A prominent visual and performing arts campus in Midtown is poised to get a makeover.
The Woodruff Arts Center, which consists of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Alliance Theatre, will undergo a $67 million landscaping and redevelopment project, its leaders announced Tuesday at the Midtown Alliance’s annual meeting.
Hala Moddelmog, president and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center, said the endeavor aims to better blend the 56-year-old campus into the surrounding street grid. She said the project will not only beautify the buildings, but it’ll act as an inviting new entrance.
“No one like to call their baby ugly,” Moddelmog said of the Woodruff Arts Museum’s facade facing Peachtree Street. “But imagine a Peachtree entrance that feels like an open and welcoming park.”
The project involves transforming the underused Rich Auditorium at the Memorial Arts Building into new performance stages and play spaces called the Goizueta Stage for Youth and Families. The Alliance Theatre and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will offer family-friendly programming in the new building.
Moddelmog said the current exterior’s abundance of concrete will be replaced with walls of glass windows, so passersby can see families participating in cultural pursuits and hobbies. Renderings show that the facility’s current grassy field will be landscaped into a lush park with additional greenery.
“We want to offer equitable and free access to nature in the heart of Midtown,” Moddelmog said.
Woodruff Arts Center plans to raise the funds through a coordinated campaign that has already raised more than $40 million, according to a Woodruff spokesperson.
The initiative will break ground in August. The new landscaping is scheduled to be complete in 2025, while the Goizueta Stage for Youth and Families is slated to open in early 2026.
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