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Symphony Space, the performing arts venue at Broadway and 95th Street, is set to close its doors at the end of this year for a sweeping $45 million renovation — its most extensive overhaul in more than two decades — with a planned reopening in 2028, according to the New York Times.
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Both of the venue’s theaters — the Peter Jay Sharp and the Leonard Nimoy Thalia — will be fully refurbished during the 15-month closure, with improved acoustics and permanent seating replacing some of the building’s more improvised arrangements. The steel entry doors will come down to open up an expanded lobby, and new classroom and gallery spaces will be added. The signature metal marquee above Broadway will return in updated form in time for the organization’s 50th anniversary.Executive director Kathy Landau, who has led the nonprofit since 2016, has been candid about why the renovation can’t wait. The building’s plumbing, electrical systems, and boiler are all, in her words, “at the end of their useful life.” In recent years, Symphony Space has spent $1.5 million on temporary fixes alone. The Peter Jay Sharp Theater’s floor slopes upward due to pipes left over from the building’s previous incarnation as an ice-skating rink. Some seats are situated behind concrete pillars. In the summer, large tubes are threaded through windows to supplement an air conditioning system that frequently fails.
“The building is our greatest financial liability and programmatic limit at the same time,” Landau told the Times.
The quirks have become part of Symphony Space’s identity, but they’ve also created real constraints. The venue held 150 of its own events last year — including a Tony Trischka concert that drew Steve Martin and Béla Fleck to the stage — and upcoming programming includes a Percival Everett book club appearance and a conversation between Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. All of that happens in theaters defined by limited sightlines, loud pipes, and folding chairs.
Symphony Space has raised approximately $37 million of the $45 million total so far. The campaign was seeded by a $5 million anonymous gift, with additional commitments of $15.5 million from the city and $6.7 million from the state. The organization is still seeking additional seven-figure donations to close the gap.
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During the closure, Symphony Space plans to take its programming citywide, with pop-up performances and partnerships across all five boroughs. Landau has framed the displacement as an opportunity to build a broader audience ahead of the reopening.The last major renovation, completed in 2002 for roughly $24 million, brought two new theaters, a larger movie screen, and expanded backstage facilities. The current project is more than double that investment, and Landau’s ambitions extend beyond infrastructure. When Symphony Space reopens, she plans to offer free programming on the first Friday of each month and family-focused programming the following Saturday — a nod to the venue’s origins, when founders Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller simply threw open the doors to the neighborhood for a free 12-hour Bach marathon in 1978.
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