Since
its adolescence more than four decades ago, the New York Philharmonic’s
home at Lincoln Center has been known as Avery Fisher Hall. Now, as the
orchestra prepares for a major renovation expected to cost more than
$500 million, the Fisher family has agreed to relinquish the name so the
Philharmonic and Lincoln Center can lure a large donor with the promise
of rechristening the building.
The
unusual agreement, announced on Thursday, is a significant turnaround
from 12 years ago, when the family of Avery Fisher, the music
philanthropist who gave $10 million in 1973 to support the building, threatened legal action if the concert hall was rebuilt or renovated under a new name.
Lincoln
Center is essentially paying the family $15 million for permission to
drop the name and has included several other inducements, like a promise
to feature prominent tributes to Mr. Fisher in the new lobby of the
concert hall.
While
the ability to raise money through naming opportunities has become a
staple tool for arts organizations, perhaps no event speaks louder to
its utility as a fund-raising mechanism than Lincoln Center’s
willingness to pay the family of a veteran donor to step away so it can
court a new benefactor.
Naming Culture in New York City
David Koch Theater
Before his name achieved household status for
financing conservative political causes, David H. Koch was putting it on
the marquee of the New York State Theater. In 2008, he gave $100
million to renovate the Lincoln Center venue for ballet and opera. It must remain the Koch Theater for another 44 years.
Jerome and Ellen Stern Restrooms
Jerome L. Stern, a venture capitalist, said he
wanted to see his name "in a place where I'm going to spend a lot of
time" when he gave money to the New Museum of Contemporary Art in 2007.
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
As Wall Street was poised on a precipice in
2008, New York city billionaires were making it a banner year for
naming-rights largesse. The financier Stephen A. Schwarzman's $100
million gift to the New York Public Library
put his name on its venerable Beaux-Arts headquarters on Fifth Avenue –
a bargain for a building that already housed a $10-million room, the
Bill Blass Public Catalog Room.
David H. Koch Dinosaur Wing
The American Museum of Natural History
offers "naming opportunities" for its dinosaur exhibits at various
levels from $50,000 to $1 million, acording to its website. Too rich?
How about $25,000 to get your name on a diorama, or just $2,500 to name a
seat in the Samuel J. and Ethel LeFrak Theater (named for Mr. LeFrak, a
real estate developer, when he made a $10 million contribution in
1994).
Ronald O. Perelman Family Stage
The financier Ronald O. Perelman gave $20 million to Carnegie Hall in 2006. In recognition, the stage in the Isaac Stern Auditorium got his name.
Alberto W. Vilar Grand Tier
In 2003, the Metropolitan Opera
removed foot-high letters spelling the name of Alberto W. Vilar, its
most high-profile benefactor in the 1990s, from a wall on the third
floor of the opera house after he failed to make good on millions in
pledges. He was later convicted of fraud.
Organizations
like the Philharmonic and Lincoln Center cannot hope to raise the sums
required for ambitious reconstructions or expansions without being able
to dangle the carrot of a donor’s name emblazoned over the door.
“This
unties the Gordian knot,” Katherine G. Farley, Lincoln Center’s
chairwoman, said of the agreement. She said it was too early in the
process to discuss whose name might replace Mr. Fisher’s on the building
or what the price tag for such a high-profile philanthropic mantle
might be.
The
New York State Theater at Lincoln Center became the David H. Koch
Theater in 2008, when Mr. Koch, the oil-and-gas billionaire, contributed $100 million toward its renovation. That same year, the New York Public Library’s flagship on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street was named for Stephen A. Schwarzman, a Wall Street financier who donated $100 million toward that building’s expansion.
The
Fisher agreement, which came together over the last three months, was
made with the three children of Mr. Fisher, who died in 1994: Nancy
Fisher, Charles Avery Fisher and Barbara Fisher Snow.
“We’re very pleased that it happened in such a pleasant and quick manner,” Charles Fisher said.
Jed
Bernstein, Lincoln Center’s president, said he ran into Nancy Fisher at
a dinner party in June and invited her and other family members to his
office for discussions. The tone of the negotiations was considerably
more amicable than it had been the last time around, the Fishers said.
“It was us and them,” Nancy said. “It’s not like that anymore.”
In
addition, the renovation of the rest of Lincoln Center, completed two
years ago, made the Fishers realize how much the hall needed to be
refreshed; it was the only major building that was not part of the
campus transformation, designed by Diller Scofidio & Renfro. The
acoustics have long been considered problematic, and the audience
amenities sorely need updating.
“I
watched as the campus started to change,” Nancy Fisher said. “It
invited the public in, it didn’t look so forbidding and formal anymore.”
She added that the new energy generated by the renovated spaces at
Lincoln Center had pointed up Avery Fisher Hall’s mustiness.
“The hall was like an old slipper,” she said. “How could you avoid sensing that?”
In
1973, Mr. Fisher, founder of the Fisher electronics company, donated
$10.5 million toward the renovation of the former Philharmonic Hall,
erected in 1962, which was then renamed for him. The pledge agreement
setting forth the conditions of his gift included the stipulation that
Avery Fisher Hall “will appear on tickets, brochures, program
announcements and advertisements and the like, and I consent in
perpetuity to such use.”
Some
more recent agreements have sunset provisions, like Mr. Koch’s with the
State Theater, which says the building can be renamed for a new donor
after 50 years, with members of the Koch family retaining the right of
first refusal.
Lincoln
Center sweetened its deal with the Fisher family in several ways. Mr.
Fisher will be inducted into a new Lincoln Center Hall of Fame in the
renovated building, which will celebrate artists, leaders and
philanthropists who have played central roles at Lincoln Center. Their
contributions will be explored in interactive installations that
highlight all 11 of Lincoln Center’s constituent organizations.
A
Fisher family member will serve on the Hall of Fame’s advisory board
and on the selection committee for inductees into its Avery Fisher
Classical Music Wing, which will contain archival materials about Mr.
Fisher.
The
agreement also promises to give a higher profile to the Avery Fisher
Artist Program, established in 1974, which awards prizes to established
American instrumentalists of distinction and career grants to emerging
young artists.
In
addition, a Philharmonic concert conducted by the orchestra’s music
director, Alan Gilbert, that honors Avery Fisher and his family has been
scheduled for March 24.
The
$15 million that Lincoln Center will pay the family will come from a
line of credit that will ultimately be covered by the gift of the new
donor. The family said it had not determined how that money would be
distributed.
The
Philharmonic is planning a comprehensive interior reconstruction, to
begin in 2019, that will retain the building’s exterior, designed by Max
Abramovitz.
Gary
Parr, the orchestra’s chairman, said the renaming opportunity would
enable the project to be an ambitious undertaking. “We’re not going to
do something minor or small,” he said. “Being able to do this makes a
huge difference in the prospects of raising the funds to be successful.”
While
the renovation is underway, the goal is to limit the Philharmonic’s
time outside the hall to two seasons, during which the orchestra will
play in various New York City locations that have not been determined so
far.
An
architect for the new hall has yet to be selected. Although the
Philharmonic board voted in 2005 to proceed with a design by the British
architect Norman Foster, the thinking has evolved since then, and the
orchestra is starting over. Akustiks has been chosen as the acoustics
firm and Fisher Dachs Associates as the theater designer.
“This
is in sight now; it’s really happening,” Mr. Bernstein said. “Donors
want to be assured of the likelihood of these projects.”
The
Fisher family didn’t come to this decision easily; every member was
involved: all three children, their spouses and five grandchildren.
For
Lincoln Center, the issue may have been one of financial reality as it
faced the daunting budget of a major renovation. For the family, the
issues were more personal.
“Would
this have made him proud?” Nancy Fisher’s son, Philip Avery Kirschner,
34, said of his grandfather. “What were his original intentions?”
nt thing was to make
possible the continuing presentation and excitement of classical music
at Lincoln Center, just as Mr. Fisher had in the first place.
“His
goal was to give back to music lovers what they had given him,” Charles
Fisher said. “We feel, at the end of the day, that our father would
have wanted this as well.”
Correction: November 13, 2014
An earlier version of a graphic that appeared with this article misstated the former name of a section of the Metropolitan Opera. It was the Alberto W. Vilar Grand Tier, not Pier.
An earlier version of a graphic that appeared with this article misstated the former name of a section of the Metropolitan Opera. It was the Alberto W. Vilar Grand Tier, not Pier.
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