 million performance center on a man-made island located in the Hudson River last month. The Geffen Hall project had holes in it from the start. Questions such as who would pay for it and how the Philharmonic would survive during construction. Debora Spar, the new president of Lincoln Center, and Deborah Borda, the new president and chief executive of the Philharmonic said in a joint interview that “There was a general sense that the project had just gotten too complicated.”

Ms. Spar gave examples of construction requiring considerable underground evacuation, work on the building’s foundation, and reconfigurations of its plumbing and other systems. Ms. Borda explained that the turning point came when the construction and design team informed them that the work would drag into the third Philharmonic season, which posed a real danger to the orchestra. Ms. Spar insured that Mr. Geffen was on board with the decision to change directions.

The new approach is designed to be less monumental and more incremental. The cost, time frame, design time, or a specific set of proposals are all yet to be determined, but Ms. Spar and Ms. Borda said they envisioned that they could substantially reconfigure the auditorium with work that would be split into phases. The Philharmonic has been expressing an “urgent need” to renovate the hall since 1999. It has tried getting the architect Norman Foster to redesign it, which went nowhere and to abandon the Lincoln Center and return to Carnegie Hall. It has struggled for years on what it could handle, what it could afford, and what it wants.

The project seemed to be getting back on track in recent years, with Geffen’s donations, but suddenly both organizations lost their leaders. Jed Bernstein, former president of the Lincoln Center, was forced to leave his post after failing to disclose his relationship with a staff member.

Earlier this year, Matthew VanBesien also resigned from his position of president of the Philharmonic. With lack of leadership, the responsibility of the project fell largely to Katherine Farley, the chairwoman of the Lincoln Center. Farley helped secure Geffen’s gift and with her experience in the real estate industry attempted to guide the process. Ms. Spar and Ms. Borda were both chosen for their new roles due to their experience with capital projects.

Hanging over the project were questions on how much money the city would contribute. Former mayors, Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg have made large capital investments in the city’s major cultural institutions. However, Mayor Bill de Blasio has focused more on contributing to smaller institutions. Officials at the Lincoln Center say they have not yet discussed financial support from the city. The hall has been criticized for its acoustics, but an even bigger problem for it is the lack of intimacy according to many musicians who have played there. Both are issues the new plan attempts to address.

By: Shlomie Katash

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