Trilith LIVE was envisioned as a cornerstone of a larger creative ecosystem in Fayetteville, Georgia – The Town at Trilith and Trilith Studios. Designed to support live audiences, performers, and creators, the venue plays a central role within the broader Trilith development, a master-planned community focused on bringing world-class production, entertainment, and economic opportunity to the Southeast. NELSON served as the main architect and coordinating consultant, overseeing architecture, land planning, master planning input, and visualization, and bringing more than a decade of experience with Trilith to a complex, fast-moving project.
Spanning approximately 530,000 square feet, Trilith LIVE brings together multiple program elements under one roof, including two live audience sound stages, a cinema and auditorium building with a range of screening formats, a parking deck, and a central atrium that connects the venue to the surrounding development.
The goal was to create a flexible infrastructure capable of supporting concerts, conventions, corporate meetings, live TV productions, worship services, and special events. This combination of uses is unique; there is no comparable facility anywhere else. The venue needed to function as a plug-and-play destination, capable of adapting to different users and events without requiring fundamental reconfiguration. Nearly every space within the facility was designed to operate independently or to connect seamlessly with adjacent areas, allowing the venue to scale up or down as needed.
A defining feature of Trilith LIVE is its primary auditorium, often called “The Box.” The team studied how musicians and performers evaluate venues, focusing on sightlines, acoustics, and the relationship between audience and stage. NELSON collaborated closely with acoustic and theater specialists to refine room proportions, materials, and construction assemblies. Materials typically used on the exterior, such as split-face CMU, were reimagined as interior finishes, enhancing acoustic performance and a sense of permanence and craft.
Trilith LIVE stands as a flexible, high-performance venue designed to evolve alongside the creative community it serves. By balancing ambitious vision with disciplined execution, NELSON translated a complex set of goals into an adaptable environment that supports live production, strengthens the local economy, and reinforces Trilith’s identity as a place where people can live, work, and gather.
