The Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center (PACWTC) is a planned multi-space, 150 to 800-seat performing arts center at the northeast corner of the World Trade Center at the intersection of Fulton and Greenwich Streets in Manhattan.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) announced on October 12, 2004, that Gehry Partners LLP and Snøhetta, an architectural firm from Norway, would design the PAC. Gehry’s performing arts complex, which incorporated a boxlike design, would have housed the Joyce Theater, as the Signature Theater Company had dropped out due to space constraints and cost limitations.
Plans for the construction of the PAC were reportedly stalled over financing and design, although construction is also hindered by the presence of the temporary World Trade Center PATH subway station entrance.
In February 2014, David Lan, Artistic Director of London’s Young Vic Theatre, was announced as Consulting Artistic Director of the PACWTC, a position he will hold simultaneously with his Young Vic leadership. The Center’s mission was revised to originate works of theater, music and dance in three small flexible theaters.
By September 2014, Gehry Associates were no longer connected with the project. Plans were proceeding for the choice of a new architect and future programming for a 2019 opening. Gehry’s design was scrapped; the board of the Performing Arts Center plans to choose a new design from one of three other architects. This change came after Maggie Boepple, the president of the Performing Arts Center appointed in 2012, was said to have disapproved of his work.
In July 2015, it was reported that the construction budget for the PAC was to be reduced from $350 million to $200 million. The LMDC announced at a board meeting that the $99 million in federal funds committed to the project was contingent on the arts center’s leaders’ “producing an affordable design and a viable plan for raising the remaining money from private sources.”
In November 2015, the PAC announced that they had awarded the design architect contract to Joshua Prince-Ramus of Rex Architecture P.C., with the firm Davis Brody Bond to serve as executive architect. (Wikipedia)
The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center at The World Trade Center will be a global center for the creation and exchange of art, ideas, and culture that will welcome audiences, artists, residents, workers and visitors alike.
The Perelman team envisions a center that will produce and premiere works of theater, dance, music, and opera, primarily by U.S. artists – both emerging and renowned – often in collaboration with artists, companies, and institutions in other parts of the world. Through its innovative technology, The Perelman will be the most connected theater in New York. The Perelman will also be a home for the Tribeca Film Festival during its annual run.
The Perelman will be a hub for the Lower Manhattan community to enjoy, day and night. The Perelman will present a diverse variety of artistic and cultural experiences as well as places and ways to meet, play, collaborate, eat, and drink.
Vibrant with energy, intelligence, insight, and pleasure, The Perelman will make profound connections. It will bring big ideas, deep emotions and unforgettable artistic experiences to the renewed Lower Manhattan neighborhood and beyond.
Architectural Vision
The building is being designed by REX, led by Joshua Prince-Ramus. REX was selected through a rigorous invitational process focusing on architectural firms that had previously designed celebrated performing arts houses. The three finalists were: Henning Larsen (Denmark), UNStudio (The Netherlands), and REX (United States). REX is an internationally acclaimed architecture and design firm in New York City. Seminal projects include the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in Dallas, Texas; the Vakko Fashion Center and Power Media Center in Istanbul, Turkey; and the Seattle Central Library. REX is led by Joshua Prince-Ramus, who was the founding partner and principal of OMA New York, until he rebranded the firm as REX in 2006.
The building for The Perelman will be flexible and elegant and provide the most dynamic possible artistic experience, while also staying true to the needs and desires of the neighborhood and the city. It will meet the demands and challenges of the performing arts of the 21st century like no place elsewhere.
The conceptual design will be unveiled in Spring 2016.
Design and Construction Team
DESIGN ARCHITECT: REX Architecture, Joshua Prince-Ramus (Bio)
EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT: Davis Brody Bond Steve M. Davis, Carl F. Krebs, David K. Williams (Bio)
THEATER DESIGN CONSULTANT: Charcoalblue, Andy Hayles, Gavin Green, Jon Stevens (Bio)
CONSTRUCTION CONSULTANT/OWNERS REPRESENTATIVE: DBI Projects, David Belt, Ofer Ohad (Bio)
( http://www.theperelman.org/ )
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