[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/ar...bUXq21GXMY/BQ&

Plans for Ground Zero Arts Hub Shift Again

By ROBIN POGREBIN
March 26, 2013

When a performing arts center was first planned for the former World Trade Center site, four cultural organizations were chosen after a high-profile competition to anchor a complex that would make ground zero a new and vibrant cultural destination.

But over the years each of the organizations has fallen away. The International Freedom Center — which was to explore human rights — was scuttled by Gov. George E. Pataki for attracting “too much controversy.” The Drawing Center, stung by criticism that some of its exhibitions had been “anti-American,” stayed in SoHo and renovated. And New York City decided that the Signature Theater would be too expensive, so that company built a new home on Theater Row instead.

That left only the Joyce Theater, which was to make the proposed center a home for dance as the reigning tenant and to call it the International Dance Center. Now, quietly, the plans have changed yet again. The performing arts center will instead be a multidisciplinary space that includes theater, music and film, as well as dance, said Maggie Boepple, its president. While the Joyce will retain a role at the site, dance will just be one part of many different kinds of programming.

City officials say the adjustment was necessary if the arts center were to be a viable enterprise in Lower Manhattan. “The Joyce can only use it so many weeks of the year,” said Julie Menin, the former chairwoman of Community Board 1, who serves on the arts center board. “It always made sense to have more than one cultural tenant.”

To lower the construction costs the board has eliminated some features from the center, like classrooms. More critically the number of stages has been reduced from the four that were originally called for — three for the Signature and one for the Joyce — to a main stage and a 200-seat flexible space.

But even those plans remain in flux. The main stage had originally been touted as a 1,000-seat house that would fill a niche in a city that lacks theaters of that size. But now that plan is no longer definite because the board must determine whether it can afford to fit an auditorium that large on a site with limited square footage. “There will be a whole new redesign because we really changed the building,” Ms. Boepple said. “One of the things we’re looking at is whether a 1,000-seat theater is possible.”

Mr. Gehry, in a telephone interview, said he continued to roll with the punches. “The other program was grand and big, and it seemed in scale with the place,” he said. “We’ve got a smaller program now because of finances. I don’t take time to look backwards. We’ll make something out of it that works.”