Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a 16.3-acre (6.6-hectare) complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan. A consortium of civic leaders and others led by, and under the initiative of, John D. Rockefeller III built Lincoln Center as part of the "Lincoln Square Renewal Project" during Robert Moses's program of urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s. Respected architects were contracted to design the major buildings on the site, and over the next thirty years the previously blighted area around Lincoln Center became a new cultural hub.
The center has 30 indoor and outdoor performance facilities that include:
• Avery Fisher Hall/ David Geffen Hall (formerly Philharmonic Hall): a 2,738-seat symphony hall; the home stage of the New York Philharmonic opened in 1962.
• Metropolitan Opera House: a 3,900-seat opera house; the home stage of the Metropolitan Opera. The theater opened in 1966.
• David H. Koch Theater (formerly New York State Theater): a 2,713-seat theater; constructed to be the home of the New York City Ballet, it is also the former home of the New York City Opera and the Music Theater of Lincoln Center companies. It opened 1964.
• Damrosch Park: an outdoor amphitheater with a bowl-style stage known as the Guggenheim Band Shell; used for free Lincoln Center Out of Doors presentations and with a special dance floor for Midsummer Night Swing.
• Josie Robertson Plaza: the center's central plaza, featuring its iconic fountain; the three main buildings (Metropolitan Opera House, Avery Fisher Hall, and David H. Koch Theater) face onto this plaza; used as an outdoor venue during Lincoln Center Out of Doors presentations
