Music + chess + rowing + sculpture + philosophy + mathematics = the power of phenomena over form.
The discipline of practice and interpretation of music. Chess strategies. The relentless determination of the oar. The thought of the sculpture before the action. The rigor of philosophy to develop reasoned arguments. Balance of equations in mathematics.
These are the core influences that drive the cerebral architecture of Joshua Ramus, founding director of REX and design architect for the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
The eight-story, 160-square-foot cube, open since September, is an understated backdrop to the 9/11 Memorial’s reflecting pools. It is also the manifestation of Ramus’ customer-centric design philosophy: phenomena over form. The facade is “a great example,” says Ramus. “We started with one [client] directive not to see activity inside because of the memorial, but to provide a building that was alive at night.”
This resulted in the theatre’s new translucent marble cladding. It is opaque by day, but, lit from within, glows at night. “We presented a system that was intelligently resolved,” says Ramus. “We didn’t talk about beauty … although hopefully we get things that are beautiful,” while meeting the customer’s needs.
Unlike many architects, REX doesn’t have a preconceived aesthetic, says Jay Taylor, retired principal of Magnusson Klemencic Associates, the theater’s structural engineer.
“Most architects just say, ‘This is what the building looks like, make it right,'” says Taylor, who has worked with Ramus for 25 years. “Josh says, ‘This is our vision, say— me structural constraints and challenges and describes ways to solve them.”’ The result is a rare ‘seamless integration of structure and architecture,’ says Taylor.
Ramus, 54, has long been disciplined and patient. As a youngster in North Carolina and metro Seattle, he practiced horn three to four hours a day. And he played snail mail chess with his grandfather in San Diego, one move per card.
Ramus at Perelman’s translucent marble facade provides an opaque backdrop to the 9/11 Memorial that reflects the pools by day, but lit from within, glows at night.
Photo by Scott Hilling/ENR
Dare to be silly
As a freshman at Yale University, Ramus dropped the horn when he became obsessed with rowing. In college, he studied philosophy and mathematics, but a course in whalebone sculpture led him to design. The summer before starting his master’s degree in architecture at Harvard University, Ramus trained for the Olympics, rowing. He says the sport helped him develop a “relentless focus” and “dumb determination” central to his work. Ramus likes to “dare to be dumb,” which he says takes courage. “It means looking at something with the mind of a child, going back to first principles and exploring solutions without the weight of convention,” he says, adding, “It gets harder to do as I get older.”
Ramus says it also harnesses “the power of performance over form” as it moves beyond the “tired schism between form and function and suggests that form can also perform” for a building’s occupants, as an instrument tuned
With its complex inner workings, Perelman is a fine-tuned instrument. The theater project, led by Sciame Construction LLC, has been compared to building three ships in a bottle because of the three reconfigurable performance rooms, with movable walls and floors. Flexibility empowers artists, says Ramus. But it baffled the construction team, which had to integrate all the moving parts into a well-oiled theater machine that would also be soundproof and vibration-free.
Beyond flexibility and performance, REX designs for adaptive reuse. The mindset and high standards made working with REX always “challenging, liberating and rewarding,” says Taylor. “I implemented the lessons I learned from Josh in every project I did with other architects.”
