In April of 2020 we posted a news update on the New York Philharmonic’s “Reimagination” project for David Geffen Hall, known as Avery Fisher Hall for most of its 61 years. A few months prior Philharmonic leadership had made clear that Richard Lippold’s site specific sculpture, Orpheus and Apollo, would not be reinstalled in the hall’s four-story Grand Promenade atrium. We wrote, “The missing Lippold signaled an aggressive reconfiguring of the signature atrium, one that would substantially alter Geffen Hall’s presence on the plaza and its relationship to the opera house and NY State Theater—together monumental houses that define the performing arts center. This has come to pass. 

The architecture critic—and architect—Joseph Giovannini has written a studied and sweeping review of the Philharmonic’s transformation of its Lincoln Center venue in the recent issue of The Hudson Review. We share the link and the point of view.