David Geffen Hall has remained untouched as the rest of Lincoln Center has transformed around it as part of an extensive renovation by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, but it's finally time for the home of the New York Philharmonic to take center stage. After over three years of deliberation, a renovation designer and architect has been announced for the once-named Avery Fisher Hall: Heatherwick Studio and Diamond Schmitt (h/t NYT). The architects replace Sir Norman Foster, who won a 2005 bid to revamp the modern architecture icon but was cast aside after the renovation costs were estimated at a lofty $300 million.
The renovation will entail a gut of the 1962 Max Abramovitz-designed hall's interiors that will reconfigure its performance spaces and common areas. The building's shell will be left as-is. Acoustic design firm Akustiks and theater design firm Fisher Dachs have also signed on to the project. "The New York Philharmonic creates some of the most incredible music in the world, so it deserves a world-class concert hall" Thomas Heatherwick, principal of Heatherwick Studio, said in a statement quoted by the Times. The design will be unveiled next summer, with construction starting in 2019 at a cost of $500 million. While that's far more than the budget at Foster's time, $100 million of it will be picked up by David Geffen as a part of the hall's renaming deal. The project is expected to take about 30 months.
Heatherwick is also behind the whimsical design for Barry Diller's controversial park, Pier 55, which is designed as an undulating, planted platform above the Hudson River in Greenwich Village.
· Geffen Hall Redesign Team Is Chosen [NYT]
·l Avery Fischer Hall Will Finally Get Its Long-Delayed Makeover [Curbed]
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