Gallery 72

Project Details

Project Description

The gallery located on the first floor of the former Atlanta Journal and Constitution Building at 72 Marietta Street, is now home to the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed
Management. Renamed 2 City Plaza, the building’s lobby incorporates a new city run art gallery designed by Stanley Beaman and Sears as the result of a re-design competition
initiated by the Office of Cultural Affairs in March of 2012. The 3,400 square foot lobby renovation is broken into three zones – a south gallery, a north gallery, and entry lobby. The
south gallery will feature a variety of art forms while the north gallery will focus on digital artwork.

The renovation incorporates a 2500 architectural element that extends up the back wall behind the reception desk, traverses the lobby ceiling and extends through the existing vestibule below the soffit and entry canopy of the building. The element further extends up the southbuilding facade approximately 8 stories in height. The element will function as a marquee for the new gallery space as well as the building, and will be a highly visible feature to draw pedestrians into the new gallery space.

Once the cornerstone of a bustling Marietta Street, the former Atlanta Journal Constitution building is currently occupied by the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, waiting for the moment when it can begin to shine, thrive, and play a critical role in the ongoing restoration of downtown Atlanta. An architectural marquee that glows against the existing building façade and flows into the interior is intended to provide the catalyst to pull pedestrians from the street into the pristine, renovated, inviting galleries on the first floor of the building.

The dynamic twists and bends of the form recall the movement of paper through newspaper printing presses and the shifting lines of nearby railroad junctions. Made of powder-coated aluminum, the fins twist, converge, and are perforated to both reveal and conceal the green surface of the ceiling and wall behind. While this energetic form highlights the building entrance and lobby, the galleries that flank it on both sides are designed to disappear, fading into the background and allowing the artwork to speak. Pure white flexible galleries provide the open floor plan needed to exhibit a diverse range of work. The North Gallery moderates light through shading devices attached to the existing curtain wall, providing an ideal space for film, video, digital projection, installations, and other light sensitive artwork. Meanwhile, the South Gallery welcomes the light and the transparency in an effort to reveal the art within and engage the public with a visual presence on the street. The modulation of light throughout the spaces provides a full gradient of exhibition possibilities.