David Geffen Hall launches in New York

The home of the New York Philharmonic

14 Oct 2022

‘This is our city. We wanted to capture in our design for the public spaces the glamour, beauty, energy and many voices of this amazing place,’ says Billie Tsien, founding partner with Tod Williams of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. ‘Colour and emotion rules all - as Tod says, it’s not beige.’

The new David Geffen Hall, The home of the New York Philharmonic and the new cultural home for New York has reopened earlier this month.

The reimagining of the Hall welcomes visitors and audiences to Lincoln Center and looks to expand on the possibilities of a concert hall.

As the refurbished home of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (whom left its home in the acoustically perfect Carnegie Hall for the Lincoln Center complex in 1962) which was formerly known as Avery Fisher Hall, the new venue has been conceived as a cultural living room for New York City. The venue features renewed interiors and public spaces designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, and a refreshed theater designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects.

The $600 million project employed over 6,000 people, many of whom came from minority- and women-owned businesses. The new hall is designed to open up the building to the neighborhoods it once shut out. You can stop to enjoy a performance from the new sidewalk studio, or visit the new restaurant and bar, or drop into the new lobby café. That’s also where you can watch the Philharmonic’s concerts, live, on a 50-foot video wall. Every Philharmonic concert, for free.

The structure has had its insides scooped out and a fresh set reinstalled, packing an almost entirely new building around its skeleton and inside its shell.

Inside of the Wu-Tsai Theatre, which has been completely revitalised, every aspect has been designed to deliver superior acoustics, thanks to state-of-the-art technology and equipment fitting of the 21st century. From optimised sightlines, relocating the stage closer to the audience, and reducing the seats by 500 to a total capacity of 2,200, the new curvilinear auditorium brings the audience closer to performers for a unified and improved experience.

Design wise David Geffen Hall delivers on a vision of polished brass, frosted glass and rich wall coverings that all add to warm and vibrant public spaces.

‘The new Wu Tsai Theater will be transformational for the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center, both in the intimacy that the redesigned hall offers, as well as the high degree of artistic flexibility permitted by the variable stage configurations,’ says Gary McCluskie, principal at Diamond Schmitt.

In addition to built-in screens, an amplified sound system, a stage that can be configured in multiple ways thanks to 20 built-in motorised lifts that easily alter its size and location, and seats that are angled towards the stage, the theatre is enclosed in solid beechwood paneling that boasts a rhythmic rippling in places, all in service to enhancing the bass, reverberation and sound differentiation in the space.