Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Master Plan, Rose Building & Juilliard School Redesign
New York, NY

830,000 SF • 77,100 SQ M

Davis Brody Bond was commissioned by Lincoln Center to devise a Master Plan to create a more physically and conceptually cohesive campus and to design the new Rose Building. The plan resulted in various expansions and renovations, including the creation of a promenade which physically connected the Rose building with the main plaza and allowed for the replanning of the Juilliard School. Although part of the Lincoln Center community, Juilliard was separated from the main campus due to the placement and design of its entrances and walkways. The Master Plan introduced a bookstore and ticket office along the plaza level, adding public activities to what had once been desolate. The school’s existing three-story lobby was horizontally divided into two spaces, creating a new lobby and entrance on the promenade level and a new recital hall on the street level. The promenade serves as a new entrance for the Juilliard School and an active urban space.

The 350,000 sf Rose Building houses a variety of functions including new administrative offices, additional rehearsal space, a branch of the New York Public Library, and a fire station. It is comprised of a 12-story base building and a 17-story dormitory tower for students of the Juilliard and the School of American Ballet, containing lounges, a cafeteria, and guest suites. Conceived as a “big house,” the dormitory houses 400 students on four stories linked by an internal stair. Each floor is divided into clusters containing bedrooms and accessible bathrooms. Common rooms such as a kitchen, lounge, and study room are located throughout. he building’s facade is composed of white stone similar to the Center’s original structures, integrating the addition with the main plaza. The attached 47-story apartment tower, also designed by Davis Brody Bond, is privately owned. The black glass exterior stands in contrast to the white Rose Building. 

Davis Brody Bond was also commissioned to perform the complete renovation of the Lila Acheson Wallace Library, which had not been renovated since its original construction in 1960. Despite its location on the top floor of the school’s well-known building, the Library had no access to natural light, and finishes and furnishings were in need of refurbishment. Important objectives included introduction of data and power to all reader seats; provision for small group listening and study; an environmentally controlled rare book archive and reading room; expanded staff work space; and increased capacity for print collections.

(Photography by Peter Aaron / ESTO)