Politics
The Wood That’s Starring in the Delacorte Theater Renovation
Wood from New York City water towers will be attached to the facade of the theater, where Shakespeare in the Park will return next summer.
Good morning. It’s Friday. Today we’ll find out about where old wood from some apartment house water tanks is going. We’ll also find out about yet another corruption investigation involving City Hall.
Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Where does the wood from the water tanks atop apartment buildings go when it reaches retirement age?
One place is the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the home of the Public Theater’s summer staple, Shakespeare in the Park.
The Delacorte has been closed for a full-scale renovation since the end of the 2023 season. The $80 million project involves updating and upgrading a 62-year-old structure that was showing its age: The last major refurbishing was completed in 1999. Performers like Al Pacino and Meryl Streep — and the wardrobe and makeup people who worked behind the scenes in dressing rooms beneath the seats — learned to dodge leaks. “If it was raining outside, it was raining inside,” Patrick Willingham, the Public’s executive director, said.
Now there is a new drainage system, but audiences will recognize the theater’s familiar semicircular shape. The design, by Ennead Architects, kept to the same footprint, which Willingham said shortened the time needed for approvals and permits from city agencies.
