David H. Koch Theater

 theatre, ballet theatre, 1964_construction, Modern (architecture)

6-story modernist theater completed in 1964. Designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, the David H. Koch Theater is a theater for ballet and opera, part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Originally named the New York State Theater, the house is home to both the New York City Ballet and New York City Opera. The theater occupies the south side of the main plaza of Lincoln Center, which it shares with the Metropolitan Opera House and Avery Fisher Hall.

In July 2008, oil-and-gas billionaire David H. Koch pledged to provide $100 million over the next ten years to renovate the theater and provide an operating and maintenance endowment. The facility became the David H. Koch Theater at the New York City Ballet Winter gala, November 25 of that year. Some people continue to refer to the theater by its original name.

The theater seats 2,586 and features broad seating on the orchestra level, four main “rings” (balconies) and a small Fifth Ring, faced with jewel-like lights and a large spherical chandelier in the center of the gold latticed ceiling. The facades are clad in travertine, with the front of the theater facing north into the open plaza. The main entrances are centrally located here, with poster boards and service entrances closer to the ends. An expansive 2nd-floor balcony extends out to the piers (in four groups of two) that support the upper roof line. Above the balcony, the upper floors are also set back behind the piers, like the ground floor. This wall is largely glass, with another set of piers dividing it into alternating narrow and wide bays. From the east end of the ground floor arcade (behind the front piers and below the balcony) extends a long canopy of glass and metal, over a ramp down to Columbus Avenue. The two, long metal girders of the canopy (which flare out towards the far end) are supported by a pair of bent metal columns about halfway out; the columns angle slightly inwards toward each other and then zag outwards towards the top, where they meet the canopy. A glass railing also lines the south side of the ramp, where there are two very tall flagpoles. A matching canopy extends from the very similar David Geffen Hall (formerly Avery Fisher Hall) to the north.

The east facade of the theater is largely hidden behind the line of trees along the Columbus Avenue sidewalk. There are no openings except for exits at the center of the ground floor; poster boxes line some of the rest of the ground floor to the north. Five sets of paired piers, projecting with angled sides, break up the expanse of the facade. The rear, south-facing facade is similar, with four sets of paired piers. It does have, however, two small, narrow windows in the west end bay at the 3rd & 4th floors, and three such windows in the next bay. The set-back top floor is more visible from the street here, also clad in travertine and with no openings. The far west end of the ground floor has a loading dock with a roll-down metal gate. The west facade is similar to the east, except with another freight entrance near the south end, and more of the small windows at the two southern bays on the 3rd & 4th floors.