David H. Koch to Give $100 Million to Theater
David H Koch is the second businessman and philanthropist to make an extraordinary gift to New York City — in the figure of $100 million to go to the renovation of the New York State Theater. The first was Steve Schwarzman, or Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group, who gave $100 million to the New York Public Library earlier this year.
In years to come, when the oil-and-gas billionaire David H. Koch attends a gala performance of New York City Ballet or City Opera at Lincoln Center, the building he enters in black tie will bear his name.
Mr. Koch, recently called the wealthiest resident of New York City, has agreed to contribute $100 million toward the renovation of the New York State Theater, which is home to the two companies. His gift will be the largest private capital donation in Lincoln Center’s history and a triumph in a period of growing economic uncertainty.
“They seem to like me there, and I like them, so I think we’ve got a deal,” Mr. Koch, 68, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday from Boston, where he was traveling. “Its obvious that this theater needs modernization.”
“I’ve been going to the New York State Theater for 40 years,” he said. “I can assure you, I would not make a gift of this magnitude unless I was absolutely convinced that the quality of the work was world class.”
Starting this fall the building will be known as the David H. Koch Theater. The change will become the second planned renaming of a New York institution for a major donor in just four months; in March the New York Public Library announced that it would name its main building after the Wall Street financier Stephen A. Schwarzman in return for a $100 million gift.
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Article in Yahoo Biz about David H. Koch giving $100 million to theater.
David H. Koch gives $100 million to MIT to establish an integrative research institute to develop new paradigms in cancer research
View information about the Charles Koch Foundation (David’s Koch’s brother).
View information about philanthropy by Steve Schwarzman CEO of the Blackstone Group
Steve Schwarzman has become one of the 25 most powerful men in business since founding the Blackstone Group. Stephen Schwarzman is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Kennedy Center.