Juilliard School and Alice Tully Hall

1941 Broadway | also 140 West 66th Street, 155 West 65th Street, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza | Lincoln Square | built 1968

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1965

    Construction begins after a decade of design work by Pietro Belluschi

    Architect Pietro Belluschi, who joins the Lincoln Center design team in 1956, spends years developing roughly 70 preliminary drawings for the Juilliard building with collaborators Eduardo Catalano and Helge Westermann before construction finally begins in 1965. The finished Brutalist structure is faced in travertine donated by the Italian government.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1969

    September 11

    Alice Tully Hall opens in Juilliard's new Lincoln Center building

    Designed by Pietro Belluschi as part of the Juilliard School building, the concert hall is named for chamber music patron and former singer Alice Tully, whose gifts covered about $4.2 million of its cost. It opened on September 11, 1969, with the first concert of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Critics praised its restrained interior of basswood, lavender carpet and raspberry seats.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1969

    Alice Tully insists on legroom and picks the hall's colors herself

    Alice Tully, a tall woman, would not accept cramped seating and demanded plenty of legroom between rows. She also chose the paint and carpet colors, picked the seat upholstery, and selected animal-print wallpaper for the bathrooms. According to Playbill she had at first refused to let the hall carry her name, changing her mind after learning a renowned Austrian acoustician would work on it.

    Source: video.playbill.com

  4. 1972

    Last Tango in Paris has its world premiere at the New York Film Festival in the hall

    Bernardo Bertolucci's film Last Tango in Paris had its world premiere at the 1972 New York Film Festival, held in Alice Tully Hall. Playbill lists it among the hall's many firsts, along with the launch of the New and Newer Music series in 1970 and the Great Performers series in 1973, and recital debuts in New York by Renee Fleming and Bryn Terfel.

    Source: video.playbill.com

  5. 1974

    Messiaen's Des canyons aux étoiles..., commissioned by Alice Tully, is first performed in her hall

    Alice Tully, who gave much of her income to arts institutions and often did so anonymously, commissioned Olivier Messiaen to write Des canyons aux étoiles.... The piece had its first performance in the hall that carries her name in 1974. She had received the Handel Medallion in 1970 and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1985.

    “Her most famous commission was for Olivier Messiaen who composed Des canyons aux étoiles... which had its first performance in the Alice Tully Hall in 1974.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1975

    A 4,192-pipe organ is installed in Alice Tully Hall

    A cathedral-sized pipe organ with 4,192 pipes is installed in Alice Tully Hall in 1975, adding a resource for organ recitals to a hall whose acoustics, designed by Heinrich Keilholz, already rank among the best at Lincoln Center.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2005

    The Landmarks Commission declines to protect Alice Tully Hall before its redesign

    Preservationists, including the group Docomomo International, wanted Pietro Belluschi's original building left intact as Lincoln Center prepared the Diller Scofidio + Renfro redesign. In 2005 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission declined to designate the hall a landmark. Construction began in March 2006, and the redesign won praise from many architecture critics.

    “The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission declined in 2005 to designate Alice Tully Hall as a city landmark.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 2007

    April 30

    A gala, Good Night Alice, closes the hall for its 18-month renovation

    On April 30, 2007, Alice Tully Hall went dark with a farewell gala featuring the Juilliard Orchestra and Audra McDonald. The work by Diller Scofidio & Renfro with FXFowle was expected to take 18 months. Lincoln Center said it had raised $482 million of its $702 million share, while the total estimated cost of the redevelopment had grown to $900 million.

    Source: Internet Archive

  9. 2009

    February

    Diller Scofidio + Renfro finish a redesign of Alice Tully Hall

    A renovation by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with FXFOWLE, begun in 2006, doubled the size of the lobby and added modern acoustic features; it was completed in February 2009. The 1,086-seat hall is a home of the New York Film Festival as well as chamber music.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 48 buildings with stories in Lincoln Square