Lincoln Center on a Hot Sunday-Part One

A lot is usually going on at Lincoln Center, between Chamber Music, the Philharmonic, Theater,
and the Ballet...to say nothing of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Program.

On a hot Sunday, the original rather overbearing vastness of the central area of the Center is really apparent...how acadmeic and contrived the buildings seem...with this large fountain, so totally devoid of character, in the Center. Not ugly really, but think of all the money they spent to achieve this effect...

Lincoln Center's Grandiose and  "brutalist" architecture were a favorite of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who also had such a big hand in the initial "brutalist" World Trade Center and the bizarre parade of faceless big state buildings up in Albany. It all reminds you of that classic old Jean Luc Godard movie, "Alphaville."

Well, his taste was the taste of the times... striving  for grandeur and ending up mostly with boredom. The only times Lincoln Center is saved, as a public space, are at night when there are a lot of people around and even then it is awfully starchy.

One of the things I remember from early on about--which building was it-- (they are NOT memorable, after all)-- oh yeah, it had this extremely expensive Austrian chandelier as part of the decor. The chandelier was the most memorable thing up there at the time..

I hate to have to go to Wikipedia all the time, but for the historical development of the place, it is the shortest distance between two points...so here we go:

A consortium of civic leaders and others led by (and under the initiative of) John D. Rockefeller III built Lincoln Center as part of the "Lincoln Square Renewal Project" during Robert Moses's program of urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s.^[2] Respected architects were contacted to design the major buildings on the site, and over the next thirty years the previously blighted area around Lincoln Center became a new cultural hub.<sup>[3] 

(MY NOTE; IF THERE WAS ONE THING ROBERT MOSES WAS NOT KNOWN FOR, IT WAS SENSITIVITY. HE WAS A KIND OF MEGALOMANIAC MEGA PLANNER WHO THOUGHT ALWAYS ON A GRAND AND BOTTOM LINE BUDGET LEVEL, NEVER ON A HUMAN OR ARTISTIC ONE. A FEW OF HIS PROJECTS WERE ACCEPTED BY THE PUBLIC--SUCH AS JONES BEACH-- BUT HIS AUTOMOBILE-FUELED VISION OF NEW YORK LED TO YEARS OF WRANGLING AFTER HE DESTROYED MUCH OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD COHESIVENESS OF  THE BRONX WITH THE CROSS BRONX EXPRESSWAY AND WANTED ANOTHER EXPRESSWAY TO SIMILARLY PLOW THROUGH LOWER MANHATTAN...TO SAY NOTHING OF THE LATER WESTWAY PROJECT-- TOTALLY DESIGNED FOR MOVING VEHICULAR TRAFFIC AND CUTTING OFF THE CITY ENTIRELY FROM THE HUDSON RIVER WATERFRONT.

BUT MOSES WAS JUST OF HIS TIME , TOO...HE COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED THE HIGHLINE PARK PROJECT IN MANHATTAN OR THE TRANSFORMATION OF SO MUCH LOFT SPACE SOUTH OF HOUSTON STREET INTO A RESIDENTIAL AREA...MUCH LESS HAVING PEOPLE LIVE DOWN IN AND AMONG THE SKYSCRAPERS OF LOWER MANHATTAN--- L.K.</sup>


Rockefeller was Lincoln Center's inaugural president from 1956 and became its chairman in 1961. He is credited with raising more than half of the $184.5 million in private funds needed to build the complex, including drawing on his own funds; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund also contributed to the project.^[2] The center's three buildings, Avery Fisher Hall (formerly Philharmonic Hall), David H. Koch Theater (formerly the New York State Theater) and the Metropolitan Opera House were opened in 1962, 1964 and 1966, respectively.

While the center may have been named because it was located in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, it is unclear whether the area was named as a tribute to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The name was bestowed on the area in 1906 by the New York City Board of Aldermen, but records give no reason for choosing that name.^[4] There has long been speculation that the name came from a local landowner, because the square was previously named Lincoln Square. However, city records from the time show only the names Johannes van Bruch, Thomas Hall, Stephan de Lancey, James de Lancey, James de Lancey Jr. and John Somerindyck as area property owners. One speculation is that references to President Lincoln were omitted from the records because the mayor in 1906 was George B. McClellan, Jr., son of General George B. McClellan who was general-in-chief of the Union Army during the American Civil War and a bitter rival of Lincoln.^[5]

The first structure to be completed and occupied as part of this renewal was the Fordham Law School of Fordham University in 1962. Located between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, from West 60th to West 66th Streets on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the complex was the first gathering of major cultural institutions into a centralized location in an American city.^{[citation needed]}

The center's cultural institutions also make use of facilities located away from the main campus. In 2004, the center was expanded through the addition of Jazz at Lincoln Center's newly built facilities, the Frederick P. Rose Hall, at the new Time Warner Center, located a few blocks to the south. In March 2006, the center launched construction on a major redevelopment plan that modernized, renovated, and opened up its campus in time for its 50th-anniversary celebration in 2009.

The development of the condominium at 3 Lincoln Center,^[6] completed in 1991, designed by Lee Jablin, Harman Jablin Architects, made possible the expansion of The Juilliard School and the School of American Ballet.<sup>[6][7][8]

Jazz at Lincoln Center</sup>

Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) is a venue comprising part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle, housed inside the Time Warner Center. The complex was designed by acclaimed architect Rafael Viñoly and constructed by Turner-Santa Fe, a joint venture between Turner Construction and Santa Fe Construction. It opened in October 2004. The organization was founded in 1987.

Overview

JALC's Frederick P. Rose Hall consists of three main music performance venues:

• Rose Theater, with 1,233 seats.
• The Allen Room, with 483 seats, featuring a 50 by 90-foot window overlooking Central Park; former taping studio for Anderson now at Studio 42 in the CBS Broadcasting Center.
• Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, with 140 seats, an intimate jazz club named after the famous jazz artist Dizzy Gillespie.

The hall also contains the Irene Diamond Education Center with rehearsal and recording rooms and the Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame (NEJHF). JALC also launched a website based on the NEJHF. Visitors can celebrate the lives, artistry and music of the jazz greats so integral to the art form and industry.
Wynton Marsalis serves as the Artistic Director, Greg Scholl serves as the Executive Director, and Jason Olaine serves as Director of Programming. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (JLCO) serves as the resident orchestra performing at Frederick P. Rose Hall and around the world.
JALC produces a year-round schedule of performance, education and broadcast events for audiences of all ages. These productions include concerts, national and international tours, residencies, weekly national radio and television programs, recordings, publications, an annual high school jazz band competition and festival, a band director academy, a jazz appreciation curriculum for children, advanced training through the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies, music publishing, children’s concerts, lectures, adult education courses and student and educator workshops. Jazz at Lincoln Center will produce over 3,000 events during its 2008-09 season.
JALC's educational mission encompasses 22 programs and resources that reach upwards of 50,000 people directly and an estimated four million people through curricula, print music and online resources. Beginning at just eight months old, little ones can swing, stomp and shuffle with "WeBop!". Families and school groups delight in the "Jazz for Young People concert series" and "Jazz in the Schools" tours that bring professional ensembles across NYC. Teachers across the country bring these concerts back to their classrooms with the "Jazz for Young People" Curriculum and make connections between jazz and American history with "NEA Jazz in the Schools". JALC also streams their education events online.
JALC's educational programs include the Middle School Jazz Academy, a tuition-free instructional program for NYC students. And for the past 16 years, the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival has supported high school jazz bands nationwide. There is also a summer "Band Director Academy", customized teacher training workshops and a print music library.
At Frederick P. Rose Hall adults can develop their listening skills and delve into jazz history at "Swing University", "Jazz Talk" and the Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame.

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To Be Continued...