The Perelman Center

Three Ships In A Bottle

Developers of the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center at New York City’s World Trade Center turned to MKA for design solutions that truly pushed the envelope for new possibilities in multi-form, flexible theater spaces on a challenging site in Manhattan.

Perelman Center and its three theater structures sit atop several below-grade levels that include noisy PATH subway tracks, bustling loading docks at adjacent Freedom Tower, and well-trafficked retail space inside the Oculus. To address these challenges to a vibration-sensitive program, the Center’s theaters are entirely isolated acoustically from each other, and the primary building structure and envelope—much like three ships in a bottle—are a box inside a box, with the interior box sitting on rubber-and-steel bearing pads to prevent subway noise and vibration.

Building-scale trusses integrated into perimeter walls create the flexibility of the theater’s program while also addressing the site-constrained opportunities for where the structure could touch the ground. This approach allowed for three seamlessly interchangeable theater spaces—from small black-box venues of fewer than 100 people to one theater large enough for 1,200 people.