Starting from my individual analysis thesis, only a public program could honor the building and take advantage of the newly created space: a museum or a theater. Atlanta only owns a few auditoriums or theaters. The city decided a few years ago to create one in Mid Town designed by Calatrava. Lacking a large enough budget, the project was aborted. On the other hand, Atlanta’s Opera is no longer in Atlanta but in Cobb, thirty minutes away from the city center. Therefore it seemed possible to use an existing building such as the Fulton Library located down-town Altanta, to make an urban opera hall.

A benefit of using an existing building is the ability to make use of the existing space, thus, the opera hall could not be like anyother one, it had to belong to Breuer’s building; to exist because of it.
The exercise was then to create a void within that void, while giving the opera hall all of its functionnal use.
The building is spread into two major spaces: the opera hall and the foyer. The wall that separates and links these two spaces uses the same volumetric vocabulary as the outside walls, yet it is used on both parts: on one hand, it is a circulation space which has views onto the lobby, and on the other hand, it forms balconies in the opera hall. All the technical spaces, storage, backstage, rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms etc. are located in the remaining spaces outside the two major empty spaces, with a respect to Breuer’s vocabulary, and on the two upper floors which are lighted with roof courtyards.

Since the approach was to celebrate Breuer’s work on volume and facade composition, all exterior facades are preserved in their original form. From the constructive point of view, the original structure of steel columns and beams have been preserved except for inside the opera hall where the central columns have been removed. On top of the opera hall, major beams have been added to reinforce the two last floors.