Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Alice Tully Hall Opens

The New York performance hall reopens following a nearly two-year-long renovation, part of Lincoln Center's redevelopment plan.

Sheila Kim -- Interior Design, 2/22/2009 12:00:00 AM

Alice Tully Hall completed redesign, photo by Iwan Baan.

It's been almost two years since the more intimate auditorium of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, known as Alice Tully Hall, closed for renovations as part of a massive redevelopment plan for the entire campus. Today, this first major completed component of the plan reopens to the public with a new transparent appearance, thanks to award-winning firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in conjunction with Fxfowle Architects.

Photo by Sheila Kim.

In one respect, the redesign pays homage to the site's original 1969 architecture by Pietro Belluschi via a series of cantilevers, beginning with the facade, where the celebrated Juilliard School extends above to form a canopy over the hall's entrances and plaza. The new light and views, however, are a departure.

"We have pried open Belluschi's inwardly focused brutalist building and expanded its programs to the east to make a transparent and porous interface with the street," says Elizabeth Diller, principal of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. "The re-imagined hall taps into the DNA of Lincoln Center, yet establishes a new design vocabulary that is more democratic in spirit." Inside the Broadway entrance, a three-story glass-enclosed foyer and public plaza houses an information desk, the box office, a mezzanine reception space, and a new dining and lounge venue called at65.

The hall's three-story foyer and public spaces, photo by Sheila Kim.

The performance auditorium itself, now called Starr Theater, has been updated with new stage lighting, sound system, adjustable stage extensions, acoustical ceilings and banners, custom seats, and a wood-veneer skin that sheathes eco-friendly resin panels.

Starr Theater at Alice Tully Hall, photo by Iwan Baan; stage wall detail, photo by Sheila Kim.

The Lincoln Center redevelopment plan will also see through a renovated subway station entrance, an "urban grove" to provide public green space, a new fountain, and a community space designed by award-winning Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, among other construction and renovation highlights.