Volume 28, Number 13 · August 13, 1981
Lincoln Shelter
By Lincoln Kirstein
Lincoln Center: The Building of an Institution
by Edgar B. Young, with a foreword by Frank Stanton
New York University Press, 334 pp., $24.95
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc., shelters opera, instrumental music, dance, drama, film, the Juilliard School, and a research branch of the New York Public Library. It has operated since 1962, time enough to call for more than congratulations. Pebble-aggregate paving around the central fountain needs granite replacement.[1] Carpeted walls on the State Theater's promenade are filthy; its seats are sprung. An ominous fissure threatens the basement. Travertine veneer on Avery Fisher (né Philharmonic) Hall is eroded. Money donated for annual maintenance is no glamorous option; wear and tear slowly affect visible service. Much is always skimped in the final press of construction, with euphoric disdain of future patchwork. However, the reflecting pool facing the Beaumont Theater leaks no more and, despite blemish, the several 'cultural' facilities are in uninterrupted use.
Review, 4669 words
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