Today, pitstops along the 22-mile Atlanta Beltline corridor include myriad restaurants, greenspaces, breweries and watering holes, and scenic overlooks. In about three years, that list will also include—yes—opera.
The Atlanta Opera, an internationally recognized opera house founded in 1979, unveiled plans this week for a $45-million, adaptive-reuse project that will bring a multidisciplinary arts center to the doorstep of the Beltline’s Northwest Trail, on a looping segment completed a few years ago in Buckhead.
Plans call for vastly expanding and modernizing the former Bobby Jones Clubhouse, a Grecian revival structure that dates to the early 1900s at 384 Woodward Way, with the multi-use Beltline pathway and revised Bobby Jones Golf Course in its backyard.
Opening the facility will make Atlanta Opera the first arts organization to be headquartered on the Beltline’s loop around the city.
Scope of the 4.7-acre site in question, with the adjacent Beltline trail and links shown just to the south. Google Maps
Courtesy of Atlanta Opera; designs, Post Loyal
Situated between Northside Drive and Peachtree Road, the project will span 4.7 acres of new construction, greenspaces, and parking.
Atlanta Opera’s arts center facility will expand the current 17,000-square-foot clubhouse into a 56,000-square-foot complex, with its exterior on Woodward Way designed to blend with the surrounding, tony neighborhood, while a cutting-edge contemporary facility will face the Beltline around back, according to Post Loyal architects, an Atlanta-based firm leading designs.
Features around the new building will include a “nature-inspired” 200-seat recital hall (with greenspace views), an immersive theater venue, a film studio, a rehearsal hall, costume shop, administrative offices, and gardens, according to project heads.
Plans for the recital and theatrical spaces call for hosting a “variety of performances and community engagement focusing on the arts, including recitals, jazz, cabarets, immersive chamber operas, and more,” according to an announcement this week. Theater Projects and A’kustiks LLC are leading development of the recital hall.
Courtesy of Atlanta Opera; designs, Post Loyal
The Bobby Jones Clubhouse's 384 Woodward Way location, in relation to the rest of the revised golf course, with commercial Peachtree Road shown at right. Google Maps
The opera’s current rehearsal space doubles as a storage warehouse next to an active railroad line along Northside Drive in Loring Heights, which officials say the company has outgrown. Main-stage productions of the Atlanta Opera will continue to be housed at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center.
The planned $45-million facility, considered a key piece of the opera’s new $110-million comprehensive campaign, has secured core funding, with title naming rights and donor announcements in the pipeline, according to company officials.
The timeline calls for it to be finished and open in the summer of 2027.
Condition of the former Bobby Jones Clubhouse and its proximity to the park and golf course today. Google Maps
Courtesy of Atlanta Opera; designs, Post Loyal
The opera “has become known not only as one of the finest opera companies in the U.S., but also as a well-managed and financially sound business,” Rhys Wilson, Atlanta Opera board chair, said in an announcement this week. “The open and welcoming design of this [proposed] building emphasizes the same values we held during the pandemic and that we will always espouse—of being a skillfully managed organization dedicated to making beautiful music available to everyone, everywhere.”
Swing up to the gallery for more context and project renderings.
The full, official Northwest Trail route that will link the Lindbergh/Uptown area with Atlanta's Westside. Atlanta Opera's project will be located near the loop at top. Courtesy of Atlanta BeltLine Inc.
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