The Atlantis in Washington, DC by CORE architecture + design

Article source: christina schlecht

The Atlantis is a 450-capacity music venue in Washington, DC that offers an intimate concert space and is located right next to the District’s renowned 9:30 Club. The design of The Atlantis pays homage to the 9:30 Club’s original location at the Atlantic Building in downtown DC. That club became a rite of passage for touring musical acts from around the country and a “mecca” for the local music scene.

Design Team: David Cheney, Principal, Christopher Peli, Senior Job Captain, Jaida Tavares, Junior Designer
Client: I.M.P.
General Contractor: MCN Build
Structural Engineer: Rathgeber/Goss Associates
MEP Engineer: Caliber Design, Inc
Foodservice Consultant: Singer Equipment Company
Acoustics Consultant:  Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG)
Photographer Credits: Ron Ngiam
Photographer’s Website:  ronngiam.smugmug.com

Setting the tone for the unveiling of the famous 9:30 Club’s history within, the dramatically lit, 62-feet façade of The Atlantis features a ghosted scrim of perforated metal panels along with the architectural ornamentation of the F Street façade attached in a playful assembly. Drawing guests into the venue, the design of the hallway leading to the performance area features light fixtures, archways, paint colors, and trim moldings that take visitors back in time to the legendary venue. The club’s infamous cast iron columns are faithfully recreated with ‘ghost columns’ of light beams shining down to four bronze discs on a resurrected original flooring pattern in the exact locations of the original venue. This includes a column at the front of the stage with an exact replica of the Crow’s Nest—a chair that was welded to the column for the purpose of filming performances.

The building design is as much a new construction project as it is a historic recreation effort. The design translates the client’s major goal to keep the essence of the original club, while also creating a new venue that would compete in the contemporary market for performance spaces of this size. The team’s close collaboration with the client and access to their archives with video footage and photography of the legendary venue significantly aided in the club’s innovative reproduction to deliver the new Atlantis. The name, The Atlantis, is a nod to the space that briefly occupied the 9:30 Club’s location on F Street prior to its opening.

The Atlantis differs from the historic venue by providing a second-floor balcony, which helps drive capacity and offers guests a raised vantage point with enhanced sightlines for shows. The floorplan of the new club also incorporates a roof terrace and three bars—one per story. A connecting doorway to the existing 9:30 Club serves to expand the venue’s capacity.

The project involved a demolition and reconstruction of the existing building to accommodate a capacity of 450 people. Acoustical isolation of the venue from the 9:30 Club next door as well as the surrounding residential and commercial buildings was key to meet noise-transmitting and code-mandatory requirements. The team engineered a solution that pays attention to delivering high-quality acoustics suitable for live performance within the club while delivering an acoustic “shell-within-a-shell” structure that ensures to keep the sound inside the venue.

Tags: USA, Washington DC

Categories: Activity Center, Amphitheater, Entertainment Centre, entertainment venue

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