The Perelman Performing Arts Center, branded as PACNYC, is a multi-space performing arts center at the northeast corner of the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. The Performing Arts Center is located at the intersection of Vesey, Fulton, and Greenwich Streets in Lower Manhattan. The building is named for billionaire Ronald Perelman, who donated $75 million to its construction.
Plans for the Performing Arts Center were first announced by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) in 2004 as part of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site after the September 11 attacks. Gehry Partners LLP and Snøhetta were selected as the original designers, but plans were reportedly stalled over financing and design, as well as the presence of the temporary entrance to the PATH train's World Trade Center station on the site.
The original design was scrapped by September 2014, and Joshua Ramus and Davis Brody Bond were selected as architects the next year. After further financing issues were resolved and the PATH station entrance was relocated, below-ground construction began in August 2017, followed by the construction of the above-ground frame in 2020. The center was originally known as the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center during construction. It opened on September 13, 2023. The Performing Arts Center includes approximately across three floors.
Original design
After the World Trade Center was destroyed during the September 11 attacks in 2001, officials sought to redevelop the site. Daniel Libeskind's 2003 design for the new World Trade Center, known as Memory Foundations, included space for a performing arts center at the site. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) announced on October 12, 2004, that Gehry Partners LLP and Snøhetta, an architectural firm from Norway, would design the Performing Arts Center. Gehry's proposal, which incorporated a boxlike design, would have housed the Joyce Theater, as the Signature Theatre Company had dropped out due to space constraints and cost limitations. Then-mayor Michael Bloomberg announced in 2010 that he would provide $100 million for the theater's construction from a federal fund dedicated to projects in Lower Manhattan.
Maggie Boepple was appointed as the Performing Arts Center's president in March 2012. Plans for the construction of the Performing Arts Center were reportedly stalled over financing and design, although construction was also hindered by the presence of the entrance to the PATH train's temporary World Trade Center station within its footprint. In February 2014, David Lan, artistic director of London's Young Vic Theatre, was announced as consulting artistic director of the Performing Arts Center, a position he was to hold simultaneously with his Young Vic leadership. The venue's mission was revised to originate works of theater, music, and dance in three small flexible theaters.
Redesign
By September 2014, Gehry Associates were no longer connected with the project. Plans were proceeding for the choice of a new architect and future programming for a 2019 opening. Gehry's design was scrapped; the board of the Performing Arts Center planned to choose a new design from one of three other architects. This change came after Boepple was said to have disapproved of Gehry's work.
In July 2015, it was reported that the construction budget for the Performing Arts Center was to be reduced from $350 million to $200 million. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) announced at a board meeting that the $99 million in federal funds committed to the project was contingent on the arts center's leaders' "producing an affordable design and a viable plan for raising the remaining money from private sources." In November 2015, the Performing Arts Center announced that they had awarded the design architect contract to Joshua Ramus of REX, with the firm Davis Brody Bond serving as executive architect.
On March 3, 2016, the permanent PATH station building opened one block to the south, and the temporary entrance was closed. The opening of the new station building allowed the temporary station entrance to be demolished in August of that year. This, in turn, allowed the construction of the Performing Arts Center on the site.