The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Joan Weill Center for the Dance is the largest facility dedicated exclusively to dance in the United States. The facility is a major link in what can be referred to as the West Side’s "Cultural Corridor" beginning at the Lincoln Center Complex at 65th Street and continuing down Columbus Circle, where the new home for Jazz at Lincoln Center is located. The building links those projects to a mix of both vibrant and eclectic cultural and entertainment venues in the Times Square area.

The building consists of eight floors, six above and two below grade. Among its features are 12 dance studios, a 5,000 square foot black box theater with flexible seating for 295, adjacent green room and concession stand/boutique, dressing rooms and warm-up areas, archive and library facilities, costume shop, physical therapy facilities, lounges, and administrative offices. In addition to these spaces, the building features long-distance learning capabilities in various studios as well as the performance theater. Subsequently, the building has become a resource, not only for people in the dance community, but for those in the neighborhood as well.

The building was designed from the inside out for the sole purpose of fostering creativity in the art of dance. The 12 dance studios are the heart and soul of the building. The size, height, and overall proportion of the studios became the singular most important element of the design. Their transparency gives the building its personality by allowing the artistic energy within to radiate outward.

The distinct needs of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), Ailey II and The Ailey School are expressed in the articulation of the building façade. The windowed studios, which providing a visual connection to the street, introduce dance into the city’s fabric. The building’s core spaces, enclosed by red brick, are a subtle gesture to Manhattan’s Clinton District with its numerous tenement brick buildings, without being overtly contextual.

Large-scale curving Teflon "veils" top off the structure, serving to mask the building’s mechanical equipment on the roof. These forms were drawn from Ailey’s signature dance "Revelations," referencing the "Wade in the Water" section that uses large, billowy, white and blue fabric stretched across the stage to symbolize a river. These forms are repeated in the canopy marquee over the entrance to offer an inviting welcome into the building at street level.