Hood Design Studio, Weiss/Manfredi, and Moody Nolan were selected in March 2024 to revamp Lincoln Center’s west side, and increase access from Amsterdam Avenue. Renderings were shared today of the improvement project. The most noticeable change will be the removal of the tall wall that has long divided Amsterdam Avenue from the performing arts center. A new amphitheater at Damrosch Park will accompany the wall’s removal. The overall project is both contemporary and deeply rooted in New York City urban renewal history. The new view from Amsterdam Avenue (Brooklyn Digital Foundry) Six decades ago, Robert Moses’s Lincoln Square Development Plan displaced 7,000 New York families and 800 businesses to make way for Lincoln Center. It destroyed San Juan Hill, a once thriving Black and Latine community. An imposing barrier wall was built on Amsterdam Avenue, dividing public housing residents at Amsterdam Houses from the complex. Today, tourists sequester at Josie Robertson Plaza, where the iconic Revson Fountain is sited between midcentury buildings by Max Abramovitz, Wallace K. Harrison, and Philip Johnson. They rarely venture to Damrosch Park on the western edge, where the Guggenheim Bandshell is located. Local community members have advocated for removing the wall at Damrosch Park for years. The new design will tear down this wall, making way for a new, world-class outdoor performance venue, and community park spaces. The new amphitheater (Brooklyn Digital Foundry) Aerial view of the new amphitheater (Brooklyn Digital Foundry) Most presciently, this will allow for more seamless access from Amsterdam Houses, but also LaGuardia High School, and the five high schools at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Educational Complex. Renderings show the shell amphitheater partially roofed in white fins. The ovular form hugs perimeter seating down below. The urban design draws from Lincoln Center’s modernist ensemble, the team said. It retains a strong central axis that echoes the campus’s symmetrical layout pierced by new formal entry points. New materials, textures, colors, and accessibility upgrades bring contemporary touches. The western side will have easy access to Josie Robertson Plaza. (Brooklyn Digital Foundry) New plaza facing Amsterdam Avenue (Brooklyn Digital Foundry) Sidewalk improvements will entail an improved bus waiting area, an expanded sidewalk between 62nd and 65th Streets, added greenery and shade on the west side, and more benches. There will also be a new garden at the new Damrosch Park entrance. New terraced seating will provide a means for accessing the complex or hanging out. (Brooklyn Digital Foundry) The concourse that connects Amsterdam Avenue to the 1 Train Subway on Broadway will have better lighting, among other upgrades. New seating will be added along West 65th Street near the high schools for students to enjoy. A shaded area is another public place (Brooklyn Digital Foundry) NADAAA and the nonprofit Hester Street previously facilitated the community engagement process, findings later shared in a report that informed the more recent urban design project by Hood Design Studio, Weiss/Manfredi, and Moody Nolan. The project is slated for completion in May 2028.