Why the Glowing Marble Facade of Ground Zero’s New Performing Arts Center Almost Never Happened

The Perelman Performing Arts Center, dedicated at the World Trade Center site in New York City today, is an architectural marvel—a floating cube with a translucent facade of patterned marble that glows like a light box at night. The striking design is so complex that even its architect did not know if he could pull it off. In an interview with ELLE DECOR to be broadcast later this month at the Marmorac marble and stone trade fair in Verona, Italy, the architect—Joshua Ramus of the New York–based firm REX, who worked on the design for nine years—shared the dramatic journey toward creating the $500 million, 129,000-square-foot arts center. “It was some combination of love and panic,” Ramus admits.

Source: Why the Glowing Marble Facade of Ground Zero’s New Performing Arts Center Almost Never Happened