The final public element for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center complex in New York City is a performing arts center that’s expected to open next September. That month will also mark the one-year anniversary of the opening of an adaptive reuse which converted what once was a greenhouse in Tarrytown, N.Y., into a flexible, 8,000-sf performance and rehearsal space, artists’ gallery and studio.
The architecture firm REX, working in collaboration with executive architect Davis Brody Bond, theater consultant Charcoalblue, and Threshold Acoustics, designed the eight-story, 138-foot-tall Perelman Performing Arts Center, located in lower Manhattan. The 129,000-sf cube-shaped PAC will provide new spaces for theater, dance, music, chamber opera, film, and media events.
Its three theaters—the John A. Zuccotti Theater, that can accommodate 450 seats; the Mike Nichols Theater, with a 250-seat capacity; and the Doris Duke Theater, which can have up to 99 seats—can be adjusted or combined into 10 different configurations.
The PAC will be adjacent to the World Trade Center Oculus and Transportation Hub. Because it is being built over an existing subway and rail complex, the project’s structural engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates devised a system that would support that building’s mass, consisting of seven mega columns through the existing infrastructure that hold aloft a belt-truss structure within which the PAC’s auditoria “float.”
The building’s exterior is wrapped with nearly 5,000 5x3-ft marble panels from Portugal, each weighing 295 lbs. (Front is the façade consultant.) Inside, the PAC is organized into three levels: a public level accessible by grand staircase or elevator that encompasses the lobby concourse and stage; an “artists” level with dressing rooms, green rooms, and wardrobe areas; and a “play” level for the three theaters and rehearsal space.
Rockwell Group designed the building’s lobby and restaurant concept restaurant. The project’s estimated cost is $500 million. Its building team includes Sciame (CM), ARUP (circulation consultant), Atelier Ten (sustainability consultant), and Wilson Ihrig (noise and vibration consultant)
From greenhouse to green performing arts center
Pocantico Center, the 216-acre former Rockefeller family estate in Tarrytown, housed John D. Rockefeller’s historic Orangerie, an orange tree greenhouse with 26-ft-high ceilings, that was opened in 1906.
The Orangerie had long been dormant when the Rockefeller Brothers Fund hired the architecture firm FXCollaborative to rehabilitate the building into a multidisciplinary arts center that would also be a model for sustainable design, and inclusion.
This adaptive reuse, now called the David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center, “is rooted in supporting the creative process across artistic disciplines,” said Brandon Massey, AIA, LEED GA, Senior Associate at FXCollaborative, in a prepared statement. This renovation, at a cost of $26 million, was completed within the guidelines of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. (Li Salzman Architects was the project’s historic preservation consultant.)
The reno added concrete slab flooring and sectioned off different areas of the building’s interior for specific performance or installation spaces. The building team added stage and rehearsal studios that can pivot 90 degrees. Also added were 40-ft-wide doors in the back of the building.
The design and construction aspired the building to achieve net-zero energy performance and LEED Platinum certification. The building’s green features include energy efficient windows, solar panels, and rainwater recapture.
The building team on this project included York Construction Corp (CM), Silman Structural Engineers (SE), Langan Engineering (CE), Altieri Sebor Wieber (MEP/FP), and Envoie Projects (owner’s rep.).
Related Stories
| Jan 4, 2011
An official bargain, White House loses $79 million in property value
One of the most famous office buildings in the world—and the official the residence of the President of the United States—is now worth only $251.6 million. At the top of the housing boom, the 132-room complex was valued at $331.5 million (still sounds like a bargain), according to Zillow, the online real estate marketplace. That reflects a decline in property value of about 24%.
| Dec 17, 2010
Sam Houston State arts programs expand into new performance center
Theater, music, and dance programs at Sam Houston State University have a new venue in the 101,945-sf, $38.5 million James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center. WHR Architects, Houston, designed the new center to connect two existing buildings at the Huntsville, Texas, campus.
| Nov 3, 2010
Park’s green education center a lesson in sustainability
The new Cantigny Outdoor Education Center, located within the 500-acre Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Ill., earned LEED Silver. Designed by DLA Architects, the 3,100-sf multipurpose center will serve patrons of the park’s golf courses, museums, and display garden, one of the largest such gardens in the Midwest.
| Oct 13, 2010
Biloxi’s convention center bigger, better after Katrina
The Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi is once again open for business following a renovation and expansion necessitated by Hurricane Katrina.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community center under way in NYC seeks LEED Platinum
A curving, 550-foot-long glass arcade dubbed the “Wall of Light” is the standout architectural and sustainable feature of the Battery Park City Community Center, a 60,000-sf complex located in a two-tower residential Lower Manhattan complex. Hanrahan Meyers Architects designed the glass arcade to act as a passive energy system, bringing natural light into all interior spaces.
| Oct 13, 2010
Bookworms in Silver Spring getting new library
The residents of Silver Spring, Md., will soon have a new 112,000-sf library. The project is aiming for LEED Silver certification.
| Oct 12, 2010
Holton Career and Resource Center, Durham, N.C.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Special Recognition. Early in the current decade, violence within the community of Northeast Central Durham, N.C., escalated to the point where school safety officers at Holton Junior High School feared for their own safety. The school eventually closed and the property sat vacant for five years.
| Oct 12, 2010
Richmond CenterStage, Richmond, Va.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Bronze Award. The Richmond CenterStage opened in 1928 in the Virginia capital as a grand movie palace named Loew’s Theatre. It was reinvented in 1983 as a performing arts center known as Carpenter Theatre and hobbled along until 2004, when the crumbling venue was mercifully shuttered.
| Oct 12, 2010
Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Gartner Auditorium was originally designed by Marcel Breuer and completed, in 1971, as part of his Education Wing at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Despite that lofty provenance, the Gartner was never a perfect music venue.
| Sep 13, 2010
Second Time Around
A Building Team preserves the historic facade of a Broadway theater en route to creating the first green playhouse on the Great White Way.