Lincoln Center Plaza fountain
— — water choreographed to the curtain time.
Not only on a wall.
“The Revson Fountain stands at the centre of Josie Robertson Plaza, ringed by the three travertine façades of the Metropolitan Opera, David Geffen Hall, and the David H. Koch Theater. Philip Johnson designed it in 1964; WET Design rebuilt the jets in 2009 so the water now rises, holds, and drops on programmed sequences keyed to the evening curtain. Before a performance the plaza fills with people in coats holding tickets and paper cups of coffee. After intermission the spray is lit white against the dark. from the studio
Lincoln Center Plaza fountain, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Revson Fountain is the centrepiece of Josie Robertson Plaza, the main public square of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Philip Johnson designed the original pool and jets in 1964 as part of the campus's first phase; the firm WET Design rebuilt the mechanics in 2009 during the Diller Scofidio + Renfro reshaping of the plaza, replacing the static spray with programmable choreography. The fountain sits at the convergence of the Metropolitan Opera House to the west, David Geffen Hall to the north, and the David H. Koch Theater to the south.
The three concert-hall façades that frame the fountain are clad in Roman travertine cut from quarries near Tivoli, the same stone Johnson and Wallace Harrison chose for the Met and the original Philharmonic Hall in the early 1960s. The plaza paving was relaid during the 2009 to 2010 renovation, sloped almost imperceptibly toward the fountain pool so rain reads as a single surface. The Metropolitan Opera House, completed in 1966, holds 3,732 seats; Geffen Hall on the north side reopened in October 2022 after a 550-million-dollar interior rebuild. The Koch Theater opened in 1964 as the New York State Theater.
The plaza is open to the public 24 hours a day, free, and reached most easily from the 66th Street / Lincoln Center stop on the 1 train. The fountain runs daily from spring through late autumn, on programmed sequences that intensify in the hour before evening performances and during intermission. Summer brings the free Restart Stages and Damrosch Park concerts a short walk west; the December tree above the pool draws steady evening foot traffic. Photographers tend to choose the half-hour after the Met curtain rises, when the plaza is briefly empty and the spray is lit against three dark façades.