What you should know
Workers are setting the stage for the newest component of the World Trade Center. It is not another office tower. Nor is it another monument, at least explicitly, to the memory of the terrorist attacks of September 11. It is a theater complex. The Perelman Performing Arts Center was conceived two decades ago to add vitality and attract people to a place that has been synonymous with devastation and grief. It’s finally reaching ground zero. The curtain will rise on September 19, after years of financial obstacles, political shakeups and changes in leadership, design and occupants.
In a gigantic room behind translucent marble walls, workers are setting the stage for the World Trade Center’s newest addition.
It is not another office tower nor a monument, at least explicitly, to the memory of the terrorist attacks of September 11. It is a theater complex.
Conceived two decades ago to add vitality and draw people to a place of devastation and grief, the Perelman Performing Arts Center is finally reaching ground zero. The site is surrounded by new skyscrapers and located in a neighborhood that has more residents than before the attacks. Annually, millions of visitors come to the monument and museum.
Still, organizers believe the arts space, also called “PAC NYC,” has an important role to play in one of the most sensitive historic spaces in the United States.
“The monument is here for people to come, cry and pay their respects. The museum is for people to learn, be aware and never forget,” says Khady Kamara, executive director of PAC NYC. “And the Performing Arts Center is here for people to celebrate life and really celebrate the resilience of New Yorkers and the country.”
Perhaps as befits a venue for theatrical drama, the $560 million institution has had no shortage of its own. There were financial hurdles, political shakeups and a years-long wait for construction to begin while the designated site housed a temporary transit center. The leaders, architects, designers and occupants changed.
Now the curtain will rise on September 19 with the first of five concerts focused on the theme of refuge. Invitation-only events follow, including an open house for families of 9/11 victims and first responders on the 22nd anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about 9/11 and the responsibility we have to that community,” artistic director Bill Rauch said recently from the cube-shaped building, which stands 138 feet (42 meters) tall. .
Daylight filters through the Portuguese marble walls, turning them into a radiant amber quilt patterned with veins of chocolate and caramel. Quiet during the day, the building’s square exterior is designed to glow from within at night. Its nearly 5,000 marble panels are illuminated by chandeliers in a hallway that surrounds the theater.
Nearby, but out of sight, is the 9/11 Memorial, which is obscured by the 12-centimeter (half-inch) thick stone, subtly encased in glass for protection and energy efficiency. The windowless design keeps the bustle of theatergoers at a respectful distance from the people paying homage at the monument, and vice versa, explained architect Joshua Ramus.
“I didn’t want to treat the monument as a spectacle,” he said.
The arts center was built largely with private donations, including $130 million from former Mayor Mike Bloomberg and $75 million from investor Ronald Perelman, plus $100 million from a government-funded redevelopment agency.
“There has never been anything like it in the area, and it will continue to fuel the city’s recovery from the pandemic, just as the arts helped fuel our recovery after 9/11,” Bloomberg said in a statement.
With movable walls, seating, floor sections and even balconies, the space can be transformed from a 1,000-seat venue to three smaller spaces. These, in turn, can be arranged in a total of 62 different stage and audience configurations, some of them as intimate as 100-seat halls.
Special walnut panels address the acoustic challenges of different audience sizes and stage locations. Foot-thick (0.3 meter) rubber pads beneath the theaters absorb sound and vibrations from a hive of subway lines and commuter trains.
The inaugural season includes works as thoughtful as an opera about a case of racist hazing among American soldiers in the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, and as exuberant as “Cats” reimagined in drag dance culture. “The Matrix” actor Laurence Fishburne will debut a one-man show. Authors and presidential daughters Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush talk about parenting. Native American comedians will gather for a night of stand-up comedy.
“We didn’t want to avoid the topic of trauma, but we also didn’t want to dive into it,” Rauch said. He and Kamara emphasize that the institution aims to be accessible and appeal to a wide range of people, with ticket prices starting at $40 and free performances planned in the lobby, which will be open to the public daily.
However, the center has faced questions about its impact on the community and cultural scene.
When activists pushed this year to increase affordable housing in a skyscraper planned elsewhere, their campaign argued that too much money for redevelopment has gone to luxury non-residential buildings, while many New Yorkers have been forced out. zone. The median household income and median rent are about twice the city average.
“The performing arts center is kind of an amenity to an upscale neighborhood that they built,” said Todd Fine, who runs a historic preservation advocacy firm in Lower Manhattan. He said the facility needs to “demonstrate that the public will benefit.”
Many Lower Manhattan arts groups struggled after 9/11, and one of the first conceptual plans for redevelopment called for “strengthening existing cultural institutions” while developing new ones. Initially, the arts center would house three established groups (two theaters and a visual arts museum), plus a new museum celebrating freedom. Those plans later changed, although the 9/11 Museum took shape in a separate underground space.
Rauch says the Perelman Center is committed to collaborating with local arts groups. The head of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, an advocacy organization, believes the facility will foster an arts district environment that will draw attention to local groups, not compete with them.
“It’s a huge statement to have such a beautiful building dedicated to theater on that hallowed ground,” said council chief executive Craig Peterson.
On a recent day, James Giaccone pointed out the arts center to passersby from the edge of one of the 9/11 Memorial’s waterfall pools. That edge is named after his brother Joseph Giaccone, a 43-year-old financial executive, father of two children and husband.
James Giaccone, a volunteer for 9/11-related organizations including Tuesday’s Children, was initially wary of the political controversies surrounding early plans for the arts space.
He later came to see it as a step forward and, on a personal level, as a way to live life fully. His family and his brother’s family love going to the theater.
“So I think I would appreciate it,” Giaccone said.
2023-09-11 19:51:55
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