REX has released design for a new Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center site in New York. In the New York-based architecture firm REX's proposal, the new building will include three auditoria (499-, 250-, and 99-person) which can combine to form seven additional arrangements, and a rehearsal room—all eleven of which can adopt manifold stage-audience configurations; flexible front- and back-of-house circulation that can create diverse patron entry/intermission/exit processions; and (A-Z) offices, performer support spaces, and restaurant/bar.

Located on the most significant site in New York City, the new Perelman complex will premiere works of theater, dance, music, film, and opera, transforming Lower Manhattan into a vibrant, global cultural heart. 

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REX's design is inspired by the Perelman Center’s mission to defy experiential expectations. The basic design approach of the complex is to foster artistic risk, original local productions, and worldwide collaborations; stand as the most technologically connected and advanced venue in the world; and engage the local community. The keystone and final piece of the World Trade Center master plan, The Perelman Center embraces creation and memory with respectful individuality.

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Amidst gleaming glass towers on the north side of the 9/11 Memorial, The Perelman Center is a pure form, rotated and elevated to accommodate complex below-grade constraints, address the 9/11 Museum and transportation hub, and engage the site’s main pedestrian streets of Greenwich and Fulton.

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The edifice is wrapped in translucent, veined marble—from the same Vermont quarry as the U.S. Supreme Court building and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial—laminated within insulated glass. By day, the volume is an elegant, book-matched stone edifice, whose simplicity and traditional material acknowledge the solemnity of its context.

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Particularly, by night, this monolith dematerializes silhouettes of human movement and theatrical configurations animate the glowing enclosure, an invitingly subtle revelation of the creative energy inside. While the building’s pristine exterior befits the site. Its muscular, utilitarian interior expresses the workhorse quality necessary for the changing nature of The Perelman Center’s artistic needs. 

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Steel walls, concrete trusses, wood floors, perforated plywood panels, and other ruggedly beautiful materials encourage the frequent transformation of scenery, stage-audience configurations, and even the restaurant/bar and lobby. The building’s material duality—elegant exterior and robust interior forms ‘The Rough in a Diamond.’

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The Perelman Center is organized in three levels—Public (bottom), Performer (middle), and Play (top). The layout and character of the Play Level drive the design of the entire building. The Play Level is a pioneering, highly adaptable performance palette that combines both multi-form and multi-processional flexibility. 

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It holds three auditoria (499-, 250-, and 99-person) and a rehearsal room which can double as a fourth venue. Using large, acoustic, guillotine walls that separate them, the three auditoria can be combined to form seven additional, unique performance spaces, for a total of eleven arrangements—including the rehearsal room venue which can all adopt manifold stage-audience configurations.

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On the perimeters of the rehearsal room and the 250- and 99-person auditoria, acoustic glass walls with integrated black-out blinds provide natural light into performances and rehearsals, and enable these rooms to be rented for events. 

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Directors can further choreograph the audience’s entire experience through a zone of mutability around the auditoria. Acoustic doors between scene docks, scene assemblies, and a circulation loop at the floor’s periphery allow directors to apportion any of these areas as front- or back-of-house, and to form unexpected lobbies and performance ante-chambers. 

Image © K18

Also key to these permutations, baffles pivoting from the auditoria’s exterior walls can function as traffic valves to direct the audience into or past an auditorium’s entrance, or block access to anyone but performers. And finally, the four elevator/stair couplets can be used individually or in combination, creating unexpected access sequences from the lobby to the auditoria in any of their varied formations.

Image © REX 

Image © REX

 Image courtesy of REX

Image © REX

Image © REX

Image © REX

Image © REX

Image © REX

Image © REX

 Image courtesy of REX

Project Facts

Client: Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center
Program: Performing arts center, including three auditoria (499-, 250-, and 99-person) which can combine to form seven additional arrangements, and a rehearsal room—all eleven of which can adopt manifold stage-audience configurations; flexible front- and back-of-house circulation that can create diverse patron entry/intermission/exit processions; and (A-Z) offices, performer support spaces, and restaurant/bar
Area: 8,400 m² (90,000 sf)
Status: Invited competition 2014; first prize 2015; commenced Schematic Design 2016; completion expected 2020
Design architect: REX
Personnel: Adam Chizmar (PL), Maur Dessauvage, Alysen Hiller Fiore (PL), Sebastian Hofmeister, Suemin Jeon, Claire Kuang, Kirby Liu, Weronika Marciniak, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Vaidotas Vaiciulis
Competitions team: Giannantonio Bongiorno, Adam Chizmar (PL), Alberto Cumerlato, Mahasti Fakourbayat, Alysen Hiller Fiore (PL), Gabriel Jewell-Vitale, Min Kim, Dominyka Mineikyte, Elizabeth Nichols, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Raul Rodriguez, Michal Sapko, Emma Silverblatt, Elina Spruza, Michele Tonizzo, Vaidotas Vaiciulis, Michael Volk, Cristina Webb
Executive architect: Davis Brody Bond
Consultants: Arup, CCI, Charcoalblue, Cost Plus, Ducibella Venter & Santore, Front, Jaros Baum & Bolles, Jenkins & Huntington, Magnusson Klemencic, RWDI, Sciame, Silman, Thornton Tomasetti / Weidlinger, Threshold, Wilson Ihrig

Top image © Luxigon

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