THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY


Founded 1971

A community theater founded in 1971 and oriented towards radical political performance. The organization bought the WPA First Avenue Retail market in 1986 and set up three theaters within.
A twelve story condominium tower was constructed above the building in 2000 following a controversial air-rights deal negotiated with the Giuliani administration.

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This project is an expansion of the themes from the exhibit Activist Estates: A Radical History of Property in Loisaida (2019) authored and designed by the urban historian and architect Nandini Bagchee in partnership with curator Libertad Guerra.

AELES is an evolving resource that can grow to include supplemental layers of the case studies selected and the ongoing survival and futuring intents of these legacies.