[14] In March 2006, the center launched construction on a major redevelopment plan that modernized, renovated, and opened up its campus.

[17] When first announced in 1999, Lincoln Center's campus-wide redevelopment was to cost $1.5 billion over 10 years and radically transform the campus.

[27] The center management held an architectural competition, won by the British architect Norman Foster in 2005, but did not approve a full scale redesign until 2012, in part because of the need to raise $300 million in construction costs and the New York Philharmonic's fear that it might lose audiences and revenue while it was displaced.

[28][29] Among the architects that have been involved were Frank Gehry; Cooper, Robertson & Partners; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Beyer Blinder Belle; Fox & Fowle; Olin Partnership; and Diller & Scofidio.

[30] In March 2006, the center launched the 65th Street Project – part of a major redevelopment plan continuing through the fall of 2012 – to create a new pedestrian promenade designed to improve accessibility and the aesthetics of that area of the campus.

Topped by a sloping lawn roof, the film center is part of a new pavilion that also houses a destination restaurant named Lincoln, as well as offices.

Subsequent projects were added which addressed improvements to the main plazas and Columbus Avenue Grand Stairs.

[55][needs update] Lincoln Center Cultural Innovation Fund is the first of its kind as a grant program that seeks to make the arts accessible to all people, focusing on those who live in some of New York City's poorest neighborhoods.