Lincoln Center Development Project

A construction balletRon Austin, Executive Director of the Lincoln Center Development Project, tells Martin Ashcroft how construction work has to be choreographed in as much detail as the shows, to avoid disrupting productions at the world famous arts complex. ÔÇ£LCDP is not a project,ÔÇØ insists executive director Ron Austin. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs 37 individual projects running concurrently.ÔÇØ Lincoln Center is a complex of buildings on the Upper West Side of New York City, housing twelve of the worldÔÇÖs most renowned arts institutions, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, Metropolitan Opera House, and Lincoln Center Theater.One of the twelve resident organizations is Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA), which manages the Lincoln Center campus as well as presenting shows in the various theaters and playing a major role in arts education and communications.The original buildings are approaching their 50th anniversary next year, and a major redevelopment of the campus is currently under way to modernize its concert halls and public spaces for future generations. The Lincoln Center Development Project (LCDP) was created in January 2001 to coordinate the redevelopment, and Ron Austin has been in post as executive director since last year.ÔÇ£We are providing a massive revitalization of the original work,ÔÇØ he says. ÔÇ£This includes a complete renovation of the Alice Tully Hall, the Juilliard School, the Rose Building (home of the School of American Ballet), the infrastructure, the central mechanical plant, the parking garages, and the Plaza. WeÔÇÖre also adding a new destination restaurant, weÔÇÖre expanding the home of the Film Society, and weÔÇÖre providing new office space for administration.ÔÇØThe total budget for the 37 projects is an estimated $1.2 billion, funded by a strong public/private partnership that is a combination of grants and donations. ÔÇ£The city of New York is contributing $240 million, we have grants from the state of New York and the federal government through the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA), and we have private donors that are the lifeblood of what we do here.ÔÇØ Lincoln Center has also received funding from corporate sponsors and donations.Keeping the various theaters running with minimal disruption during the redevelopment is an exercise of choreography befitting the most perfect ballet. ÔÇ£Peter Flamm, on loan from LCPA to LCDP, leads the efforts of the entire logistics team that works with the constructors and the constituencies to make sure that every move is as coordinated as one of the operas,ÔÇØ says Austin. ÔÇ£Our philosophy is that every night, these groups put on the worldÔÇÖs best shows, so during the day we have to provide the worldÔÇÖs best construction. We have to be as well coordinated and managed as the shows are because thatÔÇÖs what they expectÔÇöthatÔÇÖs the environment they work in.ÔÇØTiming is of the essence in the upgrade of the Josie Robertson Plaza, the primary entryway along Columbus Avenue, which fronts the Metropolitan Opera, Avery Fisher Hall (the home of the New York Philharmonic) and the New York State Theater. The new design will reconfigure the vehicular and pedestrian approach to the Plaza from Columbus Avenue by lowering the existing service road that leads up to the Plaza below street level, and by dramatically expanding the current staircase to the Plaza from the street.The pavement masonry in the Plaza is being totally renovated, and the fountain is having new lighting, improved seating, and technical upgrades, so it is inevitable that access to the facilities will be limited at times. But there are times in the summer when the halls are not in peak use, and careful coordination means the work on those frontages can be concentrated into those times. The complexity of the plan is evident in the sourcing of materials. ÔÇ£We have a significant number of materials coming from all over the world,ÔÇØ says Austin. ÔÇ£Some of our stone is from Namibia, some of it is from India, and some of it is from Canada. The Namibian granite has to be shipped to Italy to be fabricated before it comes here, and we donÔÇÖt want to pay a lot of money for storage, so the coordination of the organizations that provide those stones, cut to the size and the shape that we need, on the timeline that we need it, is in itself a Herculean task.ÔÇØ But if that sounds complicated, itÔÇÖs a walk in the park compared to the complete revamping of the central mechanical plant that cools the entire campus. The original equipment was at the end of its useful service life and needed to be replaced by more efficient equipment, but in order to keep the campus running, each piece had to be removed and replaced without interrupting the overall production ability of the plant, meaning that each new piece of equipment had to be completely installed and commissioned before the old piece could be turned off. ÔÇ£The original plans didnÔÇÖt allow much space for additional pieces of equipment to be added without impacting the ability to service the rest of the campus,ÔÇØ explains Austin, ÔÇ£so our engineers and logistical coordinators got together with the facility managers and were able to work out a process of leapfrogging equipment around, sequencing startups and shutdowns in such a way that we didnÔÇÖt lose any capacity during the demand season.ÔÇØChallenges are everywhere. The innovative West 65th Street Project between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue features an extensive renovation of Alice Tully Hall, one of the most popular venues at Lincoln Center which hosts more than 750 activities a year. The Hall had not undergone a major renovation since its opening in 1969, but to address its outdated public amenities and inadequate performer support, the Hall has had to be closed while the work is carried out. An expedited delivery method was created that allows the work to be sequenced in the time available.Some of Lincoln CenterÔÇÖs facilities were in need of expansion as well as renovation, yet there was no more land available. Everything had to be fitted into the existing space, so design was crucial. The expansion of the Juilliard School and Alice Tully Hall has been achieved by extending out onto what was previously an exterior sidewalk. The School of American Ballet (the studio areas were closed during renovation) had a very high performance space available, so by using some of the lost space above the ceiling it was possible to introduce intermediary level floors that doubled its performance area. ÔÇ£It was a very clever design by the architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in association with FxFowle,ÔÇØ says Austin. ÔÇ£The School of Ballet is 100 percent complete now, and the Juilliard School project will open in September for the 2008/9 school year. Alice Tully Hall will reopen February 22nd 2009 and our other projects will continue to be delivered throughout 2010.ÔÇØ Diller Scofidio + Renfro has also introduced some inventive use of materials. The theater inside Alice Tully Hall will feature an innovative new house lighting concept, in which illumination will emerge from within a wood ÔÇÿskinÔÇÖ. Made of translucent custom-molded, eco-friendly resin panels sheathed in wood wall veneer, the illuminated wall areas are designed to blend into the overall finished surface and enhance the audienceÔÇÖs perception of aural and aesthetic warmth, brightness, and intimacy. ÔÇ£The wood for the veneer for the entire hall came from one tree,ÔÇØ says Austin. ÔÇ£We had to be very careful about how we used the material.ÔÇØ The panels also contain some complex geometry, he says, and veneer has only a certain flexibility in it before it rips. ÔÇ£It was an extraordinary effort on the part of our designers, our engineers, our 3D modelers and our fabricators to overcome the difficulty associated with the complex geometry.ÔÇØAll the projects have tried to use green building principles wherever possible, says Austin, but working with existing buildings has its limitations. The new Lincoln Center discounted ticket facility, historically known as Harmony Atrium, lends itself for the targeted LEED certification. It will include water features, efficient exterior materials for its fa├ºades, and landscaping walls. The design firm of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, working closely with New York CityÔÇÖs Planning Department, allow this plan to be realized. As Austin says, ÔÇ£For the modest area that it is, itÔÇÖs packed with green initiatives.ÔÇØ The design of the West 65th Street Project will create a ÔÇÿStreet of the ArtsÔÇÖ lined on both sides with new building fa├ºades, innovative visitor information systems, dramatic lighting, and new indoor and outdoor facilities for dining and refreshments, one of which is a new restaurant with a public roof lawn on the North Plaza. ÔÇ£As part of the project we removed the Milstein Plaza Bridge that had stood for twenty odd years and had been a public gathering space,ÔÇØ says Austin, ÔÇ£so we wanted to add back an open park type of environment. Also, as part of Mayor BloombergÔÇÖs million tree initiative in New York, weÔÇÖre adding 165 new trees to the campus, which is an extraordinary accomplishment in the middle of downtown New York.ÔÇØOn top of the challenges associated with complex construction conditions, timetabling, supply chain management and the need for the shows to go on, is the management complexity introduced by the number of different organizations involved. The twelve constituent groups, or resident organizations, all have their own management, and it was decided that most elements would require complete unanimity among all twelve groups. ÔÇ£Any one group has the ability to veto or stop the work,ÔÇØ says Austin, ÔÇ£so we serve twelve masters, plus the regulatory oversight that we have from the city, the state and the federal government. This is the most challenging project IÔÇÖve ever worked onÔÇöbut itÔÇÖs also the most exciting.ÔÇØ Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *   ┬áFirst published June 2008