Janis FontaineThe 18-month project will remake the one-of-a-kind cultural center in Palm Beach.
After two years of applications, presentations, zoning changes and revisions, the $250 million renovation of the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach got underway this month.
The 18-month redo of two major buildings on the Four Arts 10-acre campus includes the expansion and upgrade of the Rovensky Administrative Building and renovation of the Esther B. O’Keeffe Gallery Building. Both are along Royal Palm Way on the south side of the Four Arts property, just east of the Royal Park Bridge.
The Society of the Four Arts reaches beyond its elite origins with many programs open to everyone. Last year, the campus hosted more than 500 events.
In 1934, three prominent Palm Beach women formed an organization to promote the appreciation of music, drama, literature and the visual arts.
Maud Howe Elliott, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Mrs. Lorenzo E. (Mary) Woodhouse, a philanthropist who also founded Guild Hall in East Hampton, Long Island, N.Y., and Mrs. Frederick Johnson (also recognized for her painting as Mary McKinnon) joined forces. In 1936, the nonprofit Society of the Four Arts was founded along the Intracoastal Waterway in Midtown Palm Beach.
But the complex wasn’t designed with its current purpose in mind, attorney Harvey Oyer told the Palm Beach Daily News. “The only purpose-built building was the King Library,” he said. “Everything else was something else that was stitched together. And they’ve been doing a great job operating it, but these buildings are at the end of their useful life.”
The 10-acre campus consists of four main buildings including the King Library, which was modernized in 2018 to house its collection of more than 75,000 books, audiobooks, DVDs and periodicals.
In the adjacent Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden, there are 20 sculptures from classical to modern scattered along meandering walkways, lushly planted and bursting with colorful flowers for much of the year.
Fountains and other water features cool the air and the private pergolas and quiet corners complement the grand lawn and wide central plaza. The gardens are a recent addition: In 1979, Philip Hulitar was invited to design the 2.2-acre garden, which opened to the public in 1980. It was named in his honor in 1988.
The other primary building is the Dixon Education Building, which is home to the Campus on the Lake cultural education programs. The 20,000-square-foot structure, built around 1930, was originally the Palm Beach Public School building.
In 2013, a $13 million renovation by Conkling & Lewis Construction turned it into an education, demonstration and performance space with a 200-seat auditorium, suited to its purpose as a center for lifelong learning. According to Conkling Construction, the building’s exterior was fully preserved as was the auditorium’s stage. Inside, improved acoustics and modern equipment were the focus.
Mizner, Bradley buildings
Now it’s the O’Keeffe Gallery and Rovensky Administration Building’s turn for TLC. In February 2025, the Town Council approved the Four Arts’ plans to renovate and expand the pair of buildings. After reviews and revisions, work is beginning. More than half of each building will be demolished.
Still, this cultural stronghold will be maintained through its architecture.
The Rovensky Building was designed by architect Addison Mizner, but for a much different purpose. Built as the Embassy Apartment Building, it once housed a car dealership on the first floor.
In the early 1990s, the Four Arts acquired it, and in 1995, its art deco façade was restored and the building was updated by Conkling & Lewis Construction to become the administrative headquarters for the Four Arts and home to its Children’s Library. (The popular Children’s Library has moved to the second floor of the Dixon Education Building during renovations.)
The O’Keeffe Building was commissioned by Col. Edward Bradley as the Embassy Club, a posh, private supper club to compete with the elite Everglades Club on Worth Avenue.
It featured Mizner’s signature Mediterranean Revival-style architecture with a lounge for indoor dining and an open patio, and it became a popular destination for Palm Beach society. When Bradley died in 1946, the Society of the Four Arts bought the property and hired architect John Volk to transform it into the O’Keeffe Gallery Building.
The O’Keeffe currently features two floors of galleries that house rotating exhibitions from around the world, and it’s home to the Gubelmann Auditorium, where concerts, the O’Keeffe Speakers series and high-definition screenings of performances from the Metropolitan Opera and National Theatre Live take place.
Temporary homes for Four Arts programs
The Four Arts announced that during renovations, concerts and the O’Keeffe Speakers series will move to the Royal Poinciana Chapel, 60 Cocoanut Row, and film screenings and recorded-live performances like the Met Opera will take place at Palm Beach Day Academy on Seaview Avenue.
Under the renovation plan, the footprint of the O’Keeffe – currently about 20,000 square feet – will grow to nearly 31,000 square feet. The art gallery will be expanded and modernized to allow for bigger exhibitions. The original pecky cypress ceiling from Mizner’s design will be uncovered and restored.
Upgrades to the Gubelmann Auditorium will begin with improved acoustics. The plan calls for them to sacrifice some seating, going from 700 to 650 seats, to increase the size of the stage and space backstage for performers. New dressing rooms, a catering area, offices, a loading dock and a receiving space are also planned.
And, of course, they need more bathrooms. The plan includes twice as many toilets, a women’s lounge and a family restroom.
The improved Rovensky Building will feature a 10,356-square-foot, three-story addition. The Children’s Library will have a larger presence on the first floor with a dedicated entrance and expanded exhibition space for artwork, including pieces donated by hotelier and art collector Steve Wynn, a Palm Beach resident.
New staff offices and an office for the Garden Club of Palm Beach are also planned. A new 1,400-square-foot boardroom will open onto a 1,629-square-foot terrace with a view of the campus.
Other minor projects include moving maintenance facilities from the O’Keeffe Building to an expanded building on the King Library’s east side and updating the signs and landscaping throughout the organization’s campus.
Lake Trail, interrupted
Plans required rerouting the popular Lake Trail, closing the portion that runs through the Four Arts campus to divert pedestrian traffic away from the construction site. The north sidewalk along Royal Palm Way is also closed throughout construction.
In 2025, the Society of Four Arts hosted more than 500 events, which brought more than 100,000 visitors to Palm Beach.
That included thousands who attended one of a hundred free and low-cost classes and programs at the Dixon Education Building, from bridge lessons to an introduction to opera, from crafting with shells to classes on painting, cuisine and music.
Library programs for adults and children drew in almost 75,000 guests. Another 50,000 visited the Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden. Last year, the Four Arts employed more than 50 people and reported revenue of $118 million, according to CauseIQ.
The project has been designed to be as unobtrusive as possible. The job site will be screened by a standard 6-foot fence, plus a 20-foot-tall green screen softened with stencils of palm trees on the west and south sides of the campus. The screening on the east and south sides of the Rovensky Building will have a printed image of the building, according to West Palm Beach-based Spina O’Rourke and Partners, the local architect of record.
Workers will be shuttled to the Four Arts from off the island, Greg Lewis of Conkling & Lewis Construction told the council. Summer construction hours – 8 am until 6 pm. Saturday work is generally prohibited, or limited to interior-only work from 9 am until 5 pm – will be kept, and Spina also told the council construction will take advantage of the off-season twice keeping disruptions to a minimum.
The work’s growing budget
But it won’t be cheap. Historic buildings need TLC, and the Four Arts is definitely in need of and deserving of an update. The budget for the project was originally estimated at $120 million to $150 million in March 2024, was reported at a robust $150 million in April 2024, then increased to $200 million by the end of the year. In May, the Palm Beach Daily News reported the budget was now $250 million.
The Four Arts’ board of trustees plans to pay for the project through donations from the trustees and members of the nonprofit organization, Oyer, an attorney representing the Four Arts, told the Town Council in January.
Construction is planned to be complete by late fall of 2027, in time for the 2027-28 season.
If you go
The Society of the Four Arts – 101 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach. www.fourarts.org
David Darby, head of marketing and communications at the Society of the Four Arts, said the King Library, Dixon Education Building, Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden and Four Arts Demonstration Garden, all on the east side of the campus, will remain open to the public throughout construction. Programs this summer include Florida Voices, which features presentations by Florida authors, and Summer Book Discussions, moderated talks about current popular books, which take place in the King Library. Events are free to attend, but reservations are needed at www.fourarts.org
Schedule
Florida Voices:
- “The Oud Player of Cairo” with Jasmin Attia, 1:30 pm Wednesday, May 20.
- “Florida’s Food Forest Cookbook” with Dr. Amanda Pike, 1:30 pm Thursday, July 9.
- “Elizabeth Sails with Kristin Owens,” 1:30 pm Wednesday, Sept. 23.
Summer Book Discussions:
- “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans, 1:30 pm Wednesday, June 10.
- “After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations” by Eric H. Cline, 5:30 pm Tuesday, June 16.
- “Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman” by Stefan Zweig, 1:30 pm Wednesday, June 24.
- “Possible Futures: Hope, Fear, and What Comes Next,” 5:30 pm Tuesday, July 14.
- “Broken Country” by Clare Leslie Hall, 1:30 pm Wednesday, Sept. 9.
- “Into The Amazon: The Life of Candido Rondon, Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist” by Larry Rohter, 5:30 pm Tuesday, Sept. 15.
Quilting workshop:“Stitching Our Stories: A Community Memory Quilt Workshop” led by Kristin Beck, 2 pm Tuesday, Aug. 4.
