About a decade's passed since Foster+Partners won the competition to re-design Avery Fisher Hall (as part of Lincoln Center's campus-wide re-haul, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro), and the famous music hall is finally ready to go through with it - just not necessarily with Foster+Partners.
After Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic failed to raise the $300 million they needed to cover construction costs, and due to concerns that displacing the orchestra would jeopardize potential revenue, Foster+Partners' plans languished. However, the Philharmonic is now under new leadership, and its young directors are anxious to transform the conventional music hall, hence why they've decided to solicit new proposals for the building.
As the Orchestra's new executive eirector, Matthew VanBesien, told the New York Times: “If you’re not thinking about the way in which our art form and music and audiences are evolving, you’re not serving the art form long term. You really want to build this next great hall in a new way, to do the kinds of things you maybe are doing but want to do in a more compelling way or maybe can’t even imagine yet.”
More info about the proposal for the new Avery Fisher Hall, after the break...
While the exterior of the hall, designed by Max Abramovitz in 1962, will be left intact, the interior will be renovated with three goals in mind: to reconfigure the space so it's flexible to different configurations; to improve the hall's acoustics (to that end, all re-configurations will be carefully modeled for their acoustic effect); and to create a sense of intimacy and informality between orchestra and audience member.
“We want a concert venue that has really excellent acoustics but has an intimacy to it, a sense of immediacy, an almost visceral quality,” Mr. VanBesien told the New York Times. “Some will choose a more formal concert environment, but there is no question that we’ll over the long haul experiment with less formal environments.”
Of course, just because Foster+Partners has't been automatically slated for the project, doesn't mean they aren't willing to re-enter the fray. A spokeswoman told the New York Times that they would obviously " like to continue working with our clients to realize this project.”
While a theater designer has been chosen (kept anonymous), the timetable for the selection of the architect and acoustician has yet to be determined. Construction is expected to begin in 2017.
Story via The New York Times
