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Architects: Diller Scofidio + Renfro, FXFOWLE
- Year: 2010
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Photographs: Iwan Baan
Text description provided by the architects. Construction is complete on Hypar Pavilion at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, situated on the edge of Hearst Plaza and 65th Street, the new free standing structure is the home of a new public lawn and restaurant.
The dual requirements of a destination restaurant and a public green space located within the confines of the Plaza are satisfied with a single architectural gesture sited between the reflecting pool and the plaza’s north edge. Elizabeth Diller comments, “Hypar Pavilion’s moment of invention came when we discovered how to design a destination restaurant without consuming public space on the Lincoln Center campus. The roof became a new kind of interface between public and private, with an occupiable twisting grass canopy over a glass pavilion restaurant.”
The Hypar Pavilion lawn is accessed at its single point of contact with the Plaza. The 7,200sf lawn surface lifts up at two opposing corners creating a space for the restaurant sandwiched between the Plaza level and the twisting parabolic roof. The resulting topography of the lawn above is oriented away from city noise and traffic, creating a bucolic urbanism.
The 11,000 sqf restaurant occupies two levels with entrances from 65th street and Hearst Plaza. The main dining floor is co-planar with the Plaza surface and the transparent facades link diners to Lincoln Center’s public life that spills onto the plaza before, during, and after performances. At its center is the 1,000 sqf kitchen open to the dining areas. The restaurant has a capacity for 194 guests including a Lounge area, Bar seating and private Dining Room located on the 65th street level.
Hypar Pavilion continues Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s strategic updates to the Lincoln Center campus, which previously included: the redesign of Alice Tully Hall, the expansion and renovation of The Juilliard School, and the public Promenade project.
