Lincoln Center Breaks Ground to Transform Its West Side, Increasing Welcome and Access to Campus

Aerial view from Amsterdam Avenue looking east.  Rendering by Brooklyn Digital Foundry.

The Baron Theater and Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Gardens

Anchor Project in Recognition of Major Gifts

Design by Hood Design Studio, WEISS/MANFREDI, and Moody Nolan

Incorporates Feedback from Thousands of Community Members

Opening Summer 2028, Part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Lincoln Center West Initiative

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) held a groundbreaking ceremony as the institution reimagines the west side of its campus, creating new spaces to advance the arts as a force for inspiration and connection for all. Lincoln Center will build a new, 2000-person venue named The Baron Theater, in recognition of donor, The Baron Family Foundation, founded by Judy and Ron Baron. The Theater will be a centerpiece of the new Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Gardens and the newest performance space at Lincoln Center. The design incorporates input from thousands of community members, part of a robust participatory process. Imagery and video of the project, and from today’s ceremony, are here.

The Baron Family Foundation made a transformative $75 million gift that honors the rich artistic traditions of New York City and invests in their future on Lincoln Center’s campus. Mr. Baron has hosted his company’s Annual Baron Investment Conference at Lincoln Center since 2004. In recognition of this gift, the world-class amphitheater, for approximately 2000 audience members and designed by WEISS/MANFREDI, will be named The Baron Theater. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is a Founding Partner of the overall initiative to redesign Lincoln Center’s west face. SNF’s catalytic $75 million grant has also supported community engagement initiatives, projects that animated outdoor spaces during the pandemic, free programming throughout Summer for the City, and the ongoing Legacies of San Juan Hill initiative. In recognition of their support, the new performance gardens at Damrosch Park — home to The Baron Theater, as well as gardens, groves, a new water feature, and gathering spaces — will be named theStavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Gardens.

The capital campaign’s $335 million goal to support the construction phase of the Initiative has been raised, thanks to the generosity of foundations, private donors, the LCPA Board of Directors, and public support from the State and City of New York. Today, the campaign continues on to support a robust lineup of free performances, including during the Summer for the City festival, for generations to come.

LCPA is grateful to the many individual donors, foundations, and corporations who have given so generously to support this important project for the city of New York.

The Baron Family Foundation  •  Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)

The Starr Foundation  •  John and Susan Hess  •  The Tow Foundation

Bloomberg Philanthropies  •  Advance Knowledge / Morwin Schmookler  •  
Sheryl and Chip Kaye  •  William Randolph Hearst Foundation

Arison Arts Foundation  •  Kathryn and Kenneth Chenault  •
Katherine G. Farley and Jerry I. Speyer  •  Kim and Jeff Greenberg  •
Cynthia and Anthony Kim  •  Jill and Bobby Le Blanc  •  Mazumdar Shaw Philanthropy  •  Barbara and John Vogelstein

Hearst  •  Morgan Stanley  •  Jeff Gates and Mike Moran  •
Frank A. Bennack, Jr. and Mary Lake Polan  •  Meg and Bennett Goodman  •
David and Susan Rockefeller  •  Tina and Steven Swartz

The Lazarus Family  •  Brad S. Karp, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison  •
Shari and Jeff Aronson  •  Jacqueline Bradley and Clarence Otis, Jr.  •  
Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz  •  Mary Ann Tighe and Dr. David Hidalgo  •
The Hoglund Family, in memory of Suzanne Hoglund

Earlier this spring, as fencing went up to prep the site for construction, LCPA unveiled The Future We Create, a mural by lead artist Vanesa Álvarez and assistant artist Derval Fairweather. In collaboration with the public art nonprofit ArtBridge, the mural is a cornerstone of the participatory planning process that engaged local residents, NYCHA neighbors, students, and community stakeholders. A series of workshops and conversations led by Álvarez helped shape the themes and imagery reflected in the final design, which depicts historic figures from the neighborhood—including James P. Johnson, Thelonious Monk, Mary White Ovington, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, and others—alongside current residents. The mural is on view along Amsterdam and 62^nd Street. Imagery and video of the artwork is available here.

This project is being undertaken in coordination with NYC Parks and NYC Department of Transportation. Damrosch Park is mapped city parkland maintained and operated by LCPA.

Groundbreaking Ceremony

Community leaders, artists, donors, leadership from across Lincoln Center, and many more were in attendance for today’s ceremony.

The ceremony featured performances that celebrated the cultural legacy of the area throughout history, including the artistry that flourished historically in the San Juan Hill neighborhood and that continues to influence artists innovating today. Looking ahead to the future, performances were offered from artists with ties across the Lincoln Center campus.

The program opened with a newly commissioned poem, The Future We Create, by Poet-in-Residence Mahogany L. Browne, co-written with emerging artist and oral historian Oshun Baronville and performed by both artists. The poem shares the same title as the new mural by Vanesa Álvarez and Derval Fairweather that adorns the construction fencing along 62nd and Amsterdam Avenue.

Grammy-nominated jazz pianist and composer Sean Mason played “Thelonious,” written by Thelonious Monk, as a tribute to the neighborhood of San Juan Hill, where the great composer lived most of his life and drew inspiration for his musical inventions.

A cast of ten dancers from the School of American Ballet performed an exuberant excerpt from George Balanchine’s Cortège Hongrois, a work he originally created for New York City Ballet in 1973.

New York City Ballet dancers Harrison Coll and Peter Walker performed an excerpt from The Times Are Racing, choreographed by NYCB Resident Choreographer Justin Peck and set to an electronic score by acclaimed composer and electronic artist Dan Deacon.

World-renowned vocalist Catherine Russell joined Sean Mason and brought timeless jazz and rich vocals to close out the program with Manhattan by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

Design For Greater Access and Welcome

Opening Up to Amsterdam Avenue

The new design eliminates the visual and physical barrier wall at Damrosch Park to create a more welcoming edge to the campus, to better serve close neighbors including residents of New York City Housing Authority developments at Amsterdam Houses and Addition, students of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, and the five high schools at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Educational Campus.

Developed with input from NYC Parks, the design for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Gardens prioritizes places for community use and relaxation and seamlessly opens to the rest of the campus.

Drawing inspiration from Lincoln Center’s Modernist architecture and landscape architecture, the design acknowledges the original campus’ symmetrical layout and formal edges by retaining a strong central axis and formal entry points, while introducing and sensitively integrating contemporary elements that center accessibility, flexibility of use, and a variety of programmatic needs. The new design also incorporates materials, textures, colors, and scale of design elements found across the rest of Lincoln Center to create cohesion across campus.

Features of the reimagined entrances to the campus include:

• Sidewalk improvements, including an improved bus waiting area, an expanded sidewalk between 62nd and 65th Streets, increased greenery and shade along this edge, and more benches and lighting for an enhanced pedestrian experience

• A series of groves and green spaces at the new west entrances, with a variety of spaces to sit, relax, and meet friends right at street level

• Accessible pathways from multiple entry points and circulation throughout the space, with inclusively designed wayfinding guided by the Institute for Human-Centered Design (IHCD)

• Interventions within the concourse connecting Amsterdam Avenue to the 1 train subway entrance on Broadway (additional details to be announced)

• New opportunities for seating at the West 65th Street corner of campus, where hundreds of area high school students engage with Lincoln Center every day (additional details to be announced)

Groves and Green Spaces

Throughout the participatory planning process, community members shared their desire for the spaces adjacent to Amsterdam Avenue to be flexible, graceful, and inviting. New Yorkers from around the neighborhood and the city also felt strongly that the park should prioritize greenery, a water feature, increased shade, and sustainability—including 50% more trees than currently exist in the park—and inclusive design for people with disabilities.

Improvements include multiple different types of community spaces organized around an interactive water feature and expansive lawn, including large groves of trees providing shade and flowering gardens. Each of the spaces offer a variety of seating options, shade, and plantings. Many of the geometries in the new park echo historic geometries of Lincoln Center.  For instance, the new lawn evokes the shape and scale of the bandshell but re-interprets it as a space for community activity, rather than a physical barrier.

Features of the new groves and green spaces include:

• A welcoming green space surrounded by flowering trees and a serpentine bench with seating facing both west towards Amsterdam Avenue and east towards the water feature and The Baron Theater

• The Starr Foundation Fountain—a water feature animated by mist, water jets, and reflection, which will be a community resource for relaxation and play

• Groves with spaces for sitting, gathering, and resting under the shade of large trees, prioritizing native plantings and a mix of annual and perennial, blooming flowers, and deciduous trees

• The Kaye Family Terrace, a welcoming space along the Amsterdam Avenue entrance that will be directly connected to numerous performance spaces, lawns, and more

The new design prioritizes sustainability, incorporating climate responsive elements, including:

• On-site stormwater management that will capture and clean rainwater before it goes into NYC sewers, so fewer pollutants flow into nearby waterways

• Materials with low embodied carbon, light colors, and passive ventilation will be utilized to minimize climate impact

• Native plantings, and an increase in the total number of trees by 50%

Performance Spaces

In community workshops, participants emphasized the importance of maintaining the site’s primary and historic use as a performance park. It has been an essential space for free, non-ticket holding public access since its inception. But, for the majority of the year, the predominantly hardscaped space is cut off from the community with limited green space and seating. This design reimagines the relationship between the theatrical and recreational spaces and will allow for more of the space to be used year-round and support a variety of events and flexible uses.

The Baron Theater—a new permanent theater structure—will anchor the space to meet artistic and community needs. The Theater faces an inviting, open plaza for audience seating of up to approx. 2,000.

The location and design of The Baron Theater maintain the historic vista from Josie Robertson Plaza and realize the original intent of a theater in a park, by surrounding the new architecture with a grove of trees following the original grid design of the park.

The new size, orientation, and design of the stage, along with technological and infrastructural improvements, will greatly improve the artist and audience experience and mitigate sound impact outside the venue as it welcomes dance, theater, and music from around the world.

Even when the seating area is not set for performances, the plaza serves as a welcoming recreation destination, activated by flexible seating.

The performance spaces include:

• The Baron Theater, a state-of-the-art amphitheater that will host free performances for an audience of up to approx. 2,000, oriented to bring audiences closer to performances and allow for use of the groves and green spaces during shows

• The John and Susan Hess Family Plaza, an open space in front of the amphitheater that is accessible to the public during non-performance times

• Flexible space adjacent to The Baron Theater’s backstage that can be used for food and beverage during performances, and the ability to accommodate smaller-scale programming when the main stage is not in use

• The William Randolph Hearst Foundation Overlook, a shaded overlook and grove with tiered seating for improved sightlines during performances, and activation by the community outside of the performance season

• The Len Tow Community Stage, a performance area within the groves where performances and family programming will be created by and for the community

• Public restrooms and water fountains

A Robust Participatory Design Process

Throughout conceptualization and design, LCPA and its consultants have engaged thousands of New Yorkers through one-on-one interviews, focus groups, paper and online surveys, pop-up events, and workshops. These conversations have brought together neighbors, nearby NYCHA residents, advocates, community groups, staff and students from nearby educational institutions, elected officials, civic leaders, and other members of the New York City community, who shared their ideas, interests, questions, and feedback about the campus. This feedback shaped the design that will be realized.

This work included:

• 3,500+ survey responses, which gathered information from stakeholders, Lincoln Center audiences, and campus visitors about the wall along Amsterdam Avenue, the design of Damrosch Park, and the uses (both actual and desired) of the park and the campus’ outdoor spaces

• 40+ pop-up events reaching 1,600+ people

• 13 community workshops attended by 800+ participants, in which stakeholders offered design ideas, reflections on access, and posed invaluable questions about the future of the campus

• 13 focus groups attended by 100+ participants, including community stakeholders, preservation and design experts, disability advocates, seniors, NYCHA residents, community organizations, school leadership, and members of Community Board 7. These focus groups took place over the course of three years to ensure the ideas heard helped shape the final design.

To provide broad access to each session, engagement materials were translated into Spanish and Simplified Chinese. During workshops, Spanish, Mandarin, and American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters were offered and assisted listening devices (ALDs), as well as sighted guides and verbal descriptions were made available. Engagement events were held both on weekdays and weekends, during daytime and evening hours, with childcare and refreshments made available during workshops.

What we learned

In total, LCPA received feedback through more than 7,000+ touchpoints with individuals, ensuring a broad array of stakeholders have a voice in the process.

Key takeaways that informed this design:

• Participants emphasized their desire to see a welcoming performance park and an urban oasis for everyone, which includes prioritizing the needs of the elderly, kids, and families, ensuring that the elements of the park are accessible to all.

• Participants wanted to see a versatile, multi-use stage that allows for everything from formal and informal performances throughout different seasons. Young people, in particular, believed that the arts should be the primary focus of the park.

• Community members felt strongly that the west side entrance should be open and welcoming, incorporating greenery and creating space for rest and reflection.

• Participants wanted to see public art embedded in the new design, including a commemoration of San Juan Hill. Temporary, rotating artwork is being explored (additional details will be announced).

More about the participatory process is available here.

A Commitment to a Future that Welcomes All

To honor the communities of the neighborhood, LCPA has invested in a number of major projects that shine a light on the important history of the area, celebrate its significant cultural impact, and engage neighbors with hundreds of performances and education initiatives each year.  These include:

• The Legacies of San Juan Hill digital hub, a platform for historians, scholars, and artists, launched in 2023 to uplift the stories of the people who lived in the neighborhood, as well as the arts and culture that flourished there. Recently published articles include an essay on composer James P. Johnson by musician and writer Matthew Guerrieri, an exploration of the legacy of the Majestic Theatre by dramaturg and archivist Arminda Thomas, and an expanded interactive map of the neighborhood in the first half of the 20^th century.

• A series of events and exhibits that engage with this history from a multitude of perspectives, including the annual fallLegacies of San Juan Hill Festival, which in 2025 featured pianist Aaron Diehl, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s Carlos Henriquez, trumpeter Dennis Hernández, and more.

• A feature-length documentary film by Stanley Nelson, San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s Lost Neighborhood, which premiered at the 62^nd New York Film Festival and has since been screened at the Pan African Film Festival, the Hawai’i International Film Festival, the African Diaspora International Film Festival, and in a series of screenings for students and community groups and leaders. The film is now available for free, here.

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Lincoln Center West Initiative also recognizes that more programming from a range of cultural traditions across Lincoln Center’s outdoor venues requires updated facilities to improve audience experience and access, which will allow the institution to continue to expand service to New Yorkers and visitors. Among these programs is the annual Summer for the City festival, which has included hundreds of free events and thousands of artists performing across Lincoln Center’s 16-acre campus, serving over 1.6 million visitors since it launched in 2022.

The SNF Lincoln Center West Initiative will create meaningful economic output, jobs, and earnings for New York City. The Initiative is currently engaging workers across multiple trades, with over 3,000 trade partner labor positions projected over the construction period. The on-site workforce is scheduled to peak at more than 200 workers per day by the end of 2027. Workforce Information sessions are being held to provide resources and answer questions about accessing union jobs in the construction trades through the SNF Lincoln Center West Initiative and beyond. Providers at these events include the ARC Apprenticeship Readiness Collective, Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater NY, The Edward J. Malloy Initiative for Construction Skills, Helmets to Hard Hats, NEW Nontraditional Employment for Women, P2A – Pathways to Apprenticeship, Rebuilding Together, NYCHA REES – Resident Economic Empowerment & Sustainability, and Urban Upbound. The next session will be held June 9 at the David Rubenstein Atrium.

Now expanded following a pilot season, LCPA offers a free Friends-Level Membership for our NYCHA Neighbors living in Amsterdam Houses, Amsterdam Addition, and Harborview Terrace. The membership provides priority entry through the Fast Track Line to free performances, early booking for Choose-What-You Pay performances, and invitations to member events.

In its second year, LCPA is collaborating with Positive Influence and Goddard Riverside to deliver Arts Workshops at the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, led by Lincoln Center Education Teaching Artists. The workshops take place twice a month from March to June in the community center with a focus on connecting young people with Lincoln Center’s artistry and campus, with a dedicated curriculum highlighting visual works of art, performances, and site visits.

About the SNF Lincoln Center West Initiative Design Team 

LCPA hired a team composed of three of the world’s premier design firms to action the learnings from the ongoing participatory process. The design reflects the extensive community feedback gathered throughout this process. The team gathers designers with collective decades of experience in urban design, including Hood Design Studio (Landscape Architect), WEISS/MANFREDI (Design Architect), and Moody Nolan (Architect of Record). Other consultants on the project include NADAAA (Planning Firm), Thornton Tomasetti (Structural Engineer), Siteworks (Landscape Architect of Record), Theatre Projects (Theater Consultant), Jaffe Holden Acoustics (Acousticians/AV), SBLD Studio (Lighting Design), Legacy Engineers (Mechanical Engineer), JBB (Electrical Engineer), Sherwood Design Engineers (Civil Engineer), Delta Fountains (Fountain Design), JML Water Feature Design (Fountain Advisor), Institute for Human Centered Design (Access Consultant), and Turner Construction Company (Construction Manager).

About Hood Design Studio 

Hood Design Studio, Inc. is a social art and design practice based in Oakland, California, founded in 1992. The studio’s practice is tripartite: art + fabrication, design + landscape, and research + urbanism. This breadth allows them to understand each place in its scale and context. They respond not with a standard design, but with an approach adaptive to the particulars and specifics of a space. They strengthen endemic patterns and practices—those ecological and cultural, contemporary and historic, and those that remain unseen or unrecognized. Urban spaces and their objects act as public sculpture, creating new apertures through which to see the emergent beauty, strangeness, and idiosyncrasies around us.

About WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism 

WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism is a New York City-based multidisciplinary practice known for the dynamic integration of architecture, art, infrastructure, and landscape. Founded by Marion Weiss and Michael A. Manfredi, notable projects include Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park, the Women’s Memorial at Arlington Cemetery, Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Center, and the reimagining of Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania. Current work includes the US Embassy in New Delhi, India, La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, and the expansion of the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO. The firm has been recognized with the 2024 Louis I. Kahn Award, the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal, the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices award, and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture.

About Moody Nolan 

Moody Nolan is the nation’s largest African American-owned and managed design firm. Founded in 1982 with just two employees in Columbus, OH, the firm has grown to nearly 300 employees across 12 locations. Guided by its mission of improving lives through design, Moody Nolan’s work is rooted in community engagement and inclusive design, shaping spaces that reflect and respond to those they serve.  With a portfolio spanning civic, cultural, education, healthcare, housing, sports, and recreation, the firm has been recognized with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Architecture Firm Award and named one of the world’s most innovative architecture firms by Fast Company.

About Baron Family Foundation

The Baron Family Foundation is a New York-based private philanthropic organization founded by Judy and Ron Baron.  The Foundation supports a range of initiatives in education, health care, medical research, arts and culture, and Jewish and community organizations, with a particular focus on New York City institutions.  As the descendant of Jewish immigrants who emigrated to the United States from Russia and Poland, Ron Baron grew up in Asbury Park, N.J., and, from a young age, channeled an entrepreneurial mindset to generate a lasting impact.   Mr. Baron’s experience of building success through discipline, long-term thinking, and opportunity has informed both his business philosophy and his commitment to giving back to the communities that invested in him. At Baron Capital, Mr. Baron has long emphasized a mission of “Changing Lives” – the belief that thoughtful, long-term investment can create not only financial returns but also opportunity and stronger communities.  This philosophy has carried over into the Baron Family Foundation’s grantmaking, which seeks to generate meaningful, real-world impact by supporting institutions that expand access to education, advance medical innovation, and strengthen civic and cultural life.

About the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) 

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is one of the world’s leading private, international philanthropic organizations, making grants to nonprofit organizations in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. SNF supports organizations and projects worldwide that aim to achieve a broad, lasting, and positive impact for society at large and exhibit strong leadership and sound management. The Foundation also supports projects that facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as an effective means for serving public welfare.

Since 1996, the Foundation has committed almost $4 billion to more than 3,100 grantee-partners in 137 countries around the world.

About Lincoln Center

Lincoln Center is a premier performing arts center and iconic civic cultural campus. A beacon for the arts in New York City and around the world, Lincoln Center believes the arts are fundamental to our humanity and should be accessible to all — connecting us to one another, expanding our individual and collective imaginations, and elevating our spirit. Opened in 1962, the 16-acre campus is home to eleven arts organizations dedicated to uplifting the role of art and artists in our society, providing a destination for global artistic voices, training the next generation of great artists, and creating unforgettable experiences for all New Yorkers: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Film at Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and School of American Ballet. Lincoln Center welcomes millions of people for thousands of performances each year, anchoring New York City’s legendary creative life and greatly impacting its civic and economic wellbeing.

About Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) is a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring the Lincoln Center campus is a destination that welcomes all — where every visitor, whether a native New Yorker or New Yorker for a day, can find artistic innovation, inspiration, and community in the creative achievements realized on campus. Year-round, we offer robust seasons of programming, representing a broad spectrum of performing arts disciplines and complementing the artistic and educational activities of the 10 fellow resident arts organizations with whom we share a home. LCPA presents hundreds of programs each year, offered primarily for free and Choose-What-You-Pay, helping ensure that the arts are at the center of civic life for all.

 The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is a Founding Partner of the SNF-Lincoln Center West Initiative’s visionary process, building upon their support of free programming throughout Summer for the City and the ongoing Legacies of San Juan Hill initiative

We are grateful to our Board of Directors for their leadership and generous support in 
making our work possible

Operation of Lincoln Center’s public plazas is supported in part with public funds 
provided by the City of New York

Programs are made possible, in part, with public funds provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor, the Mayor of the City of New York, the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Council

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