Location: New York City, USA.

Architect: REX.

On what is perhaps the most significant site in the city there is to be an international cultural hub thanks to The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center (The Perelman Center), which will produce and premiere original works of theatre, dance, music, film, and opera. Its design embraces the Center’s goals to challenge experiential norms, offer unmatched flexibility, encourage artistic risk, give the most cutting-edge and digitally connected places for creative performance, and involve the neighbourhood. The Perelman Center is the cornerstone and concluding element of the World Trade Center master plan and is due to open in late 2023.

The Perelman Center is a clean shape set amidst glittering glass buildings on the north side of the 9/11 Memorial, turned and elevated to address the 9/11 Museum and transportation hub and engage the site’s primary pedestrian arteries of Greenwich and Fulton. Insulated glass is bonded with translucent, veined marble to cover the structure. The volume is an exquisite, lapidary stone structure by day, and the simplicity and conventionality of its construction respect the solemnity of its surroundings. This monolith transforms at night, when dramatic sets and human movement silhouettes animate the glowing shell, revealing the creative spirit inside in an understated way. While the structure’s façade is appropriate for the location, its utilitarian interior communicates the workhorse quality required for The Exchange’s shifting needs. Rugged materials such as steel walls, concrete trusses, wood flooring, and perforated plywood panels promote subtle changes to the lobby, stage, and even the restaurant and bar.