Odruff to redo arts center as ‘open and welcoming park’

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, presi- dent and CEO of the Wood- ruff Arts Center, said the endeavor aims to better blend the 56-year-old campus into the surrounding street grid. She said the proj- ect 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 fac ing Peachtree Street. “But imagine a Peachtree entrance that

els like an open and wel- coming park.”

The project involves trans- forming the underused Rich Auditorium at the Memorial Arts Building into per- formance stages and play spaces called the Goizueta Stage for Youth and Families. The Alliance Theatre and Atlanta Symphony Orches- tra will offer family friendly programming in the new building.

Moddelmog said the exte- rior’s abundance of concrete wi l be replaced with walls of glass windows so passersby can see families participat- ing in cultural pursuits and hobbies. Renderings show that the facility’s grassy field will be landscaped into a lush park with additional greenery.

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 attracted more than $40 million, according to a Woodruff spokesperson. The initiative will break ground in August.

COURTESY OF WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER Woodruff Arts Center’s CEO says the $67 million campus revamp includes landscaping and play spaces to provide Midtown access to nature.