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Kennedy Center changes Possible additions are on deck at the Kennedy Center, even though they don’t come close to solving the building’s architectural and urban design woes. Here’s a look at the storied performing arts center through the years.
An aerial view of the Kennedy Center in 2006. A $100 million proposal would add 60,000 square feet of rehearsal, classroom and event space, with funds to be raised privately and the design masterminded by the firm of architect Steven Holl.
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Courtesy Steven Holl Architects and the Kennedy Center
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A watercolor painted by architect Steven Holl of the Kennedy Center expansion project. Rather than a single, large addition— which might compete with the visual impact of the existing building — Holl has proposed a set of three pavilion structures to be connected underground or by pathways and built on what is under-used space south of the center. The plans are subject to change.
Courtesy Steven Holl Architects
Architect Steven Holl, whose firm would mastermind the proposed Kennedy Center additions, has a track record of designing elegant and harmonious additions to existing cultural facilities.
Courtesy Mark Heitoff
The planned Kennedy Center expansion project, seen here in an artist’s rendering, is relatively small compared with the existing 1.5 million-square-foot complex.
Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects
A floating outdoor stage on the Potomac River would host performances. “The overall concept was to fuse architecture and landscape,” architect Steven Holl said. “Right from the beginning, I thought of the idea of getting down to the river, that this shouldn’t just be a pragmatic object added on to the existing Kennedy Center.”
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Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects
The changes would include public green spaces and a video projection wall for simulcast productions.
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Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects
Sept. 30, 1968
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), stands besides Jean Kennedy Smith, one of his sisters, at a “topping out” ceremony at Kennedy Center, named for their brother John F. Kennedy, the former president. The center was topped with a steel replica of the classical Greek masks of comedy (Thalia) upper right, and tragedy (Melpomene).
Bob Schutz
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AP
Sept. 30, 1968
The classical Greek masks of comedy (Thalia), left, and tragedy (Melpomene) were attached to the top of the steel girder of the Kennedy Center's theater.
Bob Schutz
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AP
Oct. 20, 1995
In 1995, construction on the overhang of the Kennedy Center shut down traffic on the Rock Creek Parkway along the Potomac River.
Larry Morris
The Kennedy Center is seen under construction in 1970.
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Courtesy Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center Concert Hall is seen in the very early stage of a 1997 renovation of the hall.
Robert Nelson
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The Kennedy Center
April 1, 1997
The 1990s renovation work on the Kennedy Center's Concert Hall created new balconies but fewer seats.
Wilfredo Lee
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AP
Nieto Garcia prepares to remove crystal from a chandelier to be cleaned in the Grand Foyer of the Kennedy Center. The Grand Foyer is part of Edward Durell Stone's original design, which Post architecture critic Philip Kennicott calls “a giant box of ostentatious red carpet and dispiriting, Soviet-scaled corridors, with no central social hub and inferior acoustics dogging the overscale Concert Hall.”
Matt McClain
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For The Washington Post
Nieto Garcia removes crystal from a chandelier in the Grand Foyer of the Kennedy Center so it can be cleaned. The chandelier is one of 16 that hang in the building. They were a gift from Sweden.
Matt McClain
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For The Washington Post
A rendering of Rafael Vinoly’s initial concept for a Kennedy Center project proposed 10 years ago that did not come to fruition. The plan was ambitious; it would have cost $650 million and added 400,000 square feet to the campus. By the summer of 2005, the hope of federal funding was dashed and the concept was shelved.
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Rafael Vinoly Architects PC
A model of Rafael Vinoly's initial concept for the Kennedy Center project that was shelved in 2005. The idea was to reconnect the center’s isolated campus to the rest of Washington. It included a streamlined plaza, two new curved steel-and-glass buildings set beside a central fountain, a pedestrian walkway and a link to the waterfront.
Scott Suchman
The Kennedy Center is seen at night on the banks of the Potomac River, with its planned additions added on at right.
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Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects
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