© Russ Dantzler 2000

Wynton Marsalis and Rob Gibson examine the new Jazz at Lincoln Center models.

Jazz To Get a New NYC Dream Home
How might a structure house the spirit of jazz? The answer was presented to a small group of jazz and community leaders on May 23 in New York. Jazz at Lincoln Center unveiled the models of an architecturally stunning jazz campus to be completed in 2003 at the spot where Broadway meets the corner of Central Park. Mayor Giuliani told us, "it puts Jazz at Lincoln Center at the forefront of our cultural institutions.

"What we saw was more than imaginative architecture. It was the comprehensive vision of Wynton Marsalis and Rob Gibson, J@LC's artistic director and executive producer/director, working with Vinoly Architects. They designed a huge, versatile and interactive dream home for J@LC, the most far-reaching organization ever to promote the appreciation and understanding of America's own music.

Joining the base of two new towers that will rise there will be a 100,000 square foot $103 million group of flexible spaces that will overlook Central Park six floors below. This jazz campus will include a 600-seat performance atrium with a wall of glass overlooking the city, a 1300 seat concert theater that will be built for jazz but loaned to other Lincoln Center constituents, a 140-seat jazz cafe', two education/rehearsal spaces, and a jazz hall of fame. All of this making history by being designed for the sound, feel and intimacy of jazz.

"The whole space is going to be dedicated to the feeling of swing, which is a feeling of extreme coordination," Wynton Marsalis said. "Everything is going to be integrated: therelationships between one space and another, between the audience and the musicians. One fluid motion... our place is going to swing."


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