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AUERBACH +ASSOCIATES TO CONSULT ON NEW WORLD-CLASS HOME FOR ATLANTA SYMPHONY

SAN FRANCISCO, California and New York, New York (January 31, 2002)–The theatre consulting firm of Auerbach + Associates, San Francisco and New York, today announced that it has been named theatre consultant for the new Atlanta Symphony Center. This appointment marks the next step in the firm’s four year working relationship with the Symphony.

The new concert hall will serve as the full-time performance, rehearsal, teaching and administrative home for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, now in its 57th season, and will be the Symphony’s first "purpose built" venue.

Auerbach + Associates’ scope of work includes preliminary programming and design of theatrical spaces and systems and extends through the detail design, construction and opening of the facility. Auerbach + Associates will work closely with the facility’s architects and Kirkegaard Associates, the project acoustician, on the overall design of the multi-venue facility. The firm will also be providing complete design of all performance technical systems including rigging, machinery, lighting and audio, video and communication systems.

Auerbach + Associates began working with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Woodruff Arts Center in 1997 on plans to improve the existing multi-purpose Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center. At that time, planning was based on the expectation that construction of a new facility was at least 15 years away.

In 1998, when the First Baptist Church Congregation relocated, the ASO asked Auerbach + Associates to assess the feasibility of converting their old building and site on 5th Street to a Symphony Hall. Auerbach + Associates began to study the options for the site, working with acoustics consultants Kirkegaard Associates. Initial studies indicated that use of the site was possible and further detailed investigations were undertaken. At the same time as this work was progressing, the ASO, with ongoing consultation from Auerbach + Associates, was reviewing other site options.

During the investigation of various site options, Auerbach + Associates looked at the existing Woodruff Arts Center campus as well as the 6.2-acre site on 14th Street that has now been selected for the new Atlanta Symphony Center.

The Auerbach + Associates team for this project includes: S. Leonard Auerbach, Principal Designer; Steven Friedlander; Principal-in-Charge, Paul Garrity, Principal sound, video communications design; Grace Gavin, Project Manager; Mike McMackin, theatrical systems design.

Client: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Acoustics Consultant: Kirkegaard Associates

Master Planner: Cesar Pelli

Development Manager: Hines Interests

About Auerbach + Associates

Auerbach + Associates are design consultants for performing arts projects worldwide, including opera houses and professional repertory theatres, concert halls, performing arts training facilities, museums, planetariums, and popular entertainment venues in theme parks, casinos, cruise ships and night clubs. Services range from initial planning and programming through the design and documentation of all theatrical systems, including sound, video and communications to the management and construction administration of each project.

Other recent and ongoing theatre design consulting projects by Auerbach + Associates include the Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall, Judith Arron Auditorium at Carnegie Hall; the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, American Museum of Natural History; the Purnell Center for the Arts at Carnegie Mellon University; the Conference Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House; the Mesa Arts and Entertainment Center; the Santa Fé Opera; the Philadelphia Academy of Music; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; the National Underground Railroad Museum; the Trenton War Memorial; and the San Francisco Jewish Museum.