AP News, May 22nd, 2007
Carnegie Hall plans to renovate its Studio Towers and backstage areas _ but the expansion would require doing away with residences that have been used over the years by artists such as Leonard Bernstein.
To accommodate its need for new classrooms, rehearsal spaces, practice and large ensemble rooms within its existing footprint, it will need to occupy all the available space in its two Studio Towers, now occupied by longtime tenant-artists, Carnegie Hall said Monday.
"Central to our planning has been an analysis of how best to utilize our building to serve our mission, taking the hall into the 21st century and insuring that it is as important to the future of music as it has been to the past," Executive and Artistic Director Clive Gillinson said in a statement.
It also was studying how to improve and reconfigure its backstage areas. The overall plan, it said, "will for the first time enable a new and inspiring connection between Carnegie Hall's performers, students and audiences all under one roof."
Gillinson told The New York Times that leases for tenants of the 51 studios would not be renewed after June 30, while work on the estimated $150 million to $200 million renovation would not begin for at least two years. Detailed plans have yet to be drawn up, he said.
The studios have a long history. Dancers, musicians and artists who later become known for their works have lived there, including Leonard Bernstein, who was a young assistant conductor at the New York Philharmonic when he lived in Studio 803.
Josef Astor, a photographer who has an eighth-floor commercial studio in the building, lamented the plan.
"People talk about the history and the ghosts and experiences here just like they do in the concert hall," Astor told the Times. "That tradition is coming to a close, and that's a tragedy."
Carnegie Hall's three auditoriums _ Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall _ will not be affected by the renovation.
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