SHOWCASE
WORLD TRADE CENTER
GRAND THEATER
Financial District, Manhattan, New York
Spring 2017
Academic, Arch 402, Pratt Institute
Professor Dan Bucsescu
Partner Yiran Zhang, Siying Han (Half-Semester, Building Design)
Project Archived by Pratt
The Grant Theater is located in lower Manhattan, next to the World Trade Center and Ground Zero Memorial. The building comprises a music hall, a black box theatre, and a large auditorium. The concept of the project is its performance function can be embodied everywhere in the building. The diaphanous facade is made of perforated metal panels which light can easily penetrate. The building transforms into a large showcase at night. The people who stand around the theater can see the movement of people inside.
The project of this studio contains two parts. The first part is a group work of three included the overall design of the building which lasting half of the semester. The second part is an art installation which is individual work that lasting is another half of the semester. In my art installation project, I used diagrams and made a video in Lumion to demonstrate the concepts. The video is uploaded on my personal projects website tianyue.cargocollective.com. In addition to these two parts, fly tower analysis and auditorium interior design are renewed by myself in 2018.
Introduction 01
First Level Plan
Second Level Plan
Third Level Plan
Fourth Level Plan
Considering the circulation in the theater, we distribute the three halls from the bottom to the top based on the seating capacities of them. The vertical circulation concentrates in the middle of the theater. Despite the perforated facade, a large open window in front of the circulation gives the visitors a broad vision of the Grand Zero Memorial.
Organization 02
Continue the idea of the showcase. The operation backstage is visible from the outside. The visitors in the lobby can see the preparation of the actors and how they use the elevated machines to go to the stage. The mechanics working in the fly tower is also displayed to the public.
03 Backstage As Performance
Backstage As Performance 03
By learning the auditorium operation system, each part of the design is based on the standard requirement whatever the size of the stage, the distance between stage and grandstand or circulation of the backstage.
Backstage As Performance 03
Physical model (2’×2‘×2’)
On the ground level of the Grand Theater, the musical installation, "The Cloud" is designed to interact with visitors. For this installation design, please visit the page "musical installation" or click on the drawing on the left to continue.