This summer, Broadway set designer Mimi Lien is creating a different kind of stage for New Yorkers to enjoy, at Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza. With an installation called The Green, Lien has transformed this large outdoor space on Manhattan’s Upper West Side from hardscape into a grassy oasis with a snack bar, shaded seating, and a mobile New York Public Library outpost. The eye-catching venue will host pop-up performances during the warmer months as part of Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages initiative following Covid closures of the past year.
During a brainstorming session on how to make Lincoln Center’s campus more inclusive, Lien—a Tony Award–winner and 2015 MacArthur “genius” grant recipient—pointed out that some aspects of the existing plaza could be viewed as “uninviting.” The concentric pattern of the paving radiating out from the central Revson Fountain (originally designed by Philip Johnson), she says, creates a closed circle. “There’s beauty to the austerity and a breadth to it,” says the Brooklyn–based designer, “but in trying to augment the space for this summer, we thought it might be nice to make it slightly cozier.”
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