raising the roof

A computer rendering of the new black box theater that will be perched atop the Vivian Beaumont.

Nearly half a century after Eero Saarinen and Jo Meizner designed the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, Meizner's assisitant Hugh Hardy, 77, now a high-profile architect himself, is again working on the Beaumont, only this time without the involvement of Saarinen the Modernist master. His design for an addition to the building — a new black box theater that will be perched on the roof of the Beaumont Theater with a terrace overlooking Lincoln Center — is to be unveiled today.

Last year preservationists warned against messing with Saarinen’s original building, and with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, designed by Gordon Bunshaft, that abuts it.

But the project has made it through the public approval process, including a nod from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (which has only an advisory role, since Lincoln Center is not landmarked).

A computerized view from the plaza. Preservationists fear messing with Saarinen's building.

Read the entire story in today's New York Times here.