Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall to Be Renamed

With a $15 million payday, Lincoln Center has convinced the family of late electronics mogul Avery Fisher to relinquish the name of Avery Fisher Hall so the campus can lure a large donor in time for a $500 million renovation, The New York Times reports.

The deal between Lincoln Center and the Fisher family also includes tributes to Avery Fisher in the concert hall's lobby, a place for him in a planned Lincoln Center Hall of Fame, a spot for a Fisher family member on the Hall of Fame's advisory board and on the selection committee for inductees into an Avery Fisher Classical Music Wing, and the promise of a "higher profile to the Avery Fisher Artist Program," which gives prizes to young emerging artists and musicians. A concert honoring Avery Fisher and his family will be scheduled for March 24.

Avery Fisher Hall is home to the New York Philharmonic. That organization is planning a full interior renovation of the building in 2019, while retaining its exterior. The building was christened for Avery Fisher in 1973, after a $10.5 million donation that also saw the name placed on tickets, brochures, and other pieces of paraphernalia.

An architect for the new hall has not been selected, nor has the building's new moniker.