The AJC building’s new life as a gallery

The lobby of 72 Marietta Street will be the city’s new art space.
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While no architectural gem, the stocky 1970s Atlanta Journal-Constitution headquarters at 72 Marietta Street certainly was a Downtown fixture. After the AJC decamped for Dunwoody in 2010, the newspaper’s parent company donated the building (along with the adjoining facility housing its press) to the city—a gift valued at $50 million.

The old 3,000-square-foot AJC lobby will become a public gallery as the building gets a significant face-lift thanks to a design by Stanley Beaman & Sears that incorporates a nine-story sculpture into its facade. The gallery will be run by the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs, which lost its space when City Hall East was sold to be converted into Ponce City Market. “It is rewarding to have the mayor and city council follow through on their promise that, eventually, we would get back a gallery,” says OCA director Camille Love.

This article originally appeared in our October 2013 issue.

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