Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall
New York City
Polshek Partnership Architects

Polshek Partnership returns a third performance space to The Carnegie Hall Master plan, elegantly expanding underground

© Jeff Goldberg/Esto

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

By William Weathersby, Jr.

For 25 years, Polshek Partnership Architects has orchestrated incisive master-plan enhancements of Carnegie Hall, long viewed as one of the country’s premier concert venues. During the 1980s, the firm restored both the main Isaac Stern Auditorium and the smaller Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall. Public amenities and backstage spaces were expanded into the new neighboring Carnegie Hall Tower in 1991. With the completion of a third performance space, the 644-seat Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall, Polshek has reached beyond its role as conservator of the historic building to that of innovator, expanding the notion of what a Carnegie Hall concert can be. The auditorium fulfills the venerable institution’s mission to broaden its musical performance and educational programming with a modern and flexible space.

Zankel Hall restores philanthropist Andrew Carnegie’s original vision of housing three performance spaces under one roof. Designed by architect William B. Tuthill, the 1891 Italian Renaissance–style structure initially included a third, 1,200-seat recital hall within its below-grade level. Later, the hall was adapted as an off-Broadway theater and a cinema. By the late 1990s, the venue had been compromised both architecturally and acoustically beyond restoration, leading Carnegie Hall administrators to envision building a new auditorium with an expanded scope in its place.

Carnegie Hall’s mandate was to create an intermediate-size performance space with excellent acoustics and modern architectural details that remained sensitive to its historic surroundings. Major challenges were improving public access from the street, excavating through bedrock to create the larger auditorium volume necessary to support a broad range of music styles, and acoustically isolating the hall from the main hall directly above it and the adjacent city subways.

The stacked interior spaces are a play of interlocking geometric forms in contrasting materials. Within the rectangular footprint of the building’s masonry walls, a canted ellipse constructed of reinforced concrete and finished in polished plaster defines lobby circulation. Set within the ellipse, the rectangular auditorium features freestanding walls paneled in American sycamore. Cream-colored plaster, mohair upholstery, and warm woods detailed in bronze subtly evoke the main hall’s detailing.

Want the full story? Read the entire article in our January 2005 issue.
Subscribe to Architectural Record in print, or get Architectural Record digitally

Formal name of Project:
Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall

Location:
New York City

Owner:
Carnegie Hall Corporation

Architect:
Polshek Partnership Architects
320 West 13th Street
New York, NY 10014
212.807.7171
212.807.5917 fax
www.polshek.com