Zoning changes have set the stage for the Society of the Four Arts to present a major renovation and expansion plan for town review this fall.
Changes in its zoning designation and in the future land-use map of the town’s Comprehensive Plan, requested by the Four Arts and nearing final approval from the town, will enable the venerable cultural institution to bring its development plans before the Landmarks Preservation Commission as early as October. Final regulatory approval would come from the Town Council.
On Monday, August 12, 20204, the council approved, on the first of two readings, two ordinances that would change the future land use of three parcels on the 10-acre Four Arts campus and rezone the entire property.
The ordinances, which were recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission on August 6, must be approved by the council in a second reading before taking effect.
In May, the council created a cultural institution zoning district and amended the town’s comprehensive plan to establish a future land use that implements “private group use.”
The Four Arts’ property and the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum are both zoned single-family residential, which requires both of them to seek multiple variances whenever they pursue a development project, Harvey Oyer, the attorney representing the Four Arts, told the council when requesting creation of the new cultural institution district.
With the new zoning district in place, the Four Arts applied to be rezoned as a cultural institution in the new district and to redesignate the future land use of three parcels on its campus for private group use. The three parcels are the Dixon Education Building, which has a public future land use; the parking lot on the northwest corner of the property, which has a single-family residential future land use; and a strip of land along the Lake Worth Lagoon, which has a recreation future land use.
Renovation plan
The Four Arts is planning a major renovation that it says will allow for better exhibitions and performances and a new and larger Children’s Library.
The plan calls for an upgrade and expansion of the Rovensky Administrative and O’Keeffe Gallery buildings on the west side of the campus.
The O’Keeffe building is home to exhibition galleries and the 700-seat Gubelmann Auditorium, where most of the Four Arts’ concerts, films, performances and speaking engagements are staged.
The plan calls for creating additional exhibition and backstage space to enable a wider variety and higher caliber of performances and exhibitions.
The proposed addition to the Rovensky building would be two full floors with a partial third floor. The building contains the Children’s Library, which would be relocated from the second floor to a new and larger space on the first floor with a dedicated entrance facing the Palm Mall.
The Four Arts has said it plans to self-fund the project, estimated at between $120 million and $200 million.
The Rovensky and O’Keeffe buildings were designed by architect Addison Mizner in the 1920s and modified by architect John Volk in the 1940s. The Four Arts, which was founded in 1936, purchased the O’Keeffe building in the 1940s and the Rovensky building in the 1990s.
Both buildings were designated as town landmarks in 1979.
In addition to the zoning changes, the plan still requires regulatory approval from the landmarks commission, which has authority over exterior changes to landmarked buildings, and from the council.
The Four Arts development application was submitted to the town last week and is being reviewed by the town’s zoning staff before being brought to the landmarks commission and council.
Dr. Philip Rylands, president and chief executive officer of the Society of the Four Arts, expressed satisfaction with the zoning changes.
“The Town Council is being extraordinarily sympathetic, understanding, and efficient,” he said.
Civic Association support
In a February 22, 2024, letter to Mayor Danielle Moore and the council, Michael Pucillo, chairman and CEO of the Palm Beach Civic Association, expressed the support of the organization’s Executive Committee for the Four Arts renovation plans and requested zoning changes.
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