The Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) will move to a new space on Peachtree Street in Midtown directly across from the Woodruff Arts Center and be open for public exhibitions by January 2011. As part of a generous offer from architectural firm Perkins + Will, MODA will encompass a 9,000 sq. ft. space at the ground level of the firm’s new offices.
“We can’t wait to get to our new space and be surrounded by the vibrant Midtown arts offerings,” says MODA Executive Director Brenda Galina. “The timing could not be better. We have outgrown our current location.”
Since its inception in 2004, MODA has been located in a Marriott Marquis Tower on Peachtree Center Avenue, a space that has sometimes been difficult to access and has offered little in the way of foot traffic.
The new MODA, which will be located at 1315 Peachtree Street, has much more to offer, including a fantastic partnership with the building’s proprietors Perkins + Will. The museum has been fortunate to count Perkins + Will President Phil Harrison and architect Bruce McEvoy among its board members – McEvoy is actually the new board chairman.
“This is a situation where everybody wins,” says Harrison. “We were looking for a tenant in a related field, and we could not have done better than MODA. Having the museum with its broad range of cutting edge exhibitions downstairs will bring excitement to our building and add a vital new voice to Midtown’s cultural arts district.”
As for the cutting edge exhibitions, MODA will inaugurate its new space with “Passione Italiana: Design of the Italian Motorcycle,” which will open in January 2011 and feature nine masterpieces of Italian motorcycle design borrowed from the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. This exhibition will be followed by “Something Borrowed, Something New: Wedding Fashions around the World,” “Water Dream: Experience the Bathroom Like Never Before” and “Graphic Intervention: 30 Years of International AIDS Posters.”