Perelman Performing Arts Center Opens To The Public At The World Trade Center in Financial District

Yesterday at noon the long-awaited Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) opened to the general public on the 16-acre World Trade Center site at 251 Fulton Street in the Financial District. Designed by REX with Davis Brody Bond Architects as the executive architect and developed by The Perelman, the 138-foot tall, 129,000-square-foot cubic structure features three flexible performance spaces: the 450-seat John E. Zuccotti Theater, the 250-seat Mike Nichols Theater, and the 99-seat Doris Duke Foundation Theater, all enclosed in a translucent book-matched marble façade. The $500 million property is bound by Vesey Street to the north, Fulton Street to the south, Greenwich Street to the east, and Skidmore Owings & Merrill‘s One World Trade Center to the west.

The remaining ground level and sidewalk construction has wrapped up since our last update in the beginning of summer, when some of the stone pavers, bollards, kiosk displays, and light fixtures were still being installed.

The main staircase leads visitors up to the Clare and Vartan Gregorian Lobby Stage.

Metropolis by Chef Marcus Samuelsson is an on-site restaurant designed by Rockwell Group that is slated to open this fall with dining and lounge space, a public bar, and an outdoor terrace space on the lobby level.

Hallways line the edges of the first floor, along with soaring walls of the half-inch marble paneling set behind thin sheets of glass. They produce a soft lantern-like glow and diffused lighting.

The below images highlight the Dalio Terrace, filled with lounge seating, tables and shrubbery along the edges.

Directly to the east of the building are two sets of staircases and ADA-accessible elevator access to the local 1 train at the Cortlandt Street subway station that bisects the World Trade Center complex. Santiago Calatrava’s Oculus structure across Greenwich Street also provides convenient access to the PATH trains to New Jersey and host of local and express subway lines as far east as the Fulton Street station and up north toward Chambers Street.

Work has also concluded northern rear side facing Vesey Street.

The theaters have 60 different possible configurations, with moveable walls, stages, and audience seating. The halls can also be combined into a single 950-seat auditorium. The first performances for the 2023-2024 Inaugural Season at the Perelman Performing Arts Center are scheduled to commence on September 19, 2023. See the full list of events at pacnyc.org.

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