Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE

Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Exterior Photography, FacadePerelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Image 3 of 27Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Interior PhotographyPerelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Interior PhotographyPerelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - More Images+ 22

  • Founding Principal: Joshua Ramus
  • Personel: Dylan Bachar, Wanjiao Chen, Adam Chizmar (PL), Maur Dessauvage (PL), Nazli Ergani, Alysen Hiller Fiore (PL), Sebastian Hofmeister, James Killeavy, Claire Kuang, Kirby Liu, Weronika Marciniak, Joshua Ramus, Raul Rodriguez, Emma Silverblatt, John Sng, Vaidotas Vaiciulis, Xuancheng Zhu
  • Competition Team: Giannantonio Bongiorno, Adam Chizmar (PL), Alberto Cumerlato, Mahasti Fakourbayat, Alysen Hiller Fiore (PL), Gabriel Jewell-Vitale, Min Kim, Dominyka Mineikyte, Elizabeth Nichols, Joshua Ramus, Raúl Rodríguez García, Michal Sapko, Emma Silverblatt, Elina Spruza Chizmar, Michele Tonizzo, Vaidotas Vaiciulis, Michael Volk, Cristina Webb
  • Executive Architect: Davis Brody Bond
  • Civil Engineering: Philip Habib
  • Façade Consultants: FRONT
  • Interior Architects: Rockwell Group
  • Signage Designer: Entro
  • Sustainability Consultants: Atelier Ten
  • Audiovisual: Boyce Nemec
  • Commissioning Consultants: Cosentini
  • Cost Management Consultant: Cost+Plus
  • Security Design Consultant: Ducibella Venter & Santore
  • Stone Consultants: FMDC
  • Wind Engineer: RWDI
  • Waterproofing: WJE Engineers
  • City: New York
  • Country: United States
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Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Exterior Photography, Facade
© Iwan Baan

Text description provided by the architects. Adjacent to New York City’s most hallowed site, the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) is the cultural keystone and final public element in the World Trade Center master plan, embracing the restorative power of art as a counterpoint to the site’s commemorative import. A producing house for theater, music, dance, opera, and film, PAC NYC pioneers new forms of theatrical adaptability to amplify the creativity of its artists and empower directors to surprise patrons with new processions and viewing experiences upon each visit.

Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Interior Photography
© Iwan Baan

The building’s pure form—rotated and elevated to accommodate complex below- and at-grade constraints—is wrapped in translucent marble. By day, the volume is an elegant, bookmatched stone edifice acknowledging the solemnity of the 9/11 Memorial across the street. By night, this monolith dematerializes, subtly revealing PAC NYC’s creative energy inside.

Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Interior Photography, Handrail
© Iwan Baan
Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Image 16 of 27
Diagram 02
Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Interior Photography
© Iwan Baan

A performance instrument, PAC NYC’s suite of theaters and scene docks can combine into ten (10) proportions and transform into sixty-two (62) stage-audience configurations, from 90 to 950 seats. Creative teams can transmute the spaces to fulfill their desired artistic expressions and audience experiences using a toolkit of automated and manual technical systems. They include four acoustic “guillotine” walls; four movable seating towers (for courtyard, horseshoe, in-the-round, thrust, and other formats); a two-tiered catwalk and walkable grid system; 56 “spiralifts” to mold the theaters’ floor into manifold geometries; and several removable catwalks and audience balconies. F

Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Image 3 of 27
© Iwan Baan
Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Image 26 of 27
Illustrated Section
Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Image 20 of 27
Plan - Theatre Level
Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Image 10 of 27
© Iwan Baan

urther, a zone of mutability around the theaters—composed of eight acoustic doors, the cruciform of scene docks/assemblies, and a peripheral circulation loop—allows any of these areas to be allocated as front- or back-of-house and form unexpected lobbies and performance antechambers. Four elevator/stair couplets can also be used individually or in combination, creating diverse circulation sequences from the lobby. As a result of this immense flexibility, PAC NYC is a constant source of surprise for patrons, a “Mystery Box” whose experiences are scripted entirely by each director’s imagination.

Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Image 7 of 27
© Iwan Baan

To provide exceptional room acoustics within a radically flexible environment (with variable auditorium sizes and proportions; manifold possible stage and audience locations; and voices and instruments, both amplified and unamplified), the theaters are designed to aurally resemble a boundaryless, diffuse “forest clearing.” A perimeter wall of trees—with its random solids and voids—retains acoustic energy without imprinting a defined auditory signature: the ideal environment into which specific soundscapes can be tailored for each performance configuration.

Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Image 6 of 27
© Iwan Baan

To emulate a forest clearing’s geometry, a system of three planks—with one, two, and three “scoops”—were cost-effectively ripped out of walnut using crown molding knives. Because the scoops at the edge of each plank are of consistent radius, the planks always marry regardless of their arrangement or rotation. This enables 258 permutations of plank combinations. The plank geometries, their arrangements, and the voids between them were iteratively engineered and tested by the acoustician and architect to form an effectively random surface in a cost-effective and standardized manner.

Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE - Exterior Photography, Cityscape
© Iwan Baan

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Address:New York, United States

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About this office
Cite: "Perelman Performing Arts Center / REX ARCHITECTURE" 04 Jul 2024. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1018429/perelman-performing-arts-center-rex-architecture> ISSN 0719-8884

© Iwan Baan

Perelman 表演艺术中心 / REX ARCHITECTURE

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