IT’S NOT SO SHORE
LPC rejects makeover of Coney theater, requests better replacement for sign
UN-SHORE: City preservationists told the developer planning to turn the landmarked Shore Theater into a
hotel and spa to take its makeover back to the drawing board, and create a better homage to the old venue’s
iconic sign, which superstorm Sandy destroyed in 2012. File photo by Elizabeth Graham
of the theater as an individual
exterior landmark.
The Commission also recommended
keeping the fourstory
building’s exterior fi reescape
stairway, or replacing it
with a mural or some other feature
that would honor the former
theater within that structure,
because the current plans
do not do enough to recognize
that part of the site’s history,
according to a member.
“At this point you don’t
know that it was once a theater,”
said Commissioner Adi
Shamir-Baron.
Another city preservationist
suggested the architects
embrace their creative sides
and think about how they
could use that side of the building
to pay homage to both the
former movie house and its
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
The builder planning to redevelop
Coney Island’s Shore
Theater into a hotel and spa
must amend its plans to include
a sign that better recalls
the majesty of the storied
vaudeville theater’s old
placard, and more details that
honor the history of the iconic
site and its home neighborhood,
demanded members of
the city’s Landmarks Preservation
Commission.
“The building would benefi
t more from a more comprehensive
look at the history
of the district,” said commissioner
Michael Goldblum. “It
just feels like it’s missing the
Coney Island-ness of the site.”
Architects tapped by
builder Pye Properties — the
fi rm behind the redevelopment
of the landmarked venue —
presented their proposed exterior
renovations to the theater
at a Jan. 15 public hearing, after
members of the local Community
Board 13 unanimously
voted to support the designs in
December.
The proposal called for refreshing
the split-level site’s
exterior by restoring its sevenstory
tower’s original limestone
base, replacing decaying
parts of its brick façade, swapping
its decrepit top-fl oor balcony
with a newly built replica,
and hanging a fabric banner in
place of the old venue’s iconic
sign destroyed in 2012 by superstorm
Sandy .
It also proposed removing
the fi re-escape stairway
outside of the property’s fourstory
building, which formerly
contained the theater.
But the architects need to go
back to the drawing board and
make their proposed 32-anda
half foot red fabric banner
more similar to the theater’s
original neon sign, perhaps by
illuminating it, according to
the city preservationists, who
included the iconic signage as
part of their 2010 designation
home neighborhood.
“My recommendation
would be go back and be creative
— not that there necessarily
has to be a piece of artwork
or even a stairwell in the
place of what was there, but
just think about the district
and what it’s all about,” said
Jeanne Lutfy.
There is no set date for Pye
Properties to return with new
plans for the Commission to
formally vote on, according to
agency spokeswoman Zodet
Negron, who said its members
must still coordinate with the
developer to determine when
the revised designs will be
ready to review.
Still, a bigwig at Pye Properties
— which scooped up
the Shore Theater for $14 million
in 2016 — praised his architects’
plan, telling this newspaper
the team did “an amazing job,”
and that they plan to alter the
designs accordingly to satisfy
the Commission.
“We have some tweaks to
work out, but the overall adaptive
project is on the right track,”
said Eddie Yadgarov.
The Shore Theater — which
opened as Loew’s Coney Island
in 1925, and later screened Xrated
ownership of the Brandt Company
decades, ever since Kansas
Fried Chicken mogul Horace
Bullard purchased the property
sale soon after, when the state
squashed his plans to install a
hotel and casino there.
INSIDE
Hometown heroes
Local creator brings super-stories to Black Comix Fest
By Kevin Duggan He’s written about black powers.
A Bay Ridge comic book creator
will bring his graphic novels
about a superpowered New York City cop
to the Black Comix Expo at the Brooklyn
Academy of Music on Feb. 10. The writer
and illustrator of “Nowhere Man,” who
will join about 20 other artists at the daylong
celebration of comics creators of
color, said he invented the heroic character
because he wanted to read about someone
he could identify with.
“When you look at successful characters
in comic books, it’s often someone the
author can relate to,” said Jerome Walford,
who founded Forward Comix in 2010.
Walford was a big fan of comic books
growing up, but felt like the classics that
inspired him, including Alan Moore’s
“Watchmen” and the Batman story “The
Killing Joke,” did not represent his experience.
Kapow!: Bay Ridgite Jerome Walford (inset) edited the anthology
“Gwan,” and wrote and drew the comic “Nowhere Man,”
about a superpowered cop (above). Photo by Kevin Duggan
In high school, he invented the
character who developed into the star of
“Nowhere Man” — Jack Maguire, a black
police detective who discovers futuristic
technology that lets him walk through
walls, create blasts of energy, and hack
communications, among other abilities.
But the state sees the super-cop as a threat,
and unleashes a paramilitary force to hunt
him down, racially profiling and harassing
black men in his neighborhood.
Walford said that his protagonist
reflects the black experience in modernday
New York.
“In the context of relations between
the African-American community and
law enforcement, I wanted to create a
character that would walk both lines and
‘Nowhere Man’ came about organically,”
he said. “We have this scene where the
chasers go into the communities and use
aggressive tactics to try and hunt down
Jack. We see interactions, and we begin
to realize that this looks very current and
very relatable.”
Walford, who immigrated with his family
from Jamaica during the 1980s, also
created the “Gwan Anthology” in 2016 to
publish the stories of immigrant comics
creators.
Writers and readers from non-white
backgrounds have increasingly been able
to find their own stories reflected in
comics, a trend amplified in recent years
by the release of the blockbuster movie
“Black Panther” and Netflix’s “Luke
Cage,” according to one of the organizers
of the Black Comix Expo.
“Comics play a big part, because for some
readers they are the first visual representations
of some of these ideas,” said Deirdre
Hollman, the founder of the Black Comics
Collective, which co-hosts the event.
Another recent factor, she said, has been
the growth of the Afrofuturism movement,
which envisions a future distinctly shaped
by black culture and tradition.
“It’s an affirmation that not only do
black people survive in the future but they
bring with them the cultural traditions that
have sustained them throughout time,”
said Hollman.
In addition to the comics creators, the
Expo will feature several events inspired
by Afrofuturism, including a virtual reality
experience that puts visitors in the
body of a black woman, and a panel discussion
on black women in science fiction
and fantasy. The event will also include
a superhero cosplay contest and an art
workshop for kids.
Black Comix Festival at BAM Peter
Jay Sharp Building 30 Lafayette Ave.,
at St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, (718)
636–4100, www.bam.org. Feb. 10; 11
am–5 pm. Free.
Your entertainment
guide Page 51
Police Blotter ..........................8
Standing O ............................34
Letters ....................................38
The Right View ....................40
Health ...................................... 41
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overall restoration
reuse and design for the
movies in 1972 under the
— has been dormant for
in 1978 and put it up for
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