State Recognizes Massive $90M Renovation Project At Kings Theatre With Preservation Award
The more than $90 million renovation project that has dramatically transformed the once-decaying Kings Theatre (1027 Flatbush Avenue) has drawn attention from groups near and far, with the most recent set of accolades coming from the state. Last Thursday, state officials presented the historic theatre with one of its seven 2014 New York State Historic Preservation Awards.
The preservation awards are given by State Parks each year to honor “excellence in the protection and rejuvenation of New York’s historic and cultural resources,” state officials said in a press release.
State Parks said:
The extraordinary transformation of the decaying Kings Theatre into a spectacular entertainment center has been overseen by an outstanding team of private and public partners, including ACE Theatrical Group, the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group and National Development Council with support from and in cooperation with the City of New York and Borough of Brooklyn and United Fund Advisors. The more than $90 million project, which leveraged various sources of private and public funding including historic preservation tax credits, restored and rehabilitated the lavish 1929 theatre for contemporary performing arts use. The theatre is transformed and features restored original plaster and painting schemes, vintage carpeting and historic light fixtures; updates which will allow it to accommodate modern shows. Martinez and Johnson Architecture, the Gilbane Building Company, Evergreene Architectural Arts and an army of construction and preservation specialists guided the meticulous restoration.
After being shuttered for almost four decades, the Kings Theatre will reopen this January as a major performing arts venue that is slated to present more than 200 annual performances, from popular music to comedy and dance.
The once-opulent theatre, which opened in 1929 and was shuttered in 1977, is expected to attract thousands of visitors to the neighborhood with a “wide spectrum of cultural programming from local, national, and international performing artists across a variety of disciplines” at the space that will have 3,000 seats, according to its public relations group, Resnicow Schroeder.
Just one other site in the city received the award – El Barrio’s Artspace PS 109 (215 East 99th Street in East Harlem), which transformed an abandoned public school building into an arts facility with 89 units of affordable live/working housing for artists and their families.
The other groups that received the awards included: Academy Lofts in Albany, Parkview Place in Oneonta, New York State Barge Canal Historic District, Suffolk Theater in Riverhead, and West Point Foundry Preserve in Cold Spring.
Congratulations to Kings Theatre (and all the winners)!