Steven Holl to Design Kennedy Center Expansion

The board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, has selected Steven Holl Architects to design a $100 million expansion to its 1971 home, designed by Edward Durell Stone. This announcement comes ten years after a failed expansion plan designed by Rafael Viñoly that would have cost more than six times the current budget.

Holl's design sits to the south of the Center, most of it underground, reminiscent of the Art Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. Sitting amidst public gardens, the three pavilions will be covered in Carrara marble and translucent glass; housing classrooms, rehearsal rooms, lecture space, multipurpose rooms, and limited office space. As of now the project does not include a pedestrian connection to the city beyond the freeway tangle east of the Center, something the 2003 design included.