Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic have announced that they dropped Heatherwick Studio's plans for the renovation of the David Geffen Hall at New York's Lincoln Center. Heatherwick Studio and Canadian architecture firm Diamond Schmitt Architects were selected to overhaul the largest concert venue of New York city in 2015, their renovation plans would oversee the reconfiguration the venue's common areas and performance spaces as well as upgrading its acoustic quality to create a holistic approach on the whole of the building. 

Directed under the leadership of Lincoln Center and New York Philharmonic, two organisations declared in a joint announcement that they scrapped the $500 million renovation plans of Heatherwick Studio and Diamond Schmitt Architects due to their "overall complexity" and they required "a more scaled approach." 

David Geffen Hall. Image courtesy of NYP

This is the third scrapped project of Heatherwick Studio after Pier 55 design scheme was abandoned last month, with also proposed scheme for London's Garden Bridge in UK. 

Even though details about scrapping of the project are not yet clear, the announcement suggests that two organisations is planning to develop re-envision strategy for the renovation of David Geffen Hall in order not to keep closed the building for long periods of time. 

"After a concentrated period of deep review and thoughtful evaluation, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the New York Philharmonic have decided to re-envision the strategy that will steer the forthcoming renovations of David Geffen Hall," said in the announcement.

"The two organizations will forgo the original design proposal, and instead move forward with a new master plan—one that will be ambitious, but will center primarily on improving audience and artist experiences inside the hall, and will include phased renovations."

"The goal of the project remains to create a welcoming and world-class concert hall, which will include a reimagined hall configuration, with a focus on acoustics, and enlivening the hall’s lobbies and other public spaces. This re- envisioning has the major advantage of keeping the Philharmonic in its home without prolonged periods of displacement," they added.

Lincoln Center is now being overseen by New York-based firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Image courtesy of Shutterstock

The concert hall, originally designed by Max Abramovitz, was the first building to open on the Lincoln Center campus. First known as Philharmonic Hall, it has been home to storied performances by the New York Philharmonic, as well as other renowned orchestras and soloists, for more than five decades. 

The symphonic concert hall was renamed in September, 2015 to David Geffen Hall in honor of music and media executive and philanthropist David Geffen, whose generous $100 million gift will allow Lincoln Center to move forward with the creation of the dynamic, new hall.

Similarly, Foster + Partners were selected to the renovation of the building in 2005, but the studio's plans were also dropped since the renovation costs reached at $300 million. Heatherwick Studio and Diamond Schmitt Architects were selected from more than 100 firms to replace with Foster + Partners' plans on the project after a two-year competition process.

"Lincoln Center and the Philharmonic are grateful to the early design team for its completed work, which helped to reveal and clarify many complexities, both logistical and technical, in the project," they continued in the statement.

"These complexities compelled the two organizations to perform additional due diligence on the vital project and, as a result, to develop a new approach to renovate the iconic structure. Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic will announce complete details of the new plan at a future date."

Top image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

> via The New York Philharmonic/Lincoln Center