The new Symphony Center will serve as the Orchestra's full-time performance, rehearsal, teaching and administrative home and will be part of the Midtown site that will include the office/retail tower 1180 Peachtree and a public plaza and green space.
Sasaki Associates, Inc. was named as the landscape Architect for the Symphony Center and for the extensive exterior spaces the new Center will share with the 1180 Peachtree office/retail tower.
Sasaki has created some of the most recognizable icons of modern landscape architecture. Projects of note are 2008 Beijing Olympic Green, Boston Waterfront Park, Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, The Dallas Arts District - Meyerson Symphony Hall, Oklahoma City National Memorial, U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Korea, and over 30 projects in Georgia including Callaway Resort at Callaway Gardens. Alan Ward is the principal-in-charge at Sasaki for this project. Sasaki landscape architects will work in conjunction with local landscape architect firm Roy Ashley who is also responsible for the landscaping of those portions of the 1180 Peachtree development not shared with Symphony Center.
While the landscaped design for Symphony Center will not be executed for several years, the 1180 Peachtree building, developed by Hines with King and Spalding as the primary tenant, opened in March 2006. In keeping with Caesar Pelli's master plan for the site, the ASO has agreed with Hines to commission a landscape design for the common areas of the 6.2-acre site to create a unified flow.
The respective architects—Jon Pickard for 1180 Peachtree and Santiago Calatrava for Symphony Center—will work together with Sasaki designers to create a design that meets the many goals for the site, including:
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Synergy - The two buildings should work well together and the site should appear as one unified design
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Flexibility - Individuals should find on the site places for gathering, for listening to music, viewing art and for quiet reflection
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Drama - The design should provide the perfect backdrop and approach to Symphony Center
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Climate Sensitive - Water features and shade are important to give pedestrians respite from the summer heat
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Connectivity - The landscape should help connect Symphony Center and 1180 Peachtree to the surrounding neighborhood, and most especially The Woodruff Art Center, the MARTA station, nearby restaurants and parking lots. Corridors should provide easy access across the site for anyone walking in Midtown, whether Symphony Center or 1180 Peachtree is their destination or not. Workers in surrounding office towers should find the site a pleasant place to eat lunch or just relax.
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Sustainability - The landscape should be environmentally friendly and cost-effective, in terms of ongoing maintenance
Specific planned design elements
include:
- The Allee - Beginning with a suggested sculpture, the alee provides the ceremonial approach, and a "postcard" view of Symphony Center. It is lined with beautiful Zelkova Serrata trees, often called the "Green Vase" tree due to its classic shape. The tree will provide an elegant shaded summer walk, slowly revealing Symphony Center, and in the winter the vase shaped delicate branches will give interest and drama to the alee. Water fountains along the walk, occasional benches and dramatic nighttime lighting complete the granite bordered allee.
- Reflective garden - To the North of the Allee, a secluded garden - a place for a special piece of sculpture - allows visitors a quite place to sit and enjoy a respite from the busy midtown neighborhood beneath the wistful branches of delicate Chinese Pistache trees. A gentle "runnel" terminating in a graceful waterfall to the vehicle roundabout and porte cochere level below adds drama. Flowering trees give this area a spectacular backdrop and focal point from the Promenade II gardens' a few feet below.
- Garden Plaza - The Garden Plaza combines an open area for gathering with a gently terraced, space - again with Chinese Pistache Trees - for visitor seating or perhaps listening to a small music ensemble assembled on the west end of the Garden Plaza level. The restaurant located at the base of 1180 Peachtree at this end of the tower will have an exquisite view of the garden plaza and Symphony Center appearing through the trees.
Landscaped areas immediately adjacent to Symphony Center will include opportunities of gathering before performance and intermission food and beverage service while expanding the lobby's spaces—bringing the outside in.
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