The historic Bobby Jones Clubhouse will be transformed into a performing arts center that will serve as permanent home for the Atlanta Opera. It will feature a nature-inspired recital hall, an immersive theater venue, educational spaces, a rehearsal area as well as administrative offices.
In a release, the Atlanta Opera announced plans Sept. 23 for the multi-disciplinary arts project along the Atlanta Beltline. The new arts center, expected to be completed in the summer of 2027, will support a variety of performances and community engagement focusing on the arts, including recitals, jazz, cabarets, immersive chamber operas and other offerings.
The goal will be for the building and the surrounding park to link the opera with the community and create a welcoming place for the arts. The facility is expected to cost $45 million, and the Atlanta Opera already has secured core funding for the project. The Atlanta Opera did not disclose the source of the funding, but did say details of the capital campaign and donors would be forthcoming.
“This new, permanent home for the Atlanta Opera ensures the right fit for our current and future growth,” said Tomer Zvulun, the Atlanta Opera’s general and artistic director. “A state-of-the-art facility in this park setting will be a source of creativity for our local and visiting musicians. It is perfectly positioned to help us serve audiences and collaborators in our beautiful city and beyond.”
The Atlanta Opera remains committed to hosting its main-stage productions at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, continuing its presence as one of the city’s major cultural organizations.
The former Bobby Jones Clubhouse on Woodward Way on the Beltline is a Grecian revival built in the early 1900s. The property was reviewed by the Haynes Manor Foundation for renovation into a community-centric classical recital hall.
As plans advanced, the Atlanta Opera’s search for a new facility converged with those of the Foundation. The Atlanta Opera has worked closely with the Haynes Manor Foundation, the Peachtree Battle Alliance and the Atlanta Memorial Park Conservancy to envision a performing arts center that would offer exceptional acoustic experience.
Allen Post, managing partner of the Atlanta-based architecture firm, Posal, is leading the team engaged in designing the Opera’s new home.
Preliminary plans call for restoration of the exterior of the historic clubhouse on Woodward Way to blend with the surrounding neighborhood’s traditional residences. The state-of-the-art facility will face the Atlanta BeltLine. The total site area encompasses 4.7 acres of green space, the center and parking.
The facility will transform the 17,000 square foot clubhouse into a 56,000-square-foot complex housing a 200-seat recital hall, administrative offices, a costume shop, a film studio, a rehearsal hall and garden areas.
Theater Projects and A’kustiks are developing the recital hall as a premiere venue to present classical singers and musicians, jazz ensembles, lectures, spoken-word artists and other performing arts.
“The Atlanta Opera has become known not only as one of the finest opera companies in the U.S. but also as a well-managed and financially sound business,” said Rhys Wilson, chair of the Atlanta Opera’s board.
“This is the company that safely presented live opera during the pandemic and still presented a balanced budget for the last eight years,” Wilson continued. “The open and welcoming design of this building emphasizes the same values we held during the pandemic and that we will always espouse — of being a skillfully managed organization dedicated to making beautiful music available to everyone, everywhere.”
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