The Atlantic Center for the Arts offers artists residency programs in a lush Florida jungle setting. The Center offers residencies to writers, dancers, visual artists, composers, choreographers, and actors. Past participants include Allen Ginsberg, Lukas Foss, Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Albee, Alice Aycock, and other nationally known artists.
The program includes a black-box theater, painting and sculpting studios, recording studios, a dance studio, a library and various support spaces. The design includes six buildings interwoven into an indigenous Florida jungle landscape, linked by an elevated boardwalk, and made of wood, glass, and metal.
The project completed an intensive value engineering process, and the design team worked closely with the construction manager to refine building costs so that the project came in below budget. Construction was completed in 1997.
The project has received two State of Florida grants, the 1998 American Institute of Architects National Honor Award for Design Excellence, a 1997 I.D. Magazine Annual Design Distinction Award, the 1996 Boston Society of Architects Design Honor Award, a 1995 American Wood Council Honor Award, the 1995 Progressive Architecture Citation Award, the 1993 Boston Society of Architects Unbuilt Architecture Award. The project has been featured in several publications including the September 2001 issue of A+U, the June 1997 issue of Architectural Record, the June 1996 issue of Architecture, the February 1994 issue of Progressive Architecture, the March 1994 issue of INSITE magazine, and the November 1994 issue of Architectural Record. The project was included in the Norton guide to 250 key 20th Century American buildings.
