Inside the City’s Gleaming New Performance Cube

A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines. [Curbed]( THURSDAY, AUGUST 31 architecture [Golden Child]( The magnificent Perelman Performing Arts Center is a standout at the reconstructed World Trade Center site. Will people come? Photo: Nicholas Alan Cope/ A sumptuous puzzle box sits on a dark cushion at the edge of the World Trade Center. The surface is a mosaic of marble tiles, their veining arranged to form diamond-shaped ripples across each side. Deep inside is a box within a box, containing yet more compartments, which can be separated and rearranged by sliding partitions or combined into a single room. During the day, the whole package is creamy and opaque, a sculpture best admired from a distance. At dusk, it glows from inside and the exterior is revealed as a translucent membrane of stone. That’s when it beckons. When the [Perelman Performing Arts Center]( opens on September 19, people will begin converging on it from nearby streets, underground passageways, and the memorial plaza, flowing up the stairs that are tucked beneath its elevated mass, drawn by the promise of intimate performance and an architecture of delicate mystery. “We wanted to respond to the context with a pure, elegant form, something that while being deferential would also have a respectful independence,” says the architect Joshua Ramus, a tall, shaven-headed man with an ascetic air and a deliberate way of speaking that suggests he has formulated three drafts of every sentence before he utters it. Along with his firm, REX, and Davis Brody Bond, he has designed a building that projects a similarly controlled sobriety. A compact structure surrounded by burly skyscrapers, it holds the spotlight on a highly visible stage, offering spectacle without garishness. [Continue reading »]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( The Latest [The Look Book Goes to East Hampton Library’s Authors Night More than 2,000 people showed up at the annual fundraiser to meet everyone from Misty Copeland to Robert Caro.]( By Kelsie Schrader and Jenna Milliner-Waddell [Atelier Jolie Has Been Defaced The former Basquiat studio turned Angelina Jolie concept project has been painted pink.]( By Clio Chang [It’s Not a Chess Club. It’s Club Chess. The game of kings has become an unlikely downtown craze.]( By Bindu Bansinath [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Read More From Curbed]( Introducing The City Desk, a weekly newsletter about New York. [Sign up to get it every Thursday](. [GET THE NEWSLETTER]( [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe]( | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on email newsletters, please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2023, All rights reserved