CULTURAL
The 3 Legged Dog Art & Technology Center
New York, NY
2002
Due to the events of September 11, 2001, the 3 Legged Dog performance group was in need of a new home base to replace their former Lower Manhattan location. It was the first cultural institution to rebuild at Ground Zero. Leeser Architecture was commissioned to design a 12,000 square foot facility to house the production and viewing of cutting edge, large scale, multimedia performance and art.
The 3 Legged Dog Art & Technology Center is located in the ground floor of the Battery Parking Garage in Lower Manhattan with street frontage on both Washington and Greenwich Streets. The facility includes a 200-seat main stage theater, a 2200 square foot gallery space, rehearsal space and a video and audio editing suite. The design focuses on opening the conventionally hidden activities of theater production to the public, be it the casual passer-by or the theater visitor. A diaphanous glass façade stretching 90-feet along the length of Greenwich Street is pulled gradually inside the building from the existing structure’s front edge and then back again. A smooth, white lobby connects the intentionally raw spaces of the original parking structure, which contain the major program elements. The main stage and the rehearsal space are visible from the street, and the actors’ changing rooms are equipped with motion sensors which will turn the storefront windows from opaque to clear when not in use. The aim is to reveal the daily activities of the process of creating technologically advanced theater through a lens that produces urban spectacle.
