In the summer of 1999, Theatre Development Fund, which operates the tkts™ booth in Times Square, invited architects and designers to enter tkts2K, an international competition to redesign the booth. New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announced the Van Alen Institute Design Competition as an official NYC 2000 millennium committee project. "When the tkts™ Booth first opened in June 1973, many people felt that Broadway Theatre, like Times Square, was past its prime," the Mayor stated. "Today both are symbols of the renaissance throughout the City."
The goal of the TKTS2K competition was to provide an efficient, engaging and consumer-friendly interface between the ticket sellers and the patrons of the booth. The redesigned booth presents an opportunity to create a new marker for Broadway, the Theatre District and all of New York's performing arts.

On the cusp of 01/01/00 television cameras panned a teeming Times Square, creating a time capsule of New York City on the eve of the millennium. A polychromatic landscape that will never look the same. A public space with a kinetic energy. A seeming chaos that allows for the fortuity that is the stuff of urban life. Times Square has long been New York's town square.
The design embodies a contemporary understanding of the dynamic relationships between information and urban design, revitalization and public space.
The tkts™ Booth is an intense, spatially compact work environment. The tkts™ staff work both inside and outside to keep the lines moving and visitors informed. On the interior, less than 1,000 net square feet must house almost 2 dozen staff people. Given that all tickets are day-of-performance, there is a nonstop demand for up-to-date performance information. Ticket information is provided almost exclusively by electronic data links, as are the tickets being sold. On the exterior, the staff and patrons are in a similarly tight urban environment, sharing space with passersby, a growing number of office workers, street entertainers and visitors to the square.
By the mid-October 1999 deadline, 683 entries from 31countries had been submitted to the competition. The jury, comprised of 11 experts in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, media and theater, met for two and a half days in late fall to determine the winning entries. The results were announced by the Mayor in February at a press conference at Van Alen Institute. The jury for tkts2K, the international competition to redesign the booth, have premiated innovative proposals that they believe have the promise of becoming a new icon at the Crossroads of the World.


PROJECT: tkts booth,
CLIENT: theatre development fund
LOCATION: duffy square, a nyc department of parks and recreation park bordered by west 47th street, broadway and 7th avenue

JURY: Jed Bernstein, President, League of American Theatres and Producers; John S. Dyson, Governmental Service, Investment, Chairman, Millbrook Capital Management; Kathryn Gustafson, Environmental Artist and Landscape Artist; Robert MacDonald, Theatre industry professional; Lionel McIntyre, Urban Planner, Associate Professor of Urban Planning, Columbia University; Enrique Norten, Architect, TEN Arquitectos; D. Kenneth Patton, Board Member, Theatre Development Fund; Brendan Sexton, President, Times Square Business Improvement District; David Steward,Media Expert; Tucker Viemeister, Designer, Executive Vice President, Research and Development, Razorfish; Marion Weiss, Architect, Weiss/Manfredi Architects
DATE: 1999

tkts 2K competition, van alen institute