Music: Recycled Centers

There are two ways for a city to acquire a cultural center. One is to clear a downtown neighborhood and erect an entire new complex—at a tremendous expenditure of money, time and public inconvenience. New York's Lincoln Center cost $184 million, took ten years to complete, and disrupted traffic and residential life over a 14-acre area for much of that time. The other way is to take an existing theater, such as an abandoned movie palace, and simply refurbish it. This more modest method may produce less grand results, but it is cheaper, quicker...