http://tribecatrib.com/news/2010/jan...ts-center.html
Port Authority Rejects 130 Liberty Street as Site for WTC Arts Center
A preliminary design of the performing arts center slated to be built at the World Trade Center site.
By Matt Dunning
UPDATED Jan. 14
Putting an end to months of speculation over the final location for a performing arts center at the new World Trade Center,
Port Authority officials said this week that the 1,000-seat theater and rehearsal facility will be built in the space originally intended for it rather than on land now occupied by the former Deutsche Bank tower at 130 Liberty Street.
The Authority, along with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, had been mulling the idea of putting the arts center at 130 Liberty Street, on the south side of the 16-acre site. There was hope that the move could have delivered the arts center years ahead of its projected opening—in 2017—were it to be built in its originally planned location.
The site of the theater is next to the 1,776 foot high One World Trade Center (formerly the Freedom Tower) at the corner of Greenwich and Vesey Streets.
“The ultimate determination was that the north side would be the most appropriate location for a performing arts complex,” Port Authority spokesman Glen Guzi told a Community Board 1 committee on Jan. 11.
The Authority’s construction of the subterranean support structure that will hold up the 9/11 Memorial Park, transportation hub and a host of pedestrian and vehicular tunnels is progressing steadily through the western half of the 16-acre World Trade Center site. Guzi said.
The upcoming phases of that work, scheduled to begin in the next few weeks, include a series of steel columns and sheer walls meant to support a performing arts center.
“The good news is that we are moving in a direction that will create the below-grade structure that will house the performing arts center,” Guzi said.
While the Port Authority is undertaking the support structure for the center—to be designed by architect Frank Gehry—construction of the actual building will be the city’s responsibility.
With the issue of the center’s location finally resolved, the center now needs a final design, a governance board and, perhaps most importantly, funding for its construction. The LMDC has pledged $50 for design and construction, but the center will need much more than that if it is ever to become a reality.
“The Performing Arts Center will help strengthen Lower Manhattan’s cultural community, and enhance the experience of the WTC site for residents and visitors alike,” said city Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin. “It is essential that we continue to move forward to ensure that the site originally designated in the master plan remains viable.”
Even with the underground supports in place, the city will have to wait at least five years to start construction on the actual building. The temporary PATH station, which is on part of arts center’s site, can’t be removed until the new Santiago Calatrava-designed transportation hub is finished in 2014.
If and when it is ever built, the arts center would house a 1,000-seat theater, a smaller auditorium or recital hall, and extensive rehearsal and set storage space and offices, Levin said. It is also planned to be the new home for the Joyce Theater Company.