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ART & ENTERTAINMENT
Atlanta Opera to transform Bobby Jones
Clubhouse into new performing arts center
By Collin Kelley
The Atlanta Opera will transform the
historic Bobby Jones Clubhouse into a
performing arts center with a recital hall,
theatre venue, education spaces, and
administrative and rehearsal areas for the
Opera.
Located in Peachtree Battle on
Woodward Way along the Atlanta
Beltline, the facility is expected to cost
$45 million with core funding already
secured, according to a press release
from the Opera. Announcements of
the donors and a capital campaign will
be announced soon, and the project
is estimated to be completed by the
summer of 2027.
The long-vacant clubhouse, which
served the Bobby Jones Golf Course in
Atlanta Memorial Park, was built in the
Grecian revival in the early 1900s.
Allen Post, managing partner of the
Atlanta-based architecture firm, Post
Loyal, is leading the team designing the
Opera’s new home. Preliminary plans
call for restoration of the exterior of the
historic clubhouse, while a 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 17,000 square foot clubhouse
will transform 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 spaces. Theater Projects
and A’kustiks, LLC, are developing
the recital hall as a premiere venue to
present classical singers and musicians,
jazz ensembles, lectures and spoken
word artists, and other performing arts.
“This new, permanent home for
The Atlanta Opera ensures the right
fit for our current and future growth,”
Tomer Zvulun, the Carl W. Knobloch,
Jr. General & Artistic Director of The
Atlanta Opera, said in a statement.
“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 Opera said it will continue to
host its main-stage productions at the
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
The clubhouse has been in limbo
since 2018 after a nonprofit called the
Haynes Manor Recital Hall Foundation
of Atlanta was created with plans to turn
the building into a recital hall.
According to the press release,
the Opera’s search for a new facility
converged with those of the Haynes
Manor Foundation. The Atlanta Opera
has subsequently worked closely with
the Haynes Manor Foundation, the
Peachtree Battle Alliance, and the
Atlanta Memorial Park Conservancy to
plan the new space.
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