


While it’s hard not to despair about the city’s housing shortage and other troubles, a stream of architecturally ambitious civic and cultural projects have been steadily remapping swathes of New York in recent years. The sheer number of them, public and private, is surprising: Moynihan Train Hall, Barry Diller’s Little Island, Sunset Park Library, Far Rockaway Park in Queens.
The Davis Center opened last month, transfiguring six acres at the north end of Central Park. The refurbished Frick Collection on Madison Avenue is a triumph. A renovated Delacorte Theater debuts this summer in Central Park. A new Studio Museum arrives in Harlem shortly after that.
The list goes on.
Lincoln Center just added to it, unveiling a $335 million plan to overhaul Damrosch Park on the center’s southwest corner.
It’s about time. The park has long been in decline, with its decrepit band shell, which has required the performing arts complex to spend a fortune each summer setting up, then taking down, a temporary stage for outdoor concerts.
