The Brooks Atkinson Theatre (New York City, New York)

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4-story "modern Spanish style" theater completed in 1926. Designed by Herbert J. Krapp, it was constructed as the Mansfield Theatre for the Chanin brothers. After 1933, the theater fell into relative disuse until 1945, when Michael Myerberg bought it and leased it to CBS for television productions. Known as CBS Studio 59, the theater played host to the long-running panel shows I've Got a Secret and What's My Line?. In 1960 it was renamed after the former New York Times theater critic, Brooks Atkinson, and returned to legitimate use.

In 2000, the interior was refurbished with restored decorative finishes by EverGreene Architectural Arts, and now the theater is once again illuminated by the original chandelier that had been removed over 40 years ago. It has 1,069 seats and is one of the Nederlander Organization's nine Broadway houses.

The facade of the theater is vertically divided into two major sections: the main symmetrically designed portion is in the "modern Spanish" style. A simple stage house section is placed to the west. The base of the main portion, rising from a terrazzo water table, is faced in painted rusticated terra-cotta in the form of ashlar blocks. The westernmost opening is the stage door, the eastern one has recessed metal doors on which signboards are mounted, while the center opening encompasses five pairs of modern aluminum doors in the original iron framings set below transoms. A modern marquee directly above the center doors extends the width of the center facade bay.

Above the base, the major portion of the facade is divided into three sections and faced in unpainted yellow-beige brick. The two flanking sections are alike with single-windows surmounted by lunettes with terra-cotta rosettes in round frames at the 2nd & 3rd floors. These windows are surrounded by an arch outlined in brick; the top of the arch is filled by a corbeled molding placed below a brick panel laid in basketweave bond above the 3rd floor. These outer facade sections rise to coped crenellated parapets above decorative terra-cotta friezes with rosettes and fleur-de-lis.

The wide mid-section is articulated with three terra-cotta Palladian enframements at the 2nd floor. Each of these has twisted engaged columns and pilasters with Corinthian capitals and a bracketed keystone. The two side enframements contain windows with multi-paned calamine sash while the center one is an open loggia shielding the fire escape. The 4th floor has arched window openings framed in terra-cotta with rope molding and rosette-adorned lunettes. Decorative medallions with lyres are inset in the wall between the windows. An eave of the sloping Spanish-tyle roof, carried on a bracketed terra-cotta cornice, nearly covers the tops of the 4th-floor windows. A projecting, illuminated sign with the name of the theater is placed on the western section of the facade.

The stage house portion of the building to the west of the main facade rises from a terrazzo water table and is faced with the same brick as the main portion. At the ground floor two doorways flank two former-window openings, now bricked-in. Terra-cotta string courses set off the upper floors which are simply pierced by windows with brick lintels. A simple terra-cotta cornice runs below the coped roof parapet.

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