Lincoln Center

You walk in from the busy avenue, and the noise of traffic falls away behind you. Ahead opens a wide stone plaza, pale and bright, ringed by three tall buildings with high glass fronts and graceful arches. In the middle, a round fountain throws water into the air, catching the light. In the evening, the glass glows from within. This is Lincoln Center, one of the largest homes for the performing arts in the country.

Lincoln Center sits on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It is not one building but a group of them, gathered around open plazas. Within these walls, an opera company, an orchestra, a ballet company, and a famous music school all do their work. On a single night, thousands of people may come here to hear music, see dance, or watch a play. It is a small city built for art.

The center was built in the late nineteen fifties and the nineteen sixties. It was part of a large plan to renew this part of the city. Leaders wanted to bring the great arts companies of New York together in one place. The plan was led in part by John D. Rockefeller the Third, who helped raise the money. President Eisenhower came to help break ground in 1959.

The site has its own story from before. The neighborhood that stood here was once called San Juan Hill. It was a crowded, working area, home to many Black and Puerto Rican families. Their buildings were cleared to make room for the center. The famous film of the musical West Side Story was shot in these streets just before they came down. The history here is not simple.

Stand in the main plaza and turn slowly. Three large buildings face you across the open stone. Each is faced with pale travertine, a warm stone brought from quarries in Italy. The three share a common style of tall arches and glass, so they feel like a family. They were designed by different architects who agreed to work in harmony, so the whole would feel like one place.

The largest building, straight ahead, is the Metropolitan Opera House. It opened in 1966. Through its tall glass front, you can see two enormous paintings glowing on the inside walls. They are murals by the artist Marc Chagall, full of floating figures and bright color. At night, when the lights are on, the murals can be seen clearly from the plaza, like windows into a dream.

To your left stands the home of the New York Philharmonic, one of the oldest orchestras in the country. The hall has been rebuilt and renamed more than once as the city worked to improve its sound. To your right is the theater built for ballet and opera, where dancers of the New York City Ballet perform. Each building holds a different art, yet they share the same plaza.

At the center of the plaza sits the round fountain. By day it is a meeting point, a place to sit on the rim and wait for a friend. By night it is lit, and the water shifts and rises against the dark. People gather here before shows and linger after. The fountain has become the natural heart of the whole center, the spot where everyone agrees to meet.

Behind and around the main plaza, the center holds even more. There is a respected school of music, dance, and drama, where young artists train for years. There is a theater for plays, a library devoted to the performing arts, and a separate home for jazz nearby. A reflecting pool sits beside a broad lawn. The place rewards slow exploring, beyond the first open square.

Come in the early evening if you can, before a performance. This is when the center feels most alive. People cross the plaza in fine clothes. The fountain glows. The sound of instruments tuning may drift from an open door. Even without a ticket, you are welcome to stand in the plaza and share the feeling. Some of the best moments here are free.

Lincoln Center was not loved by everyone when it was new. Some thought it too grand or too cold, and some never forgot the neighborhood that was lost to build it. These are fair thoughts to hold. Yet the center has also given a home to great art for many years, and has slowly opened itself more and more to the public who pass by.

Before you go, find a place to sit by the fountain. Watch the people come and go. Listen for music in the air. This is a place built for one simple purpose, to bring people together in a dark room to share something live and human. Whether or not you see a show today, you have stood at its center. Let the water and the light keep you a moment more.