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Kennedy Center, Act II

edited by Sheila Kim -- Interior Design, 2/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

When Edward Durrell Stone completed the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971, it changed the cultural landscape of Washington, D.C. But cut off from the rest of the city by a tangle of highways and roads, including the Potomac Expressway, the building never really connected to its surroundings. A collaboration between Rafael Viñoly and the District of Columbia's Transit Authority will change all that. A streamlined plaza of pedestrian walkways over the various roads will improve accessibility to the center from such major monuments as the Lincoln Memorial. Viñoly's contributions to the plaza include a tapering, elongated central fountain and a pair of curved steel-and-glass buildings to house education programs. The New York architect's Kennedy Center concept also features new rehearsal and administrative facilities. The project is slated for construction over the next 10 years.