The city of Lawrenceville released Monday new details — and renderings — for its $26 million, 50,000-square-foot arts center expansion.
Among many other things, the plan would give the renowned Aurora Theatre what officials called one of the largest live performing arts stages in Georgia. And the expansion is just one of several big projects Gwinnett's county seat has underway.
“This exciting project continues the dynamic transformation of the downtown area,” Lawrenceville Mayor Judy Jordan Johnson said in a news release.
The new arts facility would indeed be built in the heart of downtown Lawrenceville, adjacent to the existing Aurora Theatre. It is expected to include a new 525-seat mainstage theater, an additional cabaret theater, education space for classes and practice rooms, and office space.
The project designs released Monday by the city were completed by firm Stevens & Wilkinson. The city plans to select a contractor for the project’s construction in the next 60 days, officials said, and hope to have the facility completed by mid-2020.
“Lawrenceville took a powerful chance on us 12 years ago,” said Anthony Rodriguez, co-founder and artistic director for the Aurora. “For that, we are very grateful. To be on the brink of a campus expansion is beyond what we dreamed.”
The arts center expansion is just one of several current projects that will transform the city of Lawrenceville.
It recently opened a new $20 million public works facility, which will enable it to build a sprawling, $200 million mixed-use development on the site of the former facility (and others).
To the south of that project, officials have vowed to preserve the old Hooper Renwick School — an historic facility that educated Gwinnett's black children before integration — and convert it into a civic space. A county library branch is also planned for the property.
Work also recently began on a $30 million project to create a "college corridor," a 2.2-mile linear park connecting the Georgia Gwinnett College campus to downtown Lawrenceville. It will eventually include bike paths, multi-use trails and a new two-lane road, officials previously said.
In other Gwinnett news:
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