The Revson Fountain at Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza is the centerpiece of the performing arts facility’s grand entrance on its east side.
On the west side, it has never been as welcoming, mainly due to a concrete wall that remained as a physical and visual barrier — but that wall is coming down.
What You Need To Know
The Lincoln Center West Initiatve opens the arts campus up on its Amsterdam Avenue side
The redesign includes taking down a concrete wall along Amsterdam Avenue
Gardens and a new performance venue will also be included in the project
The demolition of the wall will mean getting rid of something that formed a barrier between the campus and NYCHA’s Amsterdam Houses and Amsterdam Avenue for decades.
“Anyone who has experienced Lincoln Center can probably tell that it was originally envisioned with a front and a back, and we want everywhere to be the front,” Mariko Silver, president and CEO of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, said.
Elected officials and community leaders broke ground Monday on the Lincoln Center West Initiative, which will transform the western side of the campus with new entrances, gardens, a public water feature and a brand new performance space that can host outdoor shows that the old space couldn’t.
The old band shell at Damrosch Park is also coming down.
“It’s going to have space enough for an entire orchestra, and we’re going to be able to bring, of course, our friends on campus, but others from around the world to really experience what it’s like to be in a world-class performance outdoor venue,” Shanta Thake, chief artistic officer at Lincoln Center, said.
The design was completed using community feedback, part of a planning process that began in 2023, which included input for murals on the construction fence that pay tribute to the neighborhood that used to be there.
San Juan Hill was a neighborhood of mainly Black and Puerto Rican residents, razed in the 1950s as part of an urban renewal project led by Robert Moses.
The Lincoln Square Development Plan displaced thousands of residents and hundreds of businesses. They were replaced by superblocks, including Lincoln Center and Fordham University.
NYCHA Amsterdam Houses resident Wanda Salas has been part of the planning process for the redesign, saying Lincoln Center has for years been a second home for her and her family.
“As they showed it to us, as it was growing and evolving, I got a little tear in my eye because I am here now, and I know the past that I have enjoyed for 20 years, and I know what’s coming, so right now it feels like change. It’s good change,” she said.
The hope is the change will say “come on in” to folks who may have felt they weren’t welcome in the past. The project is scheduled to finish before the summer of 2028.