ArtsCriticATL.com

By CATHERINE FOX and PIERRE RUHE

Update 3:11. Impossible to listen and walk around and type during the presentation, but basically the new 25-year master plan involves many of the elements that WAC leaders (and local critics) have been talking about for several years. If you’ve been following the saga thus far, you’ll not be surprised by this. Arts center CEO Joe Bankoff said this new master plan is “a roadmap, not a timeline.” There’s no start date and no budget.

Joe Bankoff, left, explains the master plan to artscriticATL's Cathy Fox.

Here’s the gist of the master plan, developed by Boston’s Sasaki Associates Inc.:

In phase one of the project — with no timeline, price tag or specific architect in mind — the new concert hall will be built at the primo location of Peachtree St. and 15th, what’s now the drop-off plaza. At that busy corner, on Atlanta’s main drag, even in that tight space, it has more landmark potential than the original site on 14th. To fit the new concert hall into that space will require tearing down a corner of the current Memorial Arts Building.

Meanwhile, the ASO and Alliance Theatre will continue to perform in their current venues, with construction all around. Among other points: The arts center plans to sell that 3.3 acre parcel of land on 14th St.; The arts center still doesn’t have air rights over MARTA’s Arts Center Station. What about Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who designed the Symphony Center’s 14th St. project? Bankoff said he’s not been ruled out as the architect for this new plan, but he has not been consulted, either.

Update: Calatrava’s office sent a statement to the AJC saying that the architect would no longer be involved with the project.