Village East Cinema

Built in 1925 as the Yiddish Art Theatre, the City Cinema Village East is one of a handful of Moorish Revival-style buildings in New York City. Intended to house Maurice Schwartz’s Theatre Company, the property ultimately becoming a multiplex in 1992.

In early 2015, EverGreene conservators conducted a historic finishes investigation, analyzing and documenting the condition of the ornamental plaster ceiling. Craftsmen removed 75 large plaster elements from the ceiling from which they cast new ornament in our New York City studio. The design decision was made to stabilize the extant ornament and craft and decoratively finish new ornament to be compatible not to restore the ceiling. This lends a “conservation” aesthetic to the Village East Cinema. Using both traditional and mechanical methods, craftsmen installed new plaster elements into the ceiling and consolidated extant ornament to reinforce the support structure. Decorative artists removed and cleaned flaking paint from the ceiling and inpainted the newly-installed ornament to match the existing palette, seamlessly integrating new with old.