November 2024
Many communities have a performance arts centre where stage plays and musical acts entertain patrons. When the City of Albany, New York, decided to build a new performance arts centre in the 1960s, they went with a very unique design.
The Egg Center for the Performing Arts was built between 1966 and 1978, the centrepeice of in the Empire State Plaza. Originally slated to take two years to build, the complicated design features of this unique building caused construction to take much longer than originally anticipated.
Not looking at all like a traditional building, The Egg is slightly inclined, sitting atop a concrete girdle pedestal and secured by a stem that goes down six stories into the Plaza. The building’s organic shape reflects former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s objective of utilizing architectural designs that uses the fine artistic elements of sculpture.
The Egg officially to the public on Memorial Day in May 1978 and is managed by the non-profit Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center Corporation. It features a 450-seat Lewis A. Swyer Theater and the 982-seat Kitty Carlisle Hart Theater.
Notable artists who have performed at The Egg include: Roger McGuinn, Chaka Khan, Dave Chappelle, Eric Burdon, Bebel Gilberto, WAR, David Byrne, Boz Scaggs, King Crimson, Margaret Cho, Buddy Guy, Leon Russell, Marty Stuart, Brian Regan, the Mark Morris Dance Company, Guster, and New Riders of the Purple Sage.
Sources: The Egg, Albany – Wikipedia, Home | The Egg.
