The David Geffen Hall is home to the New York Philharmonic.  It opened in 1962 as the Philharmonic Hall but became the Avery Fisher Hall in 1973 only to change name again in 2015 in recognition of the donation of $100M by the American business magnate, producer, film studio executive, and philanthropist David Geffen.  The donation by Geffen amounted to approximately 20% of the cost of refurbishing the hall.  Today, David Geffen Hall hosts notable performances by acclaimed orchestras and artists from around the globe, as well as galas, film premieres, graduations, and conferences.  The hall’s spacious lobby and promenade feature artwork including Rodin’s bust of Gustav Mahler.

This is not a building without controversy.  From the beginning the hall has been criticised for its poor sound quality.  A number of attempts to address the sound issues have consumed money but failed to alley the criticism.  Even the shape of the hall has been held responsible for a psychological problem for the audience.  Those concert-goers with seats at the back of the hall complained that they were a ridiculous distance from the orchestra but in fact sound experts were of the view that the sound they received was superior to that enjoyed by the patrons in the expensive seats near the stage.  The "nymag.com/intelligencer" website published an article by Justin in December of 2019 in which he summed up this ongoing problem.  ".... At 57, the home of the New York Philharmonic has already been through two name changes, one major surgery with organ removal, numerous invasive procedures, and an abortive abandonment (when the orchestra threatened to leave it for Carnegie Hall). Even so, it remains a demoralizing relic, not just because of the clattering acoustics or seats that have turned a shade the orchestra’s president Deborah Borda describes as “merde brown,” but also because musicians hate playing there. Backstage is a bleak wonderland of long hallways, narrow staircases, and glacial elevators. You expect to find a Stasi interrogation chamber behind every steel door.  Talk of renovating or replacing Philharmonic/Avery Fisher/David Geffen Hall has been swirling for years. And now, here we are again, with another design, another staggering budget, and more assertions that this time, it’ll all work out. If it does, then the cost — $550 million and the building’s architectural integrity — will have made it a good deal."

The article concludes with an opinion as to why resolving the problem is important, "... Rejuvenating Geffen Hall is a high-cost, high-risk operation, but the reason it’s worth doing is not to satisfy affluent mavens, sound-quality feinschmeckers, or New York boosters, but the people in the cheap seats. They are music students, kids, retirees, first-time ticket buyers, first-date couples, and hard-core aficionados — listeners who can be turned on by a visceral experience or off by a performance that feels distant and dulled."

Known originally as the New York State Theatre, this cultural facility was built with funds from the State of New York as part of New York State's cultural participation in the 1964–1965 World's Fair.  It was designed by architect Philip Johnson and opened on April 23, 1964. After the World’s Fair, the State transferred ownership of the theater to the City of New York.  Today it is home to the New York City Ballet.  In July 2008, the American businessman, philanthropist, political activist, and chemical engineer David H. Koch pledged $100 million over a 10 years period for the renovation the theater and to provide for an operating and maintenance endowment. In recognition of his donation, the building was renamed the David H. Koch Theatre.

The Metropolitan Opera House website reflects on the history of the building and its place within the Lincoln Centre projrect.  It points out that, “The centerpiece of Lincoln Center was to be the new Metropolitan Opera House, which would be the largest and most expensive of the campus’s buildings and would occupy the central position on the plaza.”  The architect was to be Wallace K. Harrison, '…. who had been involved in the Met’s planning process since the proposed Rockefeller Center project and who had recently worked on the design team for the United Nations headquarters.' ” 

Paul Goldberger is quoted on the site saying that, “…. Harrison was a fascinating architect in that he was an unusual combination of the practical and the political, and also the very idealistic, the modern, and the romantic. And he really had an enormously fertile, potent, flamboyant architectural imagination. His initial ideas, while very beautiful, were also quite expensive. They were very sculptural. But engineering for that kind of sculptural form was tough in those years, and very expensive. And a building that had as many practical demands as the Metropolitan Opera is difficult to combine with a very unusual sculptural form.”

The Wikipedia page for the building describes it as being clad in white travertine, “… the east facade is graced with its distinctive series of five concrete arches and large glass and bronze facade, towering 96 feet above the plaza. On the north, south and west sides of the building, hundreds of vertical fins of travertine running the full height of the structure give the impression that the facade is an uninterrupted mass of travertine when viewed from certain angles. The building totals 14 stories, 5 of which are underground.  …… The auditorium is fan-shaped and decorated in gold and burgundy with seating for 3,794 and 245 standing positions on six levels. Over 4,000 squares of gold leaf cover the domed petal-shaped ceiling from which the 21 crystal chandeliers hang. The walls of the auditorium are paneled in kevazingo bubinga, a rosewood noted for its acoustic quality.”

A feature of the plaza at Lincoln Centre is this fountain called the Revson Fountain and named after Charles Revson, the founder and manager of the Revlon cosmetic company.  Wikipedia says of the fountain that, "... Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the lead architects of the 2006 renovation of Lincoln Center, made several proposals to redesign the fountain, eventually changing the perimeter bench to a floating granite disk; the fountain itself was rebuilt by WET Design from 2007 to 2009. Andrew Dolkart objected to the redesign: 'It’s the thing that upsets me most of all about what's happened at Lincoln Center. They thought that they needed to spend a lot of money ripping out Philip Johnson's fountain and putting in something new instead of restoring something that worked well.' The rebuilt fountain debuted on September 30, 2009, at a ceremony attended by members of Charles Revson's family."

Possibly as a taste of the pleasures to come for visitors to Lincoln Centre, this artwork graces the walls of the nearby 66th Street/Lincoln Center subway station.  It waa created by the long-time New York City resident and artist Nancy Spero, and is entitled "Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers".