Lincoln Center Set to Complete Redevelopment Project on 10/1

Lincoln Center's six-year, $1.2 billion redevelopment projectcompleted on time and on budget will be celebrated with the October 1 dedication ceremony for the final element of the center's transformation: The President's Bridge, named in honor of Reynold Levy, who has led Lincoln Center throughout this ambitious project. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is scheduled to join other distinguished guests in celebrating the bridge's opening and dedicating the donor wall that acknowledges the leading benefactors of Lincoln Center's redevelopment.

Spanning West 65th Street near Amsterdam Avenue, the sculpturally expressive President's Bridge is designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the lead architects of the Lincoln Center Development Project. It provides an alternative to street-level crossing for visitors, artists, students, neighbors, and staff members. The ADA-accessible pedestrian bridge weighs 58 tons. It is a stressed-skin steel structure 83 feet long and 10 feet wide, and connects the upper level plaza of the Rose Building (and adjacent Walter Reade Theater and The Juilliard School) to the public spaces, concert halls, theaters, library, and eating establishments on the south side of Lincoln Center's campus. The bridge's glass railings echo the soaring glass walls of The Juilliard School and Alice Tully Hall, and reflect the open, transparent sprit of Lincoln Center's new design.

Over the past decade, on behalf of its resident organizations, Lincoln Center has led the largest and most comprehensive redevelopment of any performing arts center in the world. Adding new green spaces, 21st century digital informational signage about Lincoln Center activities, amenities such as free Wi Fi, available day-of discount tickets, and a range of dining options, the transformation was designed to make Lincoln Center more accessible and welcoming to the five million people who visit the 16-acre campus annually. With 30 indoor and outdoor performance venues, Lincoln Center each year sells some 3.2 million tickets and generates more than $3.4 billion for the New York economy. More than one million students annually participate in education activities related to Lincoln Center.

Lincoln Center consists of 11 Resident Organizations, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, is one of those 11. The ten other organizations are The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and the School of American Ballet.