Victor Hugo Koehler, architect. Built by Reginold De Koven in an arrangment with the Shuberts, who sold De Koven the site on the condition that they hold the lease for the venue's first twenty-one years. In 1934, after a string of flops, it became a movie house. Livent, Inc. bought it in 1996 to gut and remodel it (with the adjacent Apollo) to create the Ford Center (later Hilton). All that remained of the Lyric by the December, 1997 opening of the Ford Center were its 42nd and 43rd Street facades.