Gehry gets ground zero commission

Gehry Partners and Snohetta, a Norwegian firm, have been selected as architects for a cultural complex that is to be built on New York City’s World Trade Center site, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. announced Tuesday.

Frank Gehry’s Los Angeles-based firm, whose buildings include the curvy, metallic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown L.A., was chosen to produce a schematic design for a performing arts center, according to a statement from the state agency overseeing the site’s redevelopment.

Snohetta, whose work includes Egypt’s Alexandria Library, will create a design for a museum complex that will include the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center, a fine arts exhibition group. The schematic designs are due early next year.

The designers were chosen from among firms that submitted more than 60 proposals, development corporation President Kevin Rampe said in a written statement. The performing arts center is to house the Joyce Theater International Dance Center and the Signature Theatre Center.