Kennedy Center To Expand

The $100 million project includes the construction of 60,000 square feet of classroom, rehearsal and performance space in the Washington, D.C., arts center honoring the late president, according to the Washington Post.

The groundbreaking took place 50 years to the week after former President Lyndon Johnson broke ground on the original structure. Construction is expected to begin in March and be completed in time to open by the May 29, 2017, 100th anniversary of Kennedy’s birth. Designed by architect Steven Holl, four acres on the southern edge of the arts center will be converted into a park featuring a visitors center and flexible rehearsal and classroom spaces, with glass walls allowing visitors to observe rehearsals.

A series of paths and pedestrian walkways will provide access to Rock Creek Park and the Potomac River. The design will also include a sloped lawn facing one side of the Glissando Pavilion to serve as an amphitheater that will air free simulcasts of performances inside the center. There will be two pavilions on the sloped landscaping and another, river Pavilion, will be a wharf-like structure on the Potomac featuring a small performance space and café.

Plans must get final approval from two government agencies before the big shovels can dig in. One, the National Capital Planning Commission, approved preliminary site and building plans but requested further analysis of the River Pavilion’s effect on boat traffic.