About Atlanta Intown. (Sandy Springs, GA) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2014)
History Center renovates to make the past 'not boring' By Joe Earle They want more company. To show it, they’re getting a new front door. And a lot more. The Atlanta History Center has begun a dramatic renovation of its West Paces Ferry Road facilities that will create a new entrance for its museum building, a new display of Atlanta history, add an historic log cabin to its collection, and, if the city of Atlanta signs off, could provide a new home for the historic Cyclorama painting. The center plans to bring more than $50 million worth of construction projects and new programs to its Buckhead campus over the next few years. “It’s definitely an exciting time,” History Center Vice President Hillary Hardwick said. “It’s a great time for Atlanta and it’s a great time for the Atlanta History Center. We used to say we were one of Atlanta’s best kept secrets - - and we didn’t say that proudly. We want to open up.” The $21 million construction project now under way will provide a new entry drive off West Paces Ferry, move the front of building closer to the street, create a new entry facade for the museum, double the size of the building’s atrium, add a central hallway connecting the exhibits, and add a coffee shop/gift shop/bookstore. History Center officials hope that the work will make the facility seem more inviting, and will help change the way Atlantans view history. “One of our big goals is changing the perception of history and the Atlanta History Center,” Hardwick said. What do they hope to convince people about history? “It’s not boring,” History JOE EARLE Atlanta History Center President and CEO Sheffield Hale tours the construction. Center President and CEO Sheffield Hale said. “It’s fun. It impacts their lives.” In the past, he said, history “was taught so badly that people thought it was names and dates and dead folks, and had no relation to them.” To change that, Hale and Hardwick say the center is opening up both physically and philosophically. “The first thing I did when I got here was take down the fences,” Hale said. “The reaction I got was far beyond anything I thought I’d see.... Who wants a chain-link fence in their front yard? Those kind of symbolic things matter. The architecture matters. The way this old building looked to people, they didn’t know what it was and they didn’t come in.” Hale says the new bookstore/gift shop/coffee shop planned as part of the renovation will provide one way the center can become more welcoming to the public. He hopes it becomes a place where the center’s neighbors will come for coffee or to relax. The shop will offer places to sit and Wi-Fi connections, he said. “It’s not going to be like any other museum bookstore,” Hale said. “It’s going to be a community living room. What I want it to be is the coolest bookstore/cafe/living room you’re ever been to.” The center used focus groups to determine what people wanted to see. Audience feedback said one thing museum goers wanted, Hale said, was coffee. “Coffee and a chair,” Hardwick said. As the building gets a new entrance and facade, the center’s main exhibit showing the history of Atlanta is being re-tooled, too. The exhibit, which hadn’t changed since it was installed in 1993, has been removed, and center historians are reworking it. They intend for the new exhibit, scheduled to open in 2016, to be more interactive and to do a better job of bringing Atlanta history to life. “Were going to talk about your neighborhood,” Hale said. “One week it could be Morningside, the next week it could be Old Fourth Ward. Everybody loves to talk about their neighborhood.... We think that construct of ‘neighborhoods’ might be a disciplined way for us to get out into the community.” And Hale wants the History Center to get out more. He thinks the nonprofit center should have a greater impact on the community. “When we started this project, one of our goals was to really change the way people feel as they walk onto this 33-acre campus,” Hardwick said. “We’re changing. ... All of this helps reinforce that. It mirrors the organization were becoming.” 03 Changes under way at the Atlanta History Center The Atlanta History Center has begun a major renovation of its facilities. Over the next few years, more than $53 million is to be spent on projects at the museum and on its grounds. The work, History Center officials say, is intended to make the facility more visible from the street and more inviting to visitors. 1. New entrance from West Paces Ferry and new atrium. Construction is under way to build a new entrance to the History Center and enlarge the building’s atrium to 5,300 square feet. The $21 million project will change the look of the building and add a new gift shop/ coffee shop/bookstore that center officials hope will be used by neighbors as well as museum visitors. The plan includes moving the front of the building closer to West Paces, landscaping the drive to reflect the center’s gardens, and adding a hallway through the building that will connect all the center’s exhibits. Opens 2015. 2. New history of Atlanta display. History Center historians are working on a new display of center artifacts and documents, and plan to tell the story of the city of Atlanta in a new way. It’s the first reworking of the center’s main exhibit since the building opened in 1993. The new exhibit, the center says, will allow visitors to see, hear, touch and explore the exhibits through new media. Opens 2016. 3. Cyclorama. The History Center has raised more than $32 million to restore and build a new home for the 128-year-old painting “The Battle of Atlanta,” which now is on display at the Cyclorama in Grant Park. If city of Atlanta officials approve the deal, the History Center plans to build a new home for the painting as one of its displays. The money raised includes $10 million for maintenance of the painting. History Center conservators plan to restore the painting to its original size, adding 3,268 square feet that was removed in 1921, and hang the painting the way it was originally displayed. 4. Elias Wood family cabin. The center is moving to its campus a log cabin that originally was located in the Hollywood Road area. The cabin, home to Elias and Jane Wood, was built on land ceded to Georgia by the Creek Indians in 1821, and dates to Atlanta’s earliest days, the center says. Opening fall 2014. 5. Goizueta Gardens. A $3 million gift from the Goizueta Foundation will be used to rehabilitate and tie together the History Center’s 22 acres of gardens, which include six public gardens that illustrate the horticultural history of the area. Ongoing. Source: Atlanta History Center Located 4.S mlloi south at 979 Crescent Ave Atlanta. GA 30309 McElreath Hall Tickets ft information e Rhododendron Garden Smith Farm House Amphitheater Entrance “ Atlanta History Museum AREA CLOSED DURING CONSTRUCTION Smith Family Farm Gardens VeteransA n l Property Closes at 5:30 pm Gift Shops Close at 5:00 pm Cherry Sims Garden AtlantalNtownPaper.com October 2014 | INtOWIl 5
