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October 20, 2017

Ribbon Cutting to Celebrate Callanwolde Fine Art Center’s Award-Winning Rehabilitation Project

Lord Aeck Sargent Rehabilitated Barn Into Recording Studio for School of Music And
Greenhouse into Innovative Space For School of Horticulture and Culinary Arts

A ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebration will commemorate $2.1 million worth ofhistoric preservation and rehabilitation projects designed by Lord Aeck Sargent, an Atlanta-based planning and design firm, on the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center campus.

The Ruby Callaway Robinson Greenhouse is a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled greenhouse and home to Callanwolde’s School of Horticulture and Culinary Arts classes and workshops. Named in honor of GreenHouse Foundation co-founders CeeLo Green and Shedonna Alexander’s grandmother, Ruby Callaway Robinson, the greenhouse is the new home for the GreenHouse Foundation’s School Partnership Training Program. The new greenhouse, which retains and is built upon the historic structure’s foundation walls, serves as the perfect environment to fulfill the GreenHouse Foundation’s mission to educate, inspire and empower children to adopt a green lifestyle so they can positively impact the sustainability of our resources.

The Callanwolde Barn is original to the property and has been transformed into a recording studio utilized by Phil Tan, three-time Grammy Award-winning music engineer and Callanwolde’s Director of Music Recording, as well as the Rick Baker School of Music and Music Recording program. Restoration efforts on this building won a 2016 Georgia Trust Excellence in Rehabilitation Award. All character-defining exterior features were restored while the interior was updated to meet the specific needs of a 21st century recording studio.

Tours of the newly renovated buildings will run from 5:30-6:30 p.m. with the ribbon-cutting taking place at 6:30. Notable guests in attendance will include Callanwolde Fine Arts Center Executive Director, Peggy Johnson; award winning producer Phil Tan, recording artist CeeLo Green and GreenHouse Co-Founder, Shedonna Alexander. The renovation project hasenabled Callanwolde to start two new programs for the community: The School of Horticulture and Culinary Arts and the Rick Baker School of Music and Music Recording.

ABOUT LORD AECK SARGENT

Lord Aeck Sargent is an award-winning architecture, planning and interior design firm serving clients in the college and university, K-12 education, multi-family housing/mixed-use/commercial, and urban design/planning markets with specialization in science and technology, arts and culture and historic preservation. The firm’s experts in these practice areas have deep regional and national experience and collaborate across firm offices located in Atlanta; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Austin, Texas; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Lexington, Kentucky; and Washington, D.C. Lord Aeck Sargent has been named one of Atlanta Business Chronicle's Top 25 Architectural Firms 15 times, received American Institute of Architects’ National Honor Award and has been in Engineering News-Record Magazine’s Top 500 Design Firms list 10 times. LAS is No. 88 on ENR’s Top 100 Green Design Firms list, and has been named a Top Green Design firm by multiple publications 16 times. The firm has won 56 Georgia Trust Awards for its extensive work in historic preservation in the state. For more information, visit the firm's website at lordaecksargent.com.