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Colonial Theatre

The Colonial Theatre served as a vaudeville and legit theatre house until around 1930 when it began being used exclusively for movies. In the 1950s and 1960s it was used as a studio by NBC and ABC. It briefly returned to legit theatre as the Harkness Theatre from 1975 through 1977 before being demolished to clear space for Harmony Atrium and Tower (61 West 62nd Street).

Harmony Atrium was built with a "privately-owned public space", an odd little quirk incentivized by the 1961 zoning resolution that permitted denser buildings in exchange for this public amenity. The results of the law were mixed with some truly valuable seating areas and a number of spaces like Harmony Atrium which became squalid, underused havens for the homeless. A project was undertaken in 2008 to replace the space into a visitor center for Lincoln Center.

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