Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center
The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC) will constitute a unique venue for theater, dance, music, and chamber opera. It will offer artists new kinds of theatrical design possibilities and new opportunities to create innovative multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary work. Located at the World Trade Center, the PAC will celebrate life and humanity, redefining Lower Manhattan as a cultural destination and serving as a living testament to the power of the arts to inspire and unite. A home for creativity, the PAC will produce and present all forms of performance.
Elected mayor of New York City just weeks after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Mike Bloomberg led the work of rebuilding the World Trade Center site and reviving Lower Manhattan. The World Trade Center master plan, approved in 2003, designated a site for a performing arts center. In 2006, Mike began his chairmanship of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and in 2020 became chair of the PAC. The opening of the performing arts center in 2023 is integral to the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site and the continued growth and vitality of Lower Manhattan.
Flexible Design
The flexible design of the PAC’s three theater spaces will provide endless possibilities for live performance, accommodating audiences ranging from 99 to 950. The 138-foot-tall, cubed-shaped building, designed by the architecture firm REX, is clad in translucent, book-matched marble, which will admit light while creating a reflective exterior and emit a warm, amber glow after dark.
The building’s three floors will incorporate public spaces, a restaurant and a lobby featuring free public programming. The building will offer artists extraordinary flexibility, with movable walls allowing for 11 different theater configurations, creating a radically different environment for each performance. Equipped with digital technology, the performance spaces can connect virtually to audiences around the world.
Top photo: Rendering of the upcoming Performing Arts Center in downtown Manhattan, a new multidisciplinary venue offering opportunities to create and present work in theater, dance, music, and chamber opera. Design Architect REX, Executive Architect Davis Brody Bond, Image Luxigon/The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center