Lincoln Center

Lincoln Center

A man-made cultural mecca, Lincoln Center is the premier showcase of performing arts in the performing arts capital of the world. The 16-acre Center is set back from Broadway, atop a large pedestal that elevates the central plaza and performance halls, giving them a sanctified air. At night, floodlights illuminate the plaza and central fountain, where New York sophisticates congregate, before taking their seats for performances of opera, theater, ballet, film festival screenings, or jazz and classical concerts. On any given night, an uninformed visitor can expect to choose from at least ten different performances. "Power broker" Robert Moses, a mid-century visionary and urban planner whose invisible hand remade urban New York in the service of the automobile, conceived Lincoln Center in the 50s as a unified complex that could be home to all of the city's world-class cultural institutions. Unlike its tenants (the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the Juilliard School, the New York Philharmonic, among others), the architecture of Lincoln Center has always played to mixed reviews. A mix of classical references and modernist bravado, critics claim the complex signifies nothing but artistic indecision and compromise (each building was designed separately, and separately from the master plan). Despite its eclecticism, Lincoln Center has continually impressed regulars and visitors as an inviting cultural temple, equal parts warmth and grandeur.