The Power of Creativity Fills PAC NYC Lobby Stage at Free Event

On Friday, November 1, the Downtown Alliance and PAC NYC hosted a breakfast conversation at PAC’s lobby stage as part of its inaugural Icons of Culture Festival. “The Power of Creativity: Driving Innovation Across Industries to Shape Lower Manhattan” featured a lineup of expert speakers including Tom Colicchio, Crafted Hospitality Group; Laura Lendrum, CEO of Printemps America; Alejandro Perez, chief administrative officer, BNY; Bill Rauch, artistic director, PAC NYC; David Rockwell, founder and president of Rockwell Group; and architecture critic Michael Kimmelman as moderator. 

Downtown Alliance president Jessica Lappin introduced the event by describing the Alliance’s role in an evolution of the neighborhood that “should make all New Yorkers proud.”

Each panelist began with their personal and professional connections to Lower Manhattan. 

Rausch spoke about “the promise of bringing people together” at PAC NYC, which is celebrating its one year anniversary after a robust first season of programming. PAC NYC, which is located on the World Trade Center campus, faced a design challenge in creating a space that is secure and respectful given the context, but also welcoming: “You don’t want people to forget what happened here, but it’s not what you want people to focus on,” Kimmelman said. 

“We wanted to be in a neighborhood that’s changing,” Lendrum said, discussing Printemps’s choice to establish a location downtown. She sees parallels to the brand’s first Paris store, which opened in what was then considered an up-and-coming neighborhood 160 years ago. Today, the same Opera district in Paris’s 9th arrondissement is known for its elegant department stores and shopping options. Lendrum sees that same potential in Lower Manhattan.

Lendrum spoke about how department stores were social civic centers, especially in cities like New York and Paris, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Post-pandemic, especially given the prevalence and convenience of online shopping, retail is even more crucial to street life. Ahead of Printemps’s 2025 U.S. launch, Lendrum’s team has been thinking about what really attracts people to physical retail stores. She insists the French luxury brand’s first U.S. location at One Wall Street is “not a department store” in the traditional sense; instead, it will “help people discover and play before [focusing on] shopping.” Kimmelman agreed that retail is the key to reviving the neighborhood.

As a top chef, Colicchio believes that ground floor restaurants are what keep neighborhoods safe and vibrant, adding that he’d “like to see more of that” in Lower Manhattan. 

What “sold” Colicchio on opening his Temple Court restaurant at the Beekman was the opportunity to join the ranks of business owners who made the commitment to the neighborhood after crises like 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy. “So much has changed down here,” he said.

Rockwell said it is these “moments of fracture” in the city that “allow designers to step forward with interesting solutions.” The architect, himself a Lower Manhattan resident, said the district has all “the ground floor pieces that make cities worth living in.”