Official Blog of New York City Center
Transforming City Center
Your Guide to the “New” New York City Center
Nov 22nd
Welcome to the newly restored and renovated New York City Center. The renovation, designed and implemented by Ennead Architects, respects and enhances the original theater’s unique and much-loved neo-Moorish design, resulting in a vibrant new venue with all of the conveniences and amenities that contemporary patrons expect, but one that is still “City Center,” beloved by generations of New York City theatergoers.
We’ve created a guide to some of the exciting new features and amenities that you’ll find at the “new” City Center:
Our new colors
Sep 12th
Restoring a ceiling’s long-lost luster
Jul 20th
Last Friday we took a short field trip over to the mezzanine lobby, where conservators have been hard at work restoring the stenciled ceiling and wall murals. Wearing protective goggles and perched on scaffolding, the conservators used scalpels and razor blades to execute their painstaking work.
The ceiling and mural designs, painted shortly after the building’s completion in 1924, were covered over in the 1950s or 60s and forgotten until 1981, when an old photo turned up showing the lobby as it once was. By 1984 conservators had begun the task of removing two decades’ worth of overpaint from the 3,000 square-foot ceiling.
Unfortunately, that restoration, as well as several “touch-ups” that occurred before the whole thing was painted over, resulted in some damage and the loss of original details. And in the years since the ceiling’s rediscovery in the 80s, the layers of varnish have yellowed with age, muting the paintings’ original vibrancy.
In short, the conservators working on this restoration have their work cut out for them. Led by Debra Selden of Rustin Levenson Art Conservation Associates, the group is tasked with repairing damage and returning the ceiling and murals to a state as close to the original as possible.
Selden, along with renovation project leader Duncan Hazard of Ennead Architects LLP and preservation consultant Judith Saltzman of Li / Saltzman Architects, explained the process to us during our visit. Here’s what we learned. More >
We’re working hard around here…
Jun 14th
First look at our freshly painted ceiling
Jun 1st
Many years ago, our theater was a pretty colorful place. Built as a meeting hall for the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (aka the Shriners) in the 1920s, the auditorium was painted in brilliant jewel tones and accented with genuine gold leaf. But all of it was covered in whitewash when the city took over the building in the early 1940s, and the interior has remained primarily white ever since.
Now we are bringing back some pizzazz with a brand-new paint job reminiscent of the original color scheme. The ceiling is already finished, and we’re so excited to be able to share some of the first photos with you here:
Photos by Mike D’Anna
You can find more renovation photos here.
City Center artifact #2: 30-year-old Playbill
Apr 19th
The latest item to emerge from the rubble: a torn, moldering but essentially intact Playbill cover from a long ago Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performance. Judging from the full-page cigarette ad on the back cover, we figured it had to be pretty old. Some quick internet research confirmed that the Playbill is from Ailey’s 1981 spring season, which makes this artifact older than several of the people who work in the marketing department. (The writer of this blog post, alas, is not one of them.)
The program pages have been lost, but we know from Jennifer Dunning’s review in The New York Times that the season lineup included performances of Elisa Monte’s Treading, along with Ailey’s Phases, The Lark Ascending and, of course, Revelations.
City Center artifact #1: antique chisel
Apr 15th
Earlier this week, the marketing department received word that a mason had made an exciting discovery on the roof. We headed up there to investigate.
As it turns out, the worker had unearthed an old chisel, one that appears to have been used during the building’s original construction back in the 1920s. He cleaned it up, sharpened it and began using it again. How’s that for coming full circle?
“When you renovate these old theaters, you never know what you’re going to find,” said one worker, who asked to remain anonymous. (All of the workers we spoke to were fairly shy, but one kindly offered to pose for photos with the chisel; see below.) Other artifacts that have been discovered thus far include a newspaper from the 1920s (which promptly disintegrated when someone tried to unroll it), a Campbell’s Soup can and a Pepsi can, both of which appear to be several decades old. What will they find next? Stay tuned…
Rooftop discovery
Photos by Luke Szczygielski
Watch our renovation progress
Apr 14th
Searching for buried treasure amid the wreckage
Apr 4th
Noon is lunchtime for the construction workers here at City Center. We know it’s noon when the distant buzzing and banging suddenly stops and a pair of work boot–clad legs dangles from the scaffolding outside the marketing department’s window.
Last week, a few of us took advantage of the workers’ lunch break to take another tour of the construction, which is really still in the destruction phase at this point. More >
Week 1: Let the demolition begin!
Mar 30th
It’s kind of strange and a little sad to see our familiar old carpeting rolled up and piled in dumpsters on the street. But no one ever said change was easy.
Yes, it’s official: Phase 2 of our renovation is under way. In addition to removing the carpeting, this week’s tasks include taking out the theater seats and demolishing walls and restrooms. Our intrepid photographer, Luke Szczgielski (who also happens to be City Center’s network administrator) will be documenting the work from now until the project’s completion in October. We put on our hard hats and took a tour of the theater, and here’s some of what we saw along the way: