

A portion of the Watergate complex can be seen at the left The Kennedy Center as seen from the air on Janu(before construction of the REACH expansion). The center receives annual federal funding to pay for building maintenance and operation. An extension to the Durell Stone Building was designed by Steven Holl and opened in 2019. An earlier design proposal called for a more curvy, spaceship-inspired building similar to how the Watergate complex appears today. The original building, designed by architect Edward Durell Stone, was constructed by Philadelphia contractor John McShain, and is administered as a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution. Its activities include educational and outreach initiatives, almost entirely funded through ticket sales and gifts from individuals, corporations, and private foundations. Opened on September 8, 1971, the center hosts many different genres of performance art, such as theater, dance, orchestras, jazz, pop, psychedelic, and folk music.Īuthorized by the 1958 National Cultural Center Act of Congress, which requires that its programming be sustained through private funds, the center represents a public–private partnership. It was named in 1964 as a memorial to assassinated President John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F.
