After stalling for years, the $243 million World Trade Center Performing Arts Center started to make headway in recent months, and now Silverstein Properties have revealed the official renderings. With the help of billionaire businessman Ronald O. Perelman's $75 million gift, the 90,000-square-foot marble cube designed by REX will both stand out as an impressive piece of cultural architecture and co-exists with the other structures on the WTC complex. — 6sqft
9 Comments
Translucent marble.... Mmmkay
Guess if it looks like the rendering. Still, there's a very conservative chill over the avant garde
Well Frank Gehry didn't work out, so let's do a PLAIN CUBE
I like it....it reflects the scale and volume of the negative space of the memorial fountain...
And the alabaster would be really nice. Alabaster is a beautiful material.
Well, this is really boring. If Gehry is deemed too expensive and you want to go cheap, then just go basic-no-frills-down-home-local-shop cheap. Don't hire Prince-Ramus (Prince-Ramus is cheaper???) and then not allow him to do Prince-Ramus things cause you want to stay cheap. The hell's the point?
This scheme isn't even a hair on the wrong end of DSR's brilliant The Shed and it's not as if REX haven't got it in them (they do). Everything about how the architecture has been handled at this site has been completely terrible. Tough break for all the designers involved.
It seems like a less charming version of Casa da Musica.
I think it's very beautiful. Translucent stone is humanistic and engaging - it's of the earth but also of the air when it's made thin enough for light to go though it. We're all made of stardust, after all. If they are really able to bookmatch it across the entire facade as shown in the renderings? good lord, it will be gorgeous.
I also love how mute and substantial it feels next to the spiky transit center. A lovely contrast. And as you said, jla-x, it complements the memorial fountains, too. The interior spaces seem warm and embracing and safe - but not fortresslike. of course, one could sandwich bullet-proof plastic into the marble and no one would ever know the difference - it would still feel ephemeral in the experience.
I hope this one gets built. It seems really wonderful!
Ok it does look nice (especially at night), but needs a few more Windows. How claustrophobic would it be if not? This will be very about the details, so they better hire some experts.
As a whole the area is shaping up to be nice (in about 2025), though 2wtc seems up in the air....the shape seems to costly
The lack of ground level openings on 3 sides seems kind of brutal.
I'm super impressed at the integration of HVAC and rooftop equipment. Judging by these renderings, it's all invisible!
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