Last night, Central Park’s landmark Delacorte Theater reopened after a two-year renovation closure, returning the Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park program to five boroughs full of expectant audiences.

The Delacorte has long been a north star for thespians—try to count how many of your actor friends on Instagram have liked that one photo of Meryl Streep rehearsing Taming of the Shrew there in 1978. But things had gotten rickety: leaky bleachers, virtually no air conditioning, accessibility issues, outdated machinery, and the constant threat of a raccoon takeover meant an upgrade was necessary.

Architect Stephen Chu fixed all those issues while crafting a new facade that seems to rise up from the earth. He also figured out an ingenious workaround to a problem posed by the

See Full Page