City Center to Begin $75 Million Renovation
March 16, 2010
City Center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in 1943 as Manhattan's first major performing arts center, is embarking on a $75 million renovation and restoration of its landmark neo-Moorish building on West 55th Street.The renovation, which City Center is to announce on Wednesday, will be designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, a firm responsible for several cultural projects including renovations of Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Museum and the Public Theater.
"We wanted to make sure that City Center is competitive into the 21st century," Arlene Shuler, the president and chief executive of City Center, said.
The plans call for improved seating and sightlines and a new illuminated glass-and-bronze canopy. Because City Center is a landmark, exterior alterations will be subject to the approval of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Polshek will also restore the theater's mosaic walls, arabesque ceilings and detailed plasterwork.
"It's a venue that is so loved, so whatever we did to enhance that wonderful, quirky building, we wanted it to still be City Center," said Duncan Hazard, the partner in charge of the project at Polshek. "That said, we really wanted to cure a lot of the limitations that the venue has always had."
The priority was improving the sightlines, Mr. Hazard said, "to redesign the building so we offered to all the seats a full view of the stage."
The new design elements are based on a study of the center's underlying motifs of Islamic architecture. "What we were trying to do was to work with the existing vocabulary of the design, not necessarily design something innovative," Mr. Hazard said. That vocabulary is "heavily based on intricate geometries," he added. "You can interpret them and extrapolate from them and end up doing something contemporary that also fits in with the building."
The performing arts complex - which includes a 2,753-seat main stage, two smaller theaters, four studios and a 12-story office tower - is home to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Manhattan Theater Club. To minimize interruption to the performance schedule, the renovation will be done in two phases, the center said - from late April through September this year, and from mid-March through October 2011.
The arts center said it had raised 76 percent of its capital goal - or $57.2 million - $35.6 million of which was committed by New York City. (City Center is a city-owned property.) "City Center is one of our oldest performing arts centers in Manhattan," said Kate D. Levin, the commissioner of Cultural Affairs. "The project will provide the amenities audiences expect and help artists do their best work."
Some of the money will go toward supporting current and future programs, like the Encore! concert series and the Fall for Dance festival. Built in 1923 as a meeting hall for the Ancient Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, or Shriners, the former temple officially became City Center on Dec. 11, 1943, with Mayor La Guardia himself conducting the New York Philharmonic in the national anthem.
City Center to Begin $75 Million Renovation
by Robin Pogrebin - New York Times
