A rendering of the new theater (Source: H3 Hardy Collaboration)

For those of you who worry about the potential desecration of the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center, in the form of Hugh Hardy’s newly announced black box venue that is scheduled to take up residence on the landmark’s roof, I can offer this consolation: the work that has already been done on the Beaumont’s plaza and surroundings, according to designs by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, has wrought such a change upon the place that the new addition should make little difference.

We will not know until next fall, apparently, the success of that work, which includes, among other alterations, the creation of a huge grassy mound for sunbathing and a new restaurant along the sides of the reflecting pool that continues to hold Henry Moore’s titanic “Reclining Figure.”

What we can say is that the feel of the place will be — indeed already is — vastly different from what it was. The spare, almost minimalist, geometry of the post and lintel theater, the perfectly square reflecting pool, and the surrounding grounds, together with the way they all responded to the striated side of the Metropolitan Opera, provide one of the most muscularly modernist experiences in New York City. [more]

Tony Greenberg, founder of Up Ventures

While some New York City real estate developers look to another neighborhood for inspiration, Tony Greenberg, founder of the just-launched Up Ventures, looked halfway around the world.

Up Ventures, a real estate development group specializing in innovative restaurant space, aims to bring Tokyo- and Hong Kong-style restaurant real estate to New York City.

“Here in New York, you see restaurants on the basement floor, the ground floor [or] the rooftop [in different buildings],” Greenberg said. But overseas, Greenberg said that restaurateurs establish eateries on upper-level floors of the same building. Rather than browse blocks for restaurants, patrons could look upstairs or downstairs at the offerings in a single building.

Greenberg, who had been vice president of finance at Hudson Yards Development Corporation before leaving the post in the late spring, said that the concept clicked for him during his travels and he began to explore ways in which he could apply the relatively unheard of strategy in New York. [more]

Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater has reopened, after a complete interior renovation designed by JCJ Architecture. A $100 million grant helped fund the redesign of the 2,544-seat theater, which now includes a levitating orchestra pit, new seating arrangements and upgrades to the theater’s acoustics. Curbed has compiled a slide show of the site’s exterior construction, which includes newly installed glass canopies over Columbus Avenue.

The unit with the biggest price cut in Manhattan today, according to Streeteasy.com, is a
four-bedroom, five-and-a-half bath condo at 3 Lincoln Center. The price
of unit 42ABG was cut by $680,000, and is now on the market for $6.8
million. The 3,695-square-foot home is now listed for 9 percent less
than its original listing price of $7.48 million in January. The
apartment, listed by Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Sachiko Goodman, has
a Jacuzzi, temperature-controlled wine cellar and can be bought fully
furnished. TRD [more]