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How the Future WonderRoot Looks Right Now

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Reynoldstown arts organization is embarking on a multi-million dollar overhaul of vacant school

By Josh Green
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The future "gymatorium."
Jonathan Phillips, Curbed Atlanta

The Reynoldstown-based arts champions at WonderRoot are bursting the seams of their current home, a charmingly ramshackle old structure on booming Memorial Drive.

What's the solution? Reclaim a vacant school across the street that's more than 10 times larger.

Before the multi-million dollar overhaul of the former Tech High/Hubert Elementary School building commences, we thought it'd be wise to tour the 8-acre campus for posterity's sake. The beautiful brick structure and its neglected interior are still very much in a derelict-school state, but the potential is obvious.

What will the WonderRoot Center for Arts & Social Change offer among its 54,000 square feet? Expect about 25,000 square feet of private studio space for artists, nonprofit organizations, and small creative businesses. Plus a visual arts gallery, performance venue for theater, dance and film, and a cafe open to the public along Memorial Drive.

Elsewhere, expect educational spaces and a series of production facilities for artists, including a recording studio, printmaking studio, darkroom, ceramics studio, digital media lab, and dance rehearsal studio. It's like one big incubator for creatives.

WonderRoot hopes to inhabit its new digs and open the campus in 2017. Here's how it all looks right now:

The entrance at the front of WonderRoot's new building will actually become a bistro/cafe. The main entrance will be at the back of the building.
The entrance at the front of WonderRoot's new building will actually become a bistro/cafe. The main entrance will be at the back of the building.
Photos: Jonathan Phillips, Curbed Atlanta
WonderRoot's Center for Arts & Social Change will sit on eight acres and give the agency 54,000 square feet to stretch their legs in. The current building across the street is 5,000 square feet.
The "gymatorium" will be transformed into a 250-seat performance venue.
WonderRoot's Center for Arts & Social Change will sit on eight acres and give the agency 54,000 square feet to stretch their legs in. The current building across the street is 5,000 square feet.
WonderRoot's Center for Arts & Social Change will sit on eight acres and give the agency 54,000 square feet to stretch their legs in. The current building across the street is 5,000 square feet.
Classrooms and offices inside of the school will eventually be studio spaces of varying sizes.
Future classrooms and offices.
Classrooms and offices inside the school will eventually be studio spaces of varying sizes.
One of numerous stairwells leading between the first and second floors for WonderRoot's new building.
One of numerous stairwells leading between the first and second floors for WonderRoot's new building. It's unclear if the pesky anti-sliding bumps will remain.
The main hallway inside WonderRoot's new building on Memorial Drive.
The main hallway inside WonderRoot's new building on Memorial Drive.
This doorway will become the main entrance once construction is complete on WonderRoot's new campus.
This doorway will become the main entrance once construction is complete on WonderRoot's new campus.

WonderRoot

982 Memorial Dr SE, Atlanta, GA 30316, USA

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