Lincoln Center, Past and Present@Arch

Robin Pogrebin writes:On May 14, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, alongside John D. Rockefeller 3rd, thrust a shovel in the ground on Manhattan's Upper West Side to signal the start of construction on Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Photo: Eddie Hausner/The New York Times
Lincoln Center rose from a slum-clearance area on the West Side where acres of buildings fell, including this one razed in 1959 between 68th and 69th Streets.
Photo: Eddie Hausner/The New York Times
On Aug. 17, 1959, West 64th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam was closed to traffic so construction of Lincoln Center could begin.
Photo: Patrick A. Burns/The New York Times
A 1964 tour of Lincoln Center with the construction of the Metropolitan Opera House in the background.
Photo: Courtesy of Lincoln Center
On opening night in September 1962, the maestro Leonard Bernstein was the master of ceremonies and the New York Philharmonic and Juilliard chorus performed the National Anthem.
Photo: Courtesy of Lincoln Center

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center on opening night in September 1962, when it was still known as Philharmonic Hall.
The Metropolitan Opera’s baritone, Leonard Warren, sang the prologue to Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci.” The mezzo-soprano, Risë Stevens, sang the “Habanera” from Bizet’s “Carmen.”
Photo: The New York Times
Now Lincoln Center on Wednesday will announce a year-long series of events to mark its half-century of existence. The 50th anniversary will be celebrated amidst a construction site; Lincoln Center is in the middle of an ambitious $1.2 billion redevelopment plan that is not due to be completed until 2011.
Photo: Richard Termine for The New York Times
But portions of the project will be completed, including a refurbished Alice Tully Hall, a renovated Juilliard School and most of the fountain plaza.
Photo: Courtesy of Lincoln Center
By fall 2009, Lincoln Center hopes to open its new visitors’ space at the former Harmony Atrium, where for the first time audiences will be able to buy tickets to all of the center’s events, with discounts of up to 50 percent on the day of performances.
Photo: Courtesy of Lincoln Center
Yo-Yo Ma performs during a 2007 dress rehearsal inside Avery Fisher Hall.
“We hope the celebratory plans reflect what we’ve become,” Reynold Levy, Lincoln Center’s president said, “and what we hope to be.”
Photo: Patrick Andrade for The New York Times

@Source: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/09/17/arts/20080917_LINC_SLIDESHOW_10.html