The Dunwoody City Council is moving ahead with plans to demolish the 50-year-old Brook Run Theater, despite opposition from the mayor, local preservationists and members of the arts community.
The Brook Run Conservancy and a coalition of other groups and institutions have written letters urging the city to hold off tearing down the theater in Brook Run Park and allow them the time to raise private funds to offset the estimated $7 million cost of rehabilitating the building.
“They have no plans for that space,” said Danny Ross, president of the Brook Run Conservancy “What’s the hurry?”
The theater is one of the few surviving relics of the Georgia Retardation Center, an institutional facility that served people with severe mental and physical disabilities for decades until it was closed nearly 20 years ago. In recent years, the building has fallen into greater disrepair, thanks to vandals and copper thieves.
City Council members in July voted 6-1 to demolish the building, citing concerns about the cost of remodeling and running the facility. Councilman Doug Thompson said he regrets the building needs to be torn down, but he said preservationists have had years to drum up the needed cash from private sources.
“Everybody wanted to save the theater but nobody wanted to pay for it,” he said.
Representatives from local arts institutions like the Stage Door Players and important community partners like Georgia State University have urged the city to preserve the building. If restored, the theater would seat more than 300 and would be the city’s largest venue by far.
The last-ditch effort may come too late. City contractors have already begun removing asbestos from the building and demolition is said to be just days away.
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