Changes under way at the Atlanta History Center

e Atlanta History Center has begun a major renovation of its facilities. Over the next few years, more than $53 million is to be spent on projects at the museum and on its grounds. e work, History Center o cials say, is intended to make the facility more visible from the street and more inviting to visitors.

1. New entrance from West Paces Ferry and new atrium. Construction is under way to build a new entrance to the History Center and enlarge the building’s atrium to 5,300 square feet. e $21 million project will change the look of the building and add a new gi shop/ co ee shop/bookstore that center o cials hope will be used by neighbors as well as museum visitors. e plan includes moving the front of the building closer to West Paces, landscaping the drive to re ect the center’s gardens, and adding a hallway through the building that will connect all the center’s exhibits. Opens 2015.

2. New history of Atlanta display. History Center historians are working on a new display of center artifacts and documents, and plan to tell the story of the city of Atlanta in a new way. It’s the rst reworking of the center’s main exhibit since the building opened in 1993. e new exhibit, the center says, will allow visitors to see, hear, touch and explore the exhibits through new media. Opens 2016.

3. Cyclorama. e History Center has raised more than $32 million to restore and build a new home for the 128-year-old painting “ e Battle of Atlanta,” which now is on display at the Cyclorama in Grant Park. If city of Atlanta o cials approve the deal, the History Center plans to build a new home for the painting as one of its displays. e money raised includes $10 million for maintenance of the painting. History Center conservators plan to restore the painting to its original size, adding 3,268 square feet that was removed in 1921, and hang the painting the way it was originally displayed.

4. Elias Wood family cabin. e center is moving to its campus a log cabin that originally was located in the Hollywood Road area. e cabin, home to Elias and Jane Wood, was built on land ceded to Georgia by the Creek Indians in 1821, and dates to Atlanta’s earliest days, the center says.

Opening fall 2014.

5. Goizueta Gardens. A $3 million gi from the Goizueta Foundation will be used to rehabilitate and tie together the History Center’s 22 acres of gardens, which include six public gardens that illustrate the horticultural history of the area. Ongoing.

Source: Atlanta History Center