Theater For The New City has a spiffy new front. (Photo: Natalie Rinn)
If you’ve walked down First Avenue recently, you might’ve noticed that Theater for the New City has spruced up the building it’s been in since the late ’80s with a circus-inspired paint job. Definitely a step up from the drab facade of yore, but what happened to that crazy makeover that the designer of the Shake Shack had planned?
TNC’s executive director, Crystal Field, said the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs didn’t go for it. ”The City is more interested in, you know, giving you the stuff that’s very – what can I say – practical, the ‘without which you’re in trouble’ kind of funds,” she told B+B.
To that end, the theater has secured $925,000 from the DCA for upgraded heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems — plus, a snazzy, new roof. “Our roofs are old and buckling so they’re going to give us what they call a seamless roof.” They’re the best roofs around, she says, “because there’s no place for them to leak.”
A redesign by James Wines would’ve brought the seats to the street. (Courtesy TNC)
TNC also raised a fair penny on its own – about $180,000 – through private donations, the Con Ed settlement fund and NYSCA. “If we hadn’t raised that, I don’t think we would have gotten the grant for the rest,” said Field. With the extra bucks, Field said they’ll continue the HVAC upgrade and get a white roof coating to and lower carbon emissions and keep heat out during the summer.
“Our audiences freeze in the winter and broil in the summer,” said Field.
The state pledged an additional $100,000 toward an even more utopian top – a revegetative roof, or “green” roof — which would sprout veggies for TNC employees and the community. But the theater can’t touch that pot until it raises $300,000 more to cover the entire cost of the project.
As for that awesome seats-facing-the-street redesign, it could still become a reality. “The façade would have given TNC a face in the world,” she said, “but we’re going to try to raise the money in some other way.”
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