[NYguy]

http://www.nypost.com/p/ballet_compa...vbiyD6GnvNyQjI

Ballet company, philharmonic targeted for proposed Coney amphitheater

March 25, 2010
By RICH CALDER

Marty Markowitz wants to add a little panache to his planned Coney Island amphitheater.

The borough president’s $64 million pet project is already slated to host his summertime concert series, but now the Parks Department is looking for a top philharmonic, ballet group or other performance troupe to occupy the venue at Asser Levy Park during the rest of the warm-weather days and nights.

The Department today began soliciting proposals from parties interested in offering programming beyond the beep’s concert series and maintaining the amphitheater.

The 8,000-seat project, which is still awaiting city Design Commission approval, has yet to break ground and isn’t expected to be operating until at least 2012.

Markowitz said "the possibilities are endless" for the planned open-air amphitheater, adding he imagines it becoming "a wonderful home for a summer residency for a philharmonic or a ballet company."

While a majority of Coney Island boardwalk business owners support the amphitheater, many Brighton Beach residents who reside in adjacent high-rises vehemently oppose it. They claim it is too large, would reduce parkland, and the noise blasting from concerts would overwhelm both residents and the worshipers of two nearby synagogues.

Geoffrey Croft of the nonprofit New York City Park Advocates questioned why the city is seeking proposals when it has not yet even approved the plan. He and other opponents have been pushing for the plan to be decided through the city’s extensive Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).

The request for proposals released today offered some juicy tidbits about the project, such as:

* The stage would be 90 feet wide, 50 feet deep and 55 feet high.

* The back area will include a 4,075-square-foot VIP terrace, a 1,315-square-foot green room, a 990-square-foot storage area, a 835-square-foot multipurpose room, security offices, dressing rooms, bathrooms, and office space.

* The venue will include infrastructure for food concessions, including 10 locations for food carts, three for food service, and a commissary with room for a beverage truck and food storage containers.

* The Parks Department wants to continue to keep shows at the site free.

The project would replace a 66,000-square-foot band shell already used for Markowitz’s summer concert series with a modern 87,200-square foot open-air amphitheater.

It would be topped by 60,000-square roof that Markowitz’s staff has said is shaped like a "hyperbolic paraboloid," but in layman’s terms looks more like a massive potato chip made of steel and fiberglass and flooded with hundreds of stage lights.

The amphitheater would include a stage house, a paved area with seating for 5,000 persons and lawns that would accommodate an extra 3,000 seats.

Designers initially considered a retractable roof when Markowitz first pitched his pet project in 2006 but opted to go with a permanent canopy to save money. Markowitz last year raised the possibility of adding it back, but the RFP does not mention the addition of a retractable roof.

The project also calls for building a new playground and bathrooms at Asser Levy and other upgrades.

Markowitz is using $54 million of his office’s capital improvement funds for the project, while the mayor’s office is kicking in $10 million.

The borough president said he envisions park becoming "a welcoming eastern gateway to a revitalized Coney Island" and a place that tourists and residents can relax and enjoy recreation and the "vibrant cultural programming that has been the park’s hallmark since at least the turn of the 20th Century."