Theater District, Manhattan

Joe Papp's "Save the Theatres" campaign

In early 1982, Joseph Papp, the Broadway theatrical producer, and director who had established The Public Theater, led a campaign called "Save the Theatres" in Manhattan.^[17] The primary initial goal of the "Save the Theatres" effort, which was sponsored by Papp's not-for-profit group and supported by the Actors Equity union, was to save several theater buildings in the Theatre District neighborhood from their impending demolition by monied Manhattan development interests.^{[18][19][20][21]} Papp provided financial resources, campaign buttons, posters, and newspaper ads for the effort; recruited a publicist and actors to promote the cause; and provided a various stage and street venues for public events in support of the campaign for saving the historic theatres.^[19]

At Papp's behest, in July 1982, U.S. Representative Donald J. Mitchell of New York and 13 co-sponsors^[a] introduced a bill titled "A bill to designate the Broadway/Times Square Theatre District in the City of New York as a national historic site" (H.R. 6885).^[23] The proposed legislation, which was not enacted, would have required the Federal Government to aid financially and otherwise in preserving the district and its historic theatre houses as an official National Historic Site.^[23]

The Save the Theatres campaign then turned their efforts toward supporting the establishment of the Theater District as a New York City historic district under the purview of the LPC.^[24][25] In December 1983, Save the Theatres prepared "The Broadway Theater District, a Preservation Development and Management Plan," and demanded that each theater in the district receive landmark designation.^[25] Mayor Ed Koch ultimately responded by creating a Theater Advisory Council, that included Papp as a member,^[19] and which eventually led to the area being officially zoned as the "Theater Subdistrict".^[2] Each theater's land lot could be developed with a certain maximum floor area, but many theaters used far less floor area than the maximum. The zoning plan allowed the unused development rights on the theaters' site to be sold to developers of nearby buildings that needed more than the maximum floor area.^[26]

Landmark status for individual theaters

The LPC considered protecting close to 50 "legitimate theaters" as individual city landmarks in 1982, following the destruction of the Helen Hayes and Morosco theatres. A city-landmark status would prevent the theaters from being modified without the LPC's permission, thereby protecting them from development. The landmarks under consideration included both facades and interiors, which were designated separately.^[27] Manhattan Community Board 5, under whose jurisdiction the vast majority of the theaters fell, supported many of the proposed landmark protections.^[28] An advisory panel under mayor Koch voted to allow the LPC consider theaters not only on their historical significance but also on their architectural merits.^[29] In response to objections from some of the major theatrical operators, several dozen scenic and lighting designers offered to work on the LPC for creating guidelines for potential landmarks.^[30]

The first theaters to be landmarked under the 1982 plan were the Neil Simon, Ambassador, and Virginia (August Wilson) in August 1985.^[31][32] The landmark plan was then deferred temporarily until some landmark guidelines were enacted;^[33] the guidelines, implemented in December 1985, allowed operators to modify theaters for productions without having to consult the LPC.^[34][35] The three theaters' operators objected to the landmark statuses.^[35][36]

Landmark designations of theaters increased significantly in 1987,^[37] starting with the Palace in mid-1987.^[38] The LPC designated the Al Hirschfeld, Belasco, Booth, and Brooks Atkinson (Lena Horne),^[39][40] as well as the Broadhurst, Ethel Barrymore, and Biltmore (Samuel J. Friedman) in early November 1987.^[41][39] This was followed by the Cort (James Earl Jones), 46th Street (Richard Rodgers), John Golden, Hayes, Hudson, Imperial, and Mark Hellinger later the same month, as well as the Embassy, which was never a Broadway venue.^[42] In December 1987, the LPC designated the Eugene O'Neill, Henry Miller's (Stephen Sondheim), Longacre, Lunt-Fontanne, Majestic, Music Box, and Plymouth (Gerald Schoenfeld) as landmarks, as well as the Lyceum's interior.^[43] These actions brought the number of current or former Broadway theaters with landmark status to 26.^[44] Five more landmarks were designated by early 1988: the Ed Sullivan, Royale (Bernard B. Jacobs), Shubert, St. James, and Winter Garden.^[45]

In March 1988, the New York City Board of Estimate approved the 28 landmark designations that had been approved in 1987 and 1988.^[46][47] Of these, both the interior and exterior of 19 theaters were protected, while only the interiors of seven theaters (including the Lyceum, whose exterior was already protected) and the exteriors of two theaters were approved.^[47] Several theater owners argued that the landmark designations impacted them negatively, despite Koch's outreach to theater owners.^[48] The Shuberts, the Nederlanders, and Jujamcyn collectively sued the LPC in June 1988 to overturn the landmark designations of 22 theaters on the merit that the designations severely limited the extent to which the theaters could be modified.^[49] The New York Supreme Court upheld the LPC's designations of these theaters the next year.^[50][51] The dispute went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which upheld the designations in 1992.^[52]