David Geffen Hall
View of the hall from the south
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| Former names | Philharmonic Hall (1962-1973) Avery Fisher Hall (1973-2015) |
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| Address | 10 Lincoln Center Plaza |
| Location | New York City |
| Coordinates | 40°46′22″N 73°58′59″W / 40.77278°N 73.98306°WCoordinates: 40°46′22″N 73°58′59″W / 40.77278°N 73.98306°W |
| Public transit |
Subway: Bus: |
| Owner | New York City Government |
| Type | concert hall |
| Capacity | 2,738 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1962 |
| Renovated | 2019 |
Subway:
Bus:
David Geffen Hall is a concert hall in New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The 2,738 seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic.
The facility, designed by Max Abramovitz, was originally named Philharmonic Hall and was renamed Avery Fisher Hall in honor of philanthropist Avery Fisher, who donated $10.5 million ($57 million today) to the orchestra in 1973. In November 2014, Lincoln Center officials announced Fisher's name would be removed from the Hall so that naming rights could be sold to the highest bidder as part of a $500 million fund-raising campaign to refurbish the Hall.David Geffen has donated $100 million US dollars to rename the Hall after himself. The facility was renamed David Geffen Hall in 2015.
The hall underwent renovations in 1976 to address acoustical problems that existed since it opened. Another smaller renovation attempted to address unresolved problems in 1992. Both projects achieved limited success.
In May 2004, the orchestra announced that the building would undergo renovations in 2009, but in June 2006, The New York Times reported that the construction had been delayed until the summer of 2010. By 2012, it became clear that construction would not start before 2017. The shell of the building will be left intact and work will focus on improving the hall’s acoustics, modernizing patron amenities and reconfiguring the auditorium.
On November 13, 2014, Lincoln Center officials announced their intention to remove Avery Fisher's name from the Hall and sell its naming rights to the highest bidder as part of a $500 million fund-raising campaign for its refurbishment. Lincoln Center chairwoman Katherine Farley said, "It will be an opportunity for a major name on a great New York jewel." Fisher's three children agreed to the deal for $15 million.
Architects hired the acoustical consulting division of Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) to design the original interior acoustics for the hall. Their acousticians recommended a 2,400 seat "shoebox" design with narrowly spaced parallel sides (similar in shape to the acoustically acclaimed Symphony Hall, Boston). Lincoln Center officials initially agreed with the recommendation, and BBN provided a series of design specifications and recommendations. However, the New York Herald Tribune began a campaign to increase the seating capacity of the new hall and late in the design stage it was expanded to accommodate the critics' desires, invalidating much of BBN's acoustical work. BBN engineers told Lincoln Center management the hall would sound different from their initial intent, but they could not predict what the changes would do.
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