Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1980 - 14

structure contains and defines the separate functional elements which are often complete buildings in themselves with
walls, floor, and roofs to assure acoustical integrity. Two vertical circulation cores and a plumbing shaft penetrate this 3-D
grid to service all floors. The Abraham Goodman House,
therefore, is seen first and foremost as a working instrument
for cultural activities, whose interior organization and structural clarity is an important accomplishment.
For anyone who appreciates the architecture and ambience
of New York, however, the exterior of the building and its relationship to the surrounding city has a special significance.
One indication of the success of the environmental design is
almost unnoticeable, deriving from the sense of indefinite
ownership of the building directly to the east of the Center.
This one story building is part of the "regency-style" movie
theatre on Broadway, but could just as easily be interpreted
as an extension of the Abraham Goodman Building. While this
split personality may not be comforting to many people, it is
an admirable outcome of the architect's approach.
The building, as street wall, brings coherence to two other
structures on 67th Street as well. Directly facing the center is
a huge apartment building in dark brick, whose elephantine
bulk is relieved at ground level by a rather deep arcade and
profuse plantings. Opposite the west end of the street, on Amsterdam Avenue, is the New York City Red Cross Headquarters whose curtain wall is deeply set within a granite faced
structural grid. This crisply detailed building, of four stories on
a podium, has always been lost among the amorphous and
chaotic urban scheme of Lincoln Center and Lincoln Towers
apartment complex. Now, the Abraham Goodman House has,
at least from 67th Street, brought the Red Cross Building into

some sort of urban context while at the same time it plays a
lighthearted game with the rhythms of the dark brick arcade
across the street. Bhavnani put great emphasis upon the continuity of the rhythm of the facades on a traditional West Side
street, even though this particular street contains but few remnants of the West Side row house. Thus it is by way of recall
that the rhythms of the apartment arcade opposite and of the
Abraham Goodman House facade fit into the West Side tradition. Through the apparent mix of heights, the use of stoop
stairs and "front yard" with railings, the rooftop water tank,
and varied wall materials, the recall becomes so persuasive as
to visually re-integrate West 67th Street, between Broadway
and Amsterdam Avenue into the West Side environment.
The facade is a six-bayed, seven-columned, six-storied,
trabeated structure of alumnium panels, glass, brick, and
soon, one hopes, of vines and ivy disciplined by the regularity
of the exposed structure (see detail drawing). It implies its
own dimensionality through the device of exterior infill panels
at different depths from the building plane. This mix of materials, ins and outs of surface planes, play of voids and solids,
shiny and matte, squared and rounded (portholes illuminate
the practice rooms), joins with the details of reminiscence to
create a street face which is both satisfying to the critic and a
comfortable "fit" for the average citizen and the user.
Mention must be made in these remarks of the cost of the
building. While the $3.5 million budget (1978 doliarsHncluding furniture and furnishings-was small, it seemed
somehow proportioned to the task. We are so inured to $60
million (1960) opera houses and $100 million museums, that a
modest budget for a public building seems a scandal rather
than a reasonable allocation of funds. Yet the Abraham Goodman House (along with the Mellon Center at Yale) is one of the
few new buildings whose designers, facing a budgetary
Agincourt, perceived themselves as priviledged to be challenged, rather than bemoaning the lack of larger resources.
Indeed, it appears that extra money would have served, not
to loose the constraints which helped form this building, but to
permit a higher level of finish and a richer texture of furnishing
since the Abraham Goodman House is so true and satisfactory a piece of architecture. D
Francis Booth is an architect with the firm of Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton in New York City. He received his A.B. in art history at
Harvard College and his B. Arch. at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He began his career working as an architectural assistant to
Jo Mielziner and, although he has practiced in a broad field since that
time, he has retained a special interest in design for the performing
arts.

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Credits
Johansen & Bhavnani-New York City
Ashok M. Bhavnani: Designer & Partner-in-charge
Thaddeus Hanser: Project Manager
Benjamin Bax!: Project Manager for
Concert Hall
Kathryn M. Kerrigan: Furnishings &
Graphics
KBNA/B Associates-New York City
Structural Engineer:
Mechanical Engineer: Flack & Kurtz-New York City
Nordheimer Associates, Inc.--Orange,
Electrical Engineer:
N.J.
Theatre Consultants: Jean Rosenthal Associates, Inc.--Orange, N.J.
Acoustic Consultant: Acoustic/Noise Control Consultants-New York City. Peter George
Blitman Construction CorporationGeneral Contractor:
New York City
Architect:

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Theatre Design & Technology

USITI /Fall, 1980

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