On Saturday, the 24 member Chautauqua Institution Board of Trustees voted in favor of moving forward with plans to tear down the Amphitheater and
rebuild.

"The board authorized today that we can take the drawings and go out for a bid," said George Murphy, chief marketing officer at the Chautauqua Institution. "So we don't know what the project costs. In November, we have to have the fund raising to match the costs. There will be a vote in November, assuming we have a good cost number and all of the fund raising; that's the vote that will then approve the project for going forward."

The board is calling the inevitable demolition of the 122-year-old Amphitheater a "renewal," one that will salvage parts of the current Amp, to be re-purposed for the new one. "The design of the proposed amphitheater is very similar to the look and feel of the current one. And that's what the community wanted, the community said, when we come back, we want it to look and feel the way it is."

"The Amphitheater is historic, it's beautiful, it's uncomfortable, it's unsafe," said Nancy Ackley, who spends her summers at Chautauqua. "And I don't think it meets the needs for the next 100 years."

Eight months of community forums, countless discussions, and even a campaign to save the amp just wasn't enough for people who hoped to preserve the historic structure. "There still are many people who feel that they weren't listened to, that it was just not as democratic as it could have been," said Bonnie Rosenthal, who also spends her summers at Chautauqua.

This was not the news preservationists and some members of the Chautauqua community were hoping. Critics of the board's decision say they are not surprised, and that their fight is far from over.

"We're prepared to move on and continue to put forth the best steps to not only save the Amphitheater, but we believe it can be, as the reports have shown,  the advisory panel report, and the old city structures report, that the Amphitheater can be and should be updated and modernized for well into the 21st century," said Brian Berg, chair of the Committee to Save the Amphitheater. "And that remains our mission today, as it did four years ago."

The board will meet again Nov. 7  to review the bids for the project. If a bid gets the green light, the goal is to build the new Amp by the 2017 summer season.