TH E AT LANTI S A M ER I CAS
WASHINGTON D.C. / USA
Collaboration and creativity come to the fore as an historic underground club inspires the establishment of a new, small performance venue, completed with utmost care and attention. The Atlantis in Washington D.C. opened in May last year and was purpose-built to evoke memories of the city’s original 9:30 Club, with many of its characteristics faithfully re-created, such as its corner stage. First opened in 1980, the 9:30 club had a capacity of 200 and helped revolutionise the D.C. music scene, establishing a new chapter in the city’s storied musical history. As the decade progressed, many an emerging band could be caught at the venue, including some that went on to superstardom such as Nirvana, REM, Smashing Pumpkins and Jane’s Addiction. Meanwhile the city’s burgeoning punk and hardcore scene found a regular home there, with the likes of Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Government Issue, Rites of Spring and Fugazi playing the venue. One regular gig-goer was a young Dave Grohl, and there was something of a full-circle moment for the D.C. native when Foo Fighters performed at The Atlantis on its opening night. The early iteration of the 9:30 Club out-grew its space in the 1990s, and in 1996 it moved to its current location on the corner of 9th and V St., NW, with a massively increased capacity of 1,200. Venue operator I.M.P. recently noticed a gap in its roster of venues for a smaller room, and so got to work on creating the 450-capacity Atlantis, right next door to the current 9:30 Club. “The purpose for the project was for I.M.P. to build a smaller venue so that we can nurture new and emerging bands and artists, to give them a platform and help them grow their audience in Washington D.C.,” said Audrey Fix Schaefer, Communications Director at I.M.P. “The venues on our roster also include the Lincoln Theatre, which at 1,200 cap is the same as the 9:30 Club, The Anthem, which is 6,000, and the larger outdoor Merriweather Post Pavilion Amphitheatre, in Columbia, Maryland. “The crucial thing about having a 450-capacity room is that you start to develop history with an artist so that you can grow together.” The Atlantis was built completely from scratch and shares neighbouring walls with both the 9:30 Club and an apartment complex, so the vision for the venue was for the sound to be superb inside the room – and for it not to spill out and disturb the residents next door, or the punters in the 9:30 Club. With that aspect needing to be implemented before any AV equipment was specified for the space, architectural acoustic consultation company Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG)
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