Lincoln Center Wants You to Lie Down on Its Plaza

A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines. [Curbed]( monday, april 19 RENDERING JUDGMENT [Lincoln Center Wants You to Lie Down on Its Plaza]( How comfortable will that plastic grass really be? Art: Designed by Mimi Lien; Rendering by Timothy Leung When it was designed in the early 1960s, Lincoln Center’s plaza was intended to be much more verdant than it is. The original plans, rendered by the architect Hugh Ferriss, called for it to be ringed with big trees, but they were stripped from the plans by none other than Robert Moses, who wanted to save money. The plaza as it finally came to be is well loved, but even its defenders admit it’s a little severe and windswept much of the time. (The fountain at its center helps a lot.) When its pebbly concrete floor was resurfaced with granite in the early 1980s, the great urbanist William H. Whyte again proposed that trees be added; again they were pruned from the plan to save a buck. But now, this summer, Josie Robertson Plaza (as it is officially known) will indeed be greened — but not with trees or grass. This week, Lincoln Center unrolled a plan for a temporary installation of SYNLawn, one of those new-style plastic grasses that are shaggier and less carpetlike than their Astroturf ancestors. It will cover the plaza’s granite floor on May 10 and stay in place until September, then go to an athletic field upstate. The surface will have a few bulges and bumps here and there, including some that are chair-shaped, as well as a couple of curious barrel-vault-like structures and what looks like a vending kiosk or information desk. But mostly, it’ll just be a field. [Continue reading »]( Never miss a story from Curbed: [Subscribe now.]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( The Latest [The Stylish Tailor Shops of Christopher Street Angel Ramos, Jake Mueser, and Frederick Castleberry are bespoke tailors and friends.]( By Wendy Goodman [A Tarantula Stool, a Molded “Dragon” Chair, and Other Things I Liked This Week Plus ceramic relics that comment on plastic waste and Memphis-y wall hooks.]( By Diana Budds [What It Takes to Open a Bar in a Subway Station Multiple agency approvals and unlocking a door that had been sealed since the 1970s.]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Read More From Curbed]( [Subscribe to New York]( [Subscribe to New York]( Getunlimited access]( more great stories from New York, home of Intelligencer, the Cut, Vulture, Curbed, Grub Street, and the Strategist. [SUBSCRIBE NOW]( [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe](param=curbed) | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on e-mail newsletters please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 11th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2021, All rights reserved