A new building is taking the stage at this year’s Holiday Train Show—the Delacorte Theater, an iconic New York City landmark that has been around for more than 60 years, housed over 150 productions of Free Shakespeare in the Park—starring famous names including Meryl Streep, Linda Ronstadt, and Anne Hathaway—and attracted more than 6 million audience members. Located in Central Park, adjacent to the Great Lawn, Turtle Pond, and the Shakespeare Garden, it has long been a citadel of free, public art and an example of infrastructure that blends into the natural world.

The Delacorte started from very humble beginnings. In 1957, Joseph Papp, a theater producer and founder of the Shakespeare Workshop, began touring Shakespeare plays in public parks. The Central Park rendition gained so much popularity that it became an annual tradition, though still with temporary setups including a portable stage, lighting, and seats. In 1962, a permanent home for the productions was finally constructed, using funding from philanthropist George Delacorte.

Time and weather put increasing strain on the building, seats were cramped, and the physical accessibility of the space was behind the times. The venue no longer matched the quality of the productions in it. It was decided that the iconic theater needed to be revitalized. With the help of fundraising from both the government and private donors, restoration started in October 2023 and The Delacorte reopened in July 2025.

And in celebration of this historic moment, we’ve created our very own miniature Delacorte Theater to add even more life and legend to the Holiday Train Show.

Though our miniature is a fraction of the Delacorte’s size, they do have something crucial in common—the theater and its tiny twin both use organic, recycled materials, and have a respect for plant life at the heart of their design.

The cone-shaped façade of the Delacorte Theater has been renovated using rustic, tongue-and-groove redwood planks repurposed from 25 decommissioned city water towers. The project’s lead architect, Stephen Chu of Ennead architecture, ensured that the tall, ancient trees that surround the theater—some of them more than a century old—remained intact and preserved. Together with the Public Theater, a non-profit that operates the Delacorte, Chu hired arborists to help with trimming, protection, and to ensure the new structure doesn’t put too much weight on the trees’ root system.

In true Holiday Train Show fashion, Applied Imagination used many plant materials to assemble the Delacorte’s replica. Under the beautiful glass dome of the Conservatory, you’ll find an ornately crafted Delacorte Theater, complete with a stage made of Horse Chestnut Bark, a façade made of Hickory, Black Walnut, and Black Locust barks, a roof made of salal leaves, and more. See below for the full list of materials.

Make sure to visit the Holiday Train Show this year to see our delightful Delacorte duplicate, our ode to a beloved and freshly revived New York City treasure. Special funding for The Delacorte model is made possible by Larry E. Condon.

Theater:

• Awning Top: Salal leaves (Gaultheria shallon)
• Awning underside: Cedar wood (Juniperus virginiana)
• Facade: Hickory bark (Carya genus), Black Locust bark (Robinia pseudoacacia), Black Walnut bark (Juglans nigra)
• Foundation: Horse Chestnut bark (Aesculus hippocastanum)
• Seating: Ash bark (Fraxinus genus) Railings: Black Bamboo branches (Phyllostachys nigra)
• Jequitibá/Trumpet Tree pods (Cecropia pachystachya)
• Walk paths: Ground Cork (Quercus suber bark), Horse Chestnut bark (Aesculus hippocastanum)
• Stage: Horse Chestnut bark (Aesculus hippocastanum), Course sand
• Lighting Towers: Birch branches (Betula genus), Willow branches (Salix genus), Poppy pods (Papaver genus), Acorn caps (Quercus genus)
• Lettering: Sand, Walnut wood (Juglans genus)

Control house:

• Roof: Salal Leaves (Gaultheria shallon)
• Building: Winged Euonymus / Burning Bush wood (Euonymus alatus)
• Siding: Black Locust bark (Robinia pseudoacacia)
• Trim: Black Walnut wood (Juglans nigra)