The new food court is one of the best gourmet aisles in town. Add to that the restored concourses, the magnificent chandeliers, the uncovered sweep of corridor down to the Oyster Bar, the swank cocktail lounge of the Campbell Apartment. It s an astonishingly successful second act. The fences indicating construction have just gone up around Madison Square Park. The scheduled completion date is spring 2001.
Work is imminent on lighting, repaving and planting.
The Plaza itself will feature outdoor cafe-style restaurants and an Islamic pattern worked into the paving stones. If Broadway was the apostrophic fabulous invalid, surely the decaying New Amsterdam theatre was where it was institutionalized, waiting only for the final closing notice to be posted. Disney and Hugh Hardy have given the gorgeous house a miraculous new life. It s back in action now. Local kids designed the animal seats, which were then carved by woodworker Milo Mottola in Brooklyn.