Between 1961 and 1971, Young oversaw the construction of Avery Fisher Hall, the New York State Theater, the Vivian Beaumont Theater, the Metropolitan Opera House, Alice Tully Hall, the Juilliard School, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the Guggenheim Band Shell in Damrosch Park.

Among Young's tasks were the acquisition of the rundown tenements that occupied the space taken over by Lincoln Center, garnering financial support from city, state and federal agencies, and private donors, and keeping architects in check.

Edgar Berryhill Young was born an only child in Indiana in 1908 and graduated from DePauw University in 1929. Two years later, he and his first wife went to the London School of Economics, where they studied the British government's labor relations system, according to the Times.

They returned to the U.S. in 1932 and Young began working for the American Friends Service Committee, studying the lack of jobs in Appalachia, according to the paper. After working in various government jobs, Young was hired by Rockefeller in 1946 to advise him on the Rockefeller family's philanthropic interests. When Rockefeller became president of Lincoln Center in 1956, Young began working for him there. Young retired in 1973.