A correction was made to this article on March 15, 2004.
Who's waiting for the Freedom Tower to be built? A major arts complex is projected for Gotham's downtown financial district long before building begins at Ground Zero.
Architects David Rockwell and Kevin Kennon, together with the Public Art Fund, are at work on an ambitious project that promises to wed the visual and the performing arts just blocks away from the World Trade Center site on Fulton Street.
They're calling it the Incubator.
"It is conceived of as a public arts center, where artists will work, live, exhibit and perform," said Rockwell. "The mission is to help advance the development of downtown through the arts."
As now envisioned, the Incubator would primarily be a social space. "You might come to see a certain show or exhibit but discover other things when you're there," said the architect, whose Rockwell Group has designed, among other projects, Hollywood's Kodak Theater and New York City's W Hotels.
The Incubator is projected to go up on the burgeoning Fulton Street arts corridor between the South Street Seaport and the site of the World Trade Center. Rockwell and Kennon, who has his own architectural firm, Kevin Kennon Architect, have selected the site but would not divulge the exact address.
Although the proposed cost is also under wraps, the project has the necessary deep-pockets backers in the American Express Foundation and the Norman Lear Family Foundation.
Two theaters
The Incubator's performing arts component includes a 199-seat theater and a 99-seat theater. In addition, there's approximately 20,000 square feet devoted to visual arts studios and a gallery, plus 10 housing units. Total footage comes to 60,000 square feet.
Impetus for the Incubator came out of Rockwell and Kennon's design and construction of the World Trade Center viewing platform.
"The city approached us about doing a VIP platform at the World Trade Center site," Rockwell recalled. Instead, the two architects proposed a public viewing platform and raised the money in four weeks.
Various arts groups are awaiting approval from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to be included in a possible cultural complex at the site of the World Trade Center. "Most of the initiatives that are downtown are part of Ground Zero," said Rockwell. "We wanted to do something right away." He expects to break ground on the Incubator in spring 2005 and have a completed arts complex one year later, with a possible first season of works to debut earlier.
"The proximity of the visual arts to the performing arts will allow for interesting collaborations," said Rockwell. "Hopefully, there will be a blurring of boundaries that leads to something new and fresh."
Experienced partners
The Incubator may be brand-new, but it has lined up some venerable partners. As New York's leading presenter of artists' projects and new commissions, the Public Art Fund heads up the project's visual arts component. On the theater side, the Incubator looks to such established legit orgs as MCC, Naked Angels, Labyrinth and the current "Old Vic New Voices" program run by that London-based company.
In one respect, the Incubator reflects Rockwell's own transition from the visual to the performing arts. After working on various architectural projects, the Rockwell Group recently expanded its design chores to include set design for Broadway shows, beginning with "The Rocky Horror Show" in 2000 and "Hairspray" the following season. For the 2004-05 Broadway season, Rockwell is designing sets for the new musicals "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "All Shook Up."
Contact Robert Hofler at
bob.hofler@variety.com