Thomas Heatherwick lands £330m New York concert hall

Thomas Heatherwick has landed the $500m (£330m) renovation and reimagination of the Lincoln Centre’s largest concert hall in New York.

Heatherwick Studio and Diamond Schmitt Architects beat 100 rivals to land the plum New York job after a two-year competition – and a history of attempts to renovate the venue dating back more than a decade.

An invited competition in 2002 was won by Foster & Partners against Rafael Moneo, Toyo Ito, Rem Koolhaas, and Jean Nouvel, but fell victim to a changing political and financial climate.

The project involves the 2,700-seat Avery Fisher Hall, home to the New York Philharmonic, which has already been renamed the David Geffen Hall after the entertainment mogul who has donated $100 million towards its renovation. $15 million of that money will go to the family of Avery Fisher as compensation.

The brief is to create a 21st-century concert hall with world-class acoustics where the “architecture is at one with music”.

The facades of Max Abramovitz’s 1962 building, one of three performance venues facing each other around the Lincoln Centre’s central plaza, will remain but the auditorium is likely to be substantially remodelled.

Construction is expected to begin in 2019.

Thomas Heatherwick said: “The New York Philharmonic creates some of the most incredible music in the world, so it deserves a world-class concert hall.

“Together with Diamond Schmitt Architects, we are excited to make this special institution and its classical music even more connected to New Yorkers and the audiences of the future.”

Katherine Farley, chairman of Lincoln Centre, said: “The inspiring combination of Heatherwick and Diamond Schmitt will bring contemporary design excellence, respect for the historic architecture of the hall, and extensive experience creating acoustically superb performance halls.”