A worker atop the roof of the Sydney Opera House in 2020. After a lengthy refurbishment, the iconic building celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
Photographer: David Gray/AFP via Getty Images
The Costly Allure of the Showstopper Concert Hall
Venues for orchestral performance often boast thrilling designs and troubled development processes. Here’s why these spaces can be so difficult — and rewarding — to create.
A new home for the New York Philharmonic opened in 1962, an optimistic, modern design intended to invite a music-hungry middle class (enamored with its charismatic and TV-friendly music director, Leonard Bernstein) and reinforce the city as a capital of culture.
Designed by Max Abramovitz as a cage of glass wrapped in tapering white travertine columns, it was the vanguard venue of the massive new Lincoln Center arts complex.