Walking Tour : Revitalized Lincoln Center

     It is soooooo nice when the EXPERIENCE of going to the movies is a pleasant surprise.  (While the film can be nice, the arrival, ticket buying, navigating through theatre, choices of junk food, dirtiness of theatre, finding a seat… isn't).  A few nights ago, Lewis wanted to see the documentary film about Bergdorf Goodman, and he picked the cozy but sleek new theatre at Lincoln Center.  Let me begin there!

     When Lincoln Center was built (by Rockefeller funds), it was a marvel in that it was the first effort to make a plaza containing a city's ballet company, orchestra and opera house.  Sadly, it was designed--despite the team of talented architects--with dismal results (above).  Anyone who's travelled can tell you that a city or town has a sense of community/heart (and good feng shui) when there are places for the public to gather, commune with nature, socialize, and spend money.  
     Lincoln Center was built like a fortress--an outpost for the cultural-minded amidst the ragtag Upper West Side bohemians.  It was obviously made for patrons with cars arriving at the front (the entrance was cut off from the rest of the city by Broadway and Columbus Avenue, then slashed by its own driveway).  The other three sides of the complex were like prison walls: no entrances, bulletins or banners.  A high wall stood in the rear, sort of like giving the "cold shoulder" to the neighborhood.  And the entire complex was made out of corporate-drab grey!  It was only a "destination spot".  The only young people to arrive were usually aspiring musicians, singers or dancers belonging to the talented organizations housed there (proudly the best of each in the nation).
 

     Along came the brilliant designers of the famous High Line Park.  Amidst a recent era in Manhattan of creating beautiful public spaces, they redesigned Lincoln Center!  

     They used technology, lighting, a redesign of some buildings, and Nature to provide a "breath of fresh air" to the place.  Compare pictures: it's wonderful now!  They punched doorways to the theaters and restaurants into the walls around the complex.  They added a series of colorful digitally-changing kiosks, and planted rows of shade trees near a reflecting pool with benches (called the Lincoln Center Bosque).  

They added a wide circular bench around the main fountain--which now does "water shows".  They covered over the driveway with illuminated stairs (with ever-changing digital messages on each step that faces the people) 

and put the driveway underneath it--accessing the underground parking garage.  That brought people up the steps to access the plaza!  
     They added tasteful food vendors to the plaza, built a new glass enclosed restaurant, and did a High Line-ish engineering marvel by topping the restaurant with a hilly "great lawn" for people to lounge on (or read, or sip espresso, et cetera).  It encourages flâneurs!  

Tucked underneath is an upscale restaurant.  The angle of the "hill" is echoed by the Juilliard building behind it (also seen below).

     You can see how they added a sweeping wing to the famous Julliard School, which cuts upward, beyond the original building and over the sidewalk.  Hanging down from it is a glass box (a classroom) allowing students and pedestrians to admire each other.  On the ground below, a dazzling glass atrium contains a lovely sleek café.  Outside the eatery, curving organic-looking stone steps and seats face the building with "bleacher style" seating rising up in pyramid fashion, as if to echo the soaring roof above.  It is there that I sat, awaiting Lewis, so that I could see him approach.  (He still snuck up on me, texting me to look "down and to the right" to see him smiling up at me).

 
     Under the lawn-topped restaurant is a new film theatre (above).  Small but unique and attractively conceived.  To create an entrance, the designers splashed a saffron-colored alcove into the building--all at angles--with illuminated signs (both vertically and horizontally) to catch your eye.  The alcove angles outward--with one wall showing the movie info, and two ticket windows (with real people) in the other.

     Rows of closely placed lights in the floor will dazzle theatergoers as they enter... only to be greeted inside by the wafting aromas from another restaurant that opens onto the lobby.  No Skittles or marshmallow candy or 64 oz sodas or high fructose corn syrup snacks here!  You can buy sweet or savory items from the restaurant, which also has a "take to the movies" counter.  They also advertise a $25 dinner & movie special (our tix were $13 ea).  And it smells DELICIOUS!  
     The theatres inside are cleverly created.  Spacious, well-lit corridors connect through glass doors to each.  The one for films has armchair-style seats (with cup-holders), and the only pre-movie ads are for the plethora of upcoming films.  The other space could show films or lectures/performances, and its grand "garage-door" entrance and polished concrete floors are awe-inspiring.  All this in a such efficiently used amount of real estate.  We will definitely be back to see more movies there--an oasis!  Not to mention, The Smith restaurant opened across Broadway--which makes an excellent pre or post-movie dining spot (with scrumptious menu and cocktails)!
   

     The movie was titled "Spread My Ashes at Bergdorf Goodman".  It highlighted lesser-known, lesser-appreciated (taken for granted) facts about the nation's landmark department store--consistently for the richest customers of the world.  It was bought by a Jewish merchant family after the Vanderbilt mansion (which took up the whole block) was torn down (below).  The store replaced it.

     Lewis and I are still amazed that the Vanderbilts kept Biltmore and the Breakers but ripped down that magnificent city palace.  After all, J. P. Morgan's 23 Wall Street still stands (a one-story building amidst the pressures of skyscraper development).  
     Until the 1970s, the store (occupying the same whole block) was privately owned (now owned by Neiman Marcus Group, aka "Needless Mark-up").  And that building is just the Ladies Store: the Men's Store is in a building across the street (which the film oddly ignored completely and didn't even show or mention).  Most people don't know that the Bergdorf family lived in a 14-room penthouse on the top floor of the store.  Several windows still have a consistently clear view of Central Park, and several windows overlook Fifth Ave.  In the film, Barbara Corcoran (of the city's biggest real estate firms) described the penthouse, but kept it secret as to who occupies it now.

     We got to see into the lives of the man who trains the superior-but-sharklike sales team.  Over the course of months, the film crew followed the man in charge of the famous Fifth Avenue window displays (working with his team in the store basement's menagerie of props... and in a Long Island City warehouse).  The filmmakers interviewed the Goodman's grandson--who contrasted with the flurrying fashionistas selling the merchandise--by speaking very sedately but firmly and resembling a WASP uncle.  The fedora-wearing store manager wasn't too far behind.  I admired the frank but charming personality of the store's top personal shopper.  With my lottery winnings, I might use her to work with me efficiently and successfully!  The stories recounted by sales associates were as famous as Diana Vreeland's.  (Along that note, they interviewed the head of Fashion Collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who mentioned that the store helped support the Alexander McQueen exhibit--which Lewis and I saw last year--helping bring in over a million people and making it on the top ten exhibits in the museum's history)!

     Bergdorf's fur buyer's story of bringing merchandise to the apartment(s) of John Lennon and Yoko Ono--who bought 70 fur coats ($400,000 in the early 1970s)--on Christmas Eve was amazing.  The tales of Joan Rivers, Susan Lucci, Liza Minelli, Audrey Hepburn and Jackie O Kennedy shopping there showed how well-connected the store's boutiques and restaurant have always been.  The store is the desired "launchpad" for most designers, Parsons grads and FIT students.  It has traditionally introduced foreign designers to the shop-a-holic Americans.  However, it prides itself on discovering and nurturing unknown talent.  The head buyer--equivalent to Vogue's "ice queen" Anna Wintour (when it comes to deciding who will succeed by being featured in the store)--actually does so with sparkling positive attitude and joie de vive!  To balance the stories of commerce, the film showed vignettes from young designers on how they were sometimes randomly chosen (like Michael Kors or TOMS footwear).  Then, there were the scenarios showing how much attention to detail and true hand-done artistry is lavished on the window displays and the many parties hosted in the store.  It's not just "all about the Benjamins".

     Overall, the film showed that some things are meant to be a certain way, and kept that way.  Thusly, they indeed survive the passage of time, financial turmoil, shifting economy, and trends.  Like a Buddhist temple, they stay the same.  Go check it out!  It's handsomely filmed with quirky witty blurbs of dialogue and history.  Sort of like Claridge's Hotel of London.  If only more establishments were run like this!