Kennedy Center looks to the future with opening of The Reach

The Kennedy Center is unveiling a massive new expansion designed to transform the relationship between audience and artist while revitalizing the performing arts complex for a new generation.

The new $250 million addition, dubbed The Reach , will open on Saturday with a 16day festival featuring hundreds of free performances. The 4.6acre complex, built on what was previously a parking lot for buses, features a trio of white buildings designed by architect Steven Holl and filled with multipurpose performance and rehearsal spaces.

Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter says The Reach’s facilities were designed to work as “the opposite of a concert hall.”

Instead of the inherently passive experience of sitting in seats and watching artists perform from an elevated stage, Rutter said The Reach is meant to partially eliminate the division between artists and audience.

Rehearsal and performance rooms feature giant windows and glass walls, allowing visitors to watch musicians and dancers in midrehearsal, while interactive facilities offer the chance to create their own art.

While concert halls are purposebuilt for exactly one type of use, the multiple rooms of The Reach are all considered “flex spaces” designed to accommodate rehearsals, performances, classes or social functions.

“There’s nothing that’s just a room,” Rutter said. “It’s going to immersive, participatory and responsive.”

The legacy of President John F. Kennedy is literally branded on the walls of the new facilities. Quotes from Kennedy are inscribed in multiple places while the performance and rehearsal spaces are named for elements of Kennedy’s life: there’s a hall named P.T. 109 for the WWII torpedo boat that Kennedy commanded and another named Macaroni for Caroline Kennedy’s favorite pony.