Save the Somewhat Dreary!
Backseat architects fight for Lincoln Center’s past.
After being unable to stop the renovation of 2 Columbus Circle, the city’s modernist preservationists have a new sixties-heritage rallying point: Lincoln Center. Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s plans to alter the center include updating the Daniel Urban Kiley–designed North Plaza by depressing the travertine planters into the ground and narrowing the reflecting pool to create room for a new restaurant with a gently swooping, grass-covered paraboloid roof. “It maintains the essence of Kiley’s tranquil oasis without following it to the letter of the law,” Liz Diller told a recent Planning Commission meeting. “You don’t preserve something by destroying it but keeping its ‘essence,’ ” says landscape architect Michael Gotkin, who ambushed Diller after the meeting with his own solution. It preserves the pool by moving the restaurant. “Only five feet,” he said, sketch in hand. “It doesn’t work,” she said, tersely. And Gotkin stormed off.
—Alex French