brookshire
amphitheatre
Collaborators: Project Landscape Architect and Architect: MRS; Structural Engineer: Shear Structural; Contractor: Latitude Construction; Acoustical Engineer: Acustica Design
Client: Cabbagetown Initiative, Cabbagetown Neighborhood Association, Park Pride, ATLParks, Liliana Bakhitiari
Concept: neighborhood porch, heritage skills, storytelling, reviving the riparian, music on the stoop, ecological infrastructure, community amphitheatre, material exploration, public park
Time: Under construction summer 2026
Place: Cabbagetown, Atlanta, Georgia
References: Joyce Brookshire’s North Georgia Mountains released through Foxfire (Foxfire album 101), Cabbagetown
Project Context
Cabbagetown is an historic Atlanta neighborhood, developed for the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill (1881-1977). Poor, white laborers were recruited from the Appalachian region of North Georgia, and were housed in densely arranged shotgun and cottage-style homes. Accounts describe the air smelling of food and the sound of music echoing from porches.
Joyce Brookshire (1942-2017) was a songwriter, vocalist, social justice advocate, and one of Cabbagetown’s last Appalachian emigrants. Joyce is pictured on the back cover of her first album, North Georgia Mountains, sitting on her Cabbagetown porch.
In 2018, the neighborhood amphitheatre was named in Joyce’s honor, along with plans to build a stage and bandshell for community performances. While many of Cabbagetown’s current residents continue to use their porches as semi-public social spaces, Appalachianmusical traditions are increasingly confined to large gatherings like Chomp and Stomp–an annual bluegrass festival and chili cookoff.
Design
In 2024 our studio was commissioned to design this performance area– including solutions for site erosion and accessibility. The stage is situated at the bottom of the amphitheater, stitched into the edge of a rain garden/stormwater basin by a gentle pathway traversing the basin. Appalachian heritage skills are deployed through the communal weaving of the stage surround from harvested kudzu vine (an aggressive invasive species), integrating the new structure into its naturalized setting. The performance area is a physical and ephemeral medium– a threshold which physically connects the community and conjures the ideals and values that shaped Cabbagetown’s earlier residents.
Heritage Skills, Porches, Kudzu, and Ecology
Heristage Skills: Appalachian heritage crafts passed down from rural past to Cabbagetown present, rural to urban migration, embodying tradition as community.
Cabbagetown community: willingness to care, create and carry tradition, a history of music from the origins of country music to today’s neighborhood festivals (porch fest, chili cook-offs, concert series). Historic preservation, public life on the porch, southern, origins of country music on the porch.
Kudzu: “the plant that ate the south”, global migration, low carbon material, how to embrace a nuisance
Kuzdu is a non-native highly aggressive perennial vine that chokes out indigenous species in the united states. In its dormant season it leaves behind acres of a fibrous stem. Despite its large presence, little has been done to utilize kudzu as a material. We are exploring how this fibrous material could be used as a low carbon material in construction.
Community Ecology: Coyotes, owls, squirrels, and hawks are common visitors in this urban green space; the community porch is located in a flooding basin.