Perelman Performing Arts Center

World Trade Center, New York, NY, USA

A new creative centerpiece of the New York theatre scene will be built as the next addition to the World Trade Center site. The Perelman Performing Arts Center will provide much-needed inventive artistic spaces to the downtown community.

Perelman exterior

The Perelman has been envisaged as a global center for the creation and exchange of art, ideas and culture.

The Perelman’s leadership envisages a global center for the creation and exchange of art, ideas, and culture. The ambition is for an institution that will produce and present new work, primarily by New York and US artists, often in collaboration with artists, companies and institutions in other parts of the world. The center will premiere works of theatre, dance, music, and opera, including productions that span multiple disciplines.

We’re working closely with the client team, REX, and the entire design team to detail the performance, public, and support spaces, which include three main theatre spaces, plus rehearsal space, administration offices, and a public bar and cafe. This will be a highly adaptable venue with unprecedented digital connectivity. Each space will function brilliantly as a standalone theatre, and can also be combined with adjacent theatre and interstitial spaces to create a total of 11 different possible configurations, each with limitless opportunity for seating arrangements ranging from 99 to 1200 seats.

“We now have an A-Team in place and a vision for what should happen inside the building. The program we’ve developed will give people a reason to return to the PAC over and over.”

Maggie Boepple, Director, The Perelman

The new building will include several medium sized theatre spaces, plus rehearsal rooms, administration offices, and a public bar and cafe.

This will be a highly adaptable venue with unprecedented digital connectivity.

Flexibility is at the core of the scheme with each of the three individual spaces designed to be reconfigured and combined in several formats.

The technical capacity of the new building is of paramount importance.

Adjacent to the iconic memorial, Transit Hub “The Oculus”, and Tower One, the building includes three performance venues, seating 499, 250 and 99. Flexibility is at the core of the scheme, but each space will be imbued with character from within, ensuring they will accommodate a multitude of art forms; intimate theatre, contemporary dance, small scale opera, cinema, and immersive events as well as seated and standing concerts.

The technical capacity of the new building is of paramount importance, not only to expand the potential audience of performances (via high-definition broadcast and streaming) nationally and internationally, but also to facilitate the creation of distinctly 21st Century art: collaborations, in real time, between performers in New York and, say, Beijing and Sydney.

“Highly adaptable technical systems will allow The Perelman to stage performances of all shapes and sizes, from 99 seat studio performances to 1200 seat concert events.”

Jerad Schomer, New York Studio Principal

An early concept sketch of the Perelman.

The sectional diagram of the building.

A model by REX of how the building will look.

A plan diagram of the complex in various configurations.

A drawing by Elina of a production of Here Lies Love staged in the centre.

“The Perelman will push all boundaries of flexibility in theatre today.”

Jerad Schomer, New York Studio Principal

Take a closer look at the Perelman.

Project Details

Client

The Perelman Performing Arts Center

Project cost

$500m

Completion

2023

Awards

Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Award: Unbuilt Civic Category, 2017
World Architecture News: Civic Future Projects Shortlisted, 2016

The Perelman is the final piece of the World Trade Center Master Plan in New York.

Credits

Architect

REX

Construction Manager

Sciame Construction Co., Inc.

Executive Architect

Davis Brody Bond

Construction Consultant/Owners Representative

DBI Projects

Related

Wrapped in translucent, veined marble laminated by insulated glass, the building will look like a monolithic box by day and a glowing cube at night.

Dezeen

Press

Directors and designers now are interested in far more flexibility and adaptability, in being able to radically reconfigure an auditorium.

BBC

Press

Supporting the industry internationally since 2004

The Queen's Awards for Enterprise: International Trade 2020 UK Theatre Tonic ITEAC Theatres Trust Theatre Communications Group Carbon Literate Orginisation - Silver
Jerad Schomer

Talk to Jerad about the Perelman.

Contact Jerad

+1.212.645.0790