Stilts to Give Bard’s Theater Chance ‘to Be or Not to Be’

Developers today announced they would build an office building on stilts to preserve the remains of the 16th-Century Rose Theater, where William Shakespeare is believed to have debuted as an actor.

But protesters who have waged a campaign to save the partly excavated theater condemned the plan as “worse than expected.”

The 10-story office building would stand 22 feet above the Elizabethan theater’s remains and be supported by steel girders, the developers said. The theater’s remains would be on view from entrances on three sides of the office building, they said.

The government-approved plan for the site south of the Thames River would cost $15.8 million more than the initial plan and would reduce some office and parking space, the developers said.