by Jennifer M. Rodriguez
The new home of Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) in New York City opened on Monday, October 18, 2004 with a swinging celebration. The festivities kicked off with a traditional New Orleans-style parade led by Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and consisting of members of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Julliard students, who welcomed dignitaries including JALC’s Founding Chairman Gordon Davis, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Jazz Historian Albert Murray.
JALC’s three-theater complex, including an education center and hall of fame, takes up the fifth and sixth floors of the brand new Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle. It is comprised of The Rose Theater, The Allen Room and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, and the Irene Diamond Education Center with a studio, classroom, and recording and rehearsal studio. Known affectionately as “The House of Swing,” the complex is the first performance space designed specifically for the acoustics of jazz music and provides an incredibly wheelchair-accessible venue.
“Jazz is an art form that includes a great number of different people,” said Walter Thinnes, vice president of Frederick P. Rose Hall, while giving United Spinal Association a tour of the accessible facilities. “The jazz universe includes everybody, including persons with mobility impairments who have difficulty getting around. It’s part of what we do. It’s pleasing our patrons. It’s making sure our music is available to everyone.”
The Frederick P. Rose Hall is the nation’s first performance and broadcast facility specifically designed for jazz and can also accommodate opera, dance, theater, film, and orchestral performances. Three rings of balconies surround its oval form. From 1,100 to 1,233 seats can encircle Rose Theater’s 110-by-43foot stage; many of the center stage seats are removable in order to accommodate people in wheelchairs. Seats on the upper tiers are not bolted and may be removed for wheelchair patrons, making this 83-foot high gallery adaptable and easily visible to almost any number of individuals with mobility impairments. Lifts to the center stage areas, and ramps and elevators to the unique seating towers help make Rose Theater accessible and welcoming to a wheelchair-user.
Overlooking Central Park through a 50-by-90foot glass wall facing Columbus Circle, The Allen Room is a 310-to-500-seat performance space with seven levels of theatrical-style seating that can be converted to four, allowing for cabaret or banquet configurations. In order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG), there are lifts to each level of The Allen Room when it is used as a dinner theater. With the careful review and guidance from United Spinal, additional wheelchair viewing locations have been implemented on both the orchestra and mezzanine levels. The space can be adjusted to include terraced seating with various angles, bleachers, and movable chairs.
“Many seats are removable and adjustable, as in the Jazz club we’re able to seat anyone with a mobility disability,” Thinnes says. “Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola is open 365 nights a year as a jazz club with two to three sets of music every single night.”
Providing a place where parties can be held for visiting musicians, where people want to hang out, have a drink, and listen to some swing, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola is also wheelchair- friendly. With a ramp leading down to the club and its views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline, almost every seat in Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola is removable, and tables accommodate wheelchairs.
“Bobbi Wailes [Director of Programs for People with Disabilities for the Lincoln Center], the Jazz at Lincoln Center project team and Rafael Viñoly Architects, really embraced the accessibility required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and went beyond by providing wheelchair viewing locations on all levels of the Rose Theater and The Allen Room,” said Dominic Marinelli, United Spinal’s Director of Accessibility Services.
United Spinal consulted with the team of JALC builders to realize the importance of wheelchair awareness and helped make what Thinnes says is the motto of Frederick P. Rose Hall a reality for all persons with mobility disabilities: “WELCOME!”
Jennifer M. Rodriguez is an Assistant Public Affairs Officer.
