Architectural Digest USA - 11.2019

52 ARCHDIGEST.COM

RICHARD BARNES

DISCOVERIES

ARCHITECTURE

Capital

Improvement

Masterminded by

Steven Holl and Edmund

Hollander, a thoughtful

expansion breathes

fresh life into D.C.’s

Kennedy Center

S

een from the Potomac River, the Reach, a newly opened

extension to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing

Arts in Washington, D.C., presents as just three modest

pavilions. But like an iceberg, the bulk of the addition,

designed by AD100 architect Steven Holl, remains hidden.

Below the grassy landscape, 72,000 square feet of rehearsal

and performance space unfold, connecting to the institution’s original

1971 Edward Durell Stone building and opening up a new world of creative

possibilities. “The expansion is a fusion of architecture and landscape,”

explains Holl, who collaborated with landscape designer Edmund

Hollander on the project, a memorial for President Kennedy. Protruding

from the city’s largest green roof, the concrete pavilions frame views

of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. Incorporated into

the public garden, meanwhile, are a reflecting pool and ginkgo grove,

with 35 trees honoring the 35th president. Hollander envisioned the

landscape as a performance unto itself, with grasses and flowers forming

seasonal tapestries. Underground, the three iceberg tips merge into

flexible column-free space; crinkled concrete walls diffuse sound in the

150-seat theater; and rehearsal rooms mirror the dimensions of the

Center’s main stage. “You can’t fully understand the project from above,”

says Holl, noting its parabolic curves reveal that there’s more to

discover. kennedy-center.org (^) —ELIZABETH FAZZARE

THE REACH, A NEW ADDITION

TO THE JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER

FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS.