This fall, the Society of the Four Arts opens its 2026-27 season with its two main Mizner buildings behind construction fencing. The west half of the campus off Royal Palm Way is a job site, and this winter's concerts, operas, films and talks are moving to a church, a private school and a garden on the same island while the work goes on.

What is being rebuilt

The Four Arts calls the project the biggest change to its buildings and grounds since the society was founded in 1936. Crews started in May, when the island empties out, so the heaviest demolition could happen before the season. The work covers the Esther B. O'Keeffe Building and the John E. Rovensky Building. Addison Mizner designed both in 1928, and neither was originally built for the Four Arts, which is a big part of why the project goes so deep.

The centerpiece is the Walter S. Gubelmann Auditorium inside the O'Keeffe Building. According to the Four Arts project overview, the rebuilt hall will seat about 650. The floor will slope more steeply, a cross-aisle will be added at the back, and the columns that blocked sightlines from the parterre seats will be removed. The stage grows, and for the first time the hall gets a real backstage with dressing rooms, green rooms, a crossover and a loading dock, all screened so the street view does not change. A new acoustical shell goes in. The pecky cypress woodwork from Mizner's original interior stays.

The galleries change too. Drop ceilings put in during the 1940s are coming out, which opens the rooms to roughly 20 feet and exposes the original wood beams. Gallery floor space grows by about 300 square feet, mostly because art storage moves to an expanded second floor served by a new service elevator. A conservation and treatment suite will share that floor. Out front, covered arcades along the north side will pick up the look of the 1940s John Volk entrance portico, and visitors will walk into a new entrance hall with the Four Arts' first dedicated box office.

A real home for the Children's Library

For families, the Rovensky Building may matter most. A three-story addition on its north side will hold the first Children's Library built for that purpose, almost 50 percent bigger than the second-floor rooms it used before. It gets its own entrance, a large reading room, an arts and crafts room and flexible program space, plus a shaded entry plaza that connects visually to the new O'Keeffe arcade. The top floor of the addition holds a boardroom and terrace, and the Garden Club of Palm Beach, which looks after the Four Arts' Demonstration Garden, gets its own meeting space.

The work is paid for through the Four Arts' Centennial Campaign, a $250 million effort that covers both construction and the endowment. Beyer Blinder Belle is the lead architect, Spina O'Rourke is the local architect of record, and Suffolk is the general contractor.

Where the season goes instead

The Four Arts is not closing. Programs that normally run in the two buildings under construction are moving, and the rest of the campus stays open. The renovation FAQ lays out the new map:

Royal Poinciana Chapel, 60 Cocoanut Row. The Esther B. O'Keeffe Speaker Series moves here and switches to Mondays. Many of the Sanda and Jeremiah Lambert concerts will be here as well, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Baroque Concertos program on December 9, which is $40 and free for members.

Palm Beach Day Academy, 241 Seaview Avenue. The Friday Film series and the Metropolitan Opera and National Theatre Live screenings move to the school. The screening season starts Friday, November 6, with the documentary The Cycle of Love ($10, free for members). The next afternoon at 1 p.m., the Met's Coney Island staging of Così fan tutte opens the opera series ($30, $25 for members, $15 for students).

Johnson Hall, in the Dixon Education Building. Some Lambert concerts are staying on campus in this smaller room, and the Four Arts is trying something new there: cabaret. The first night is Seth Rudetsky and Friends on December 2, with the SiriusXM Broadway host bringing a Broadway guest. Tickets are $40.

The Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden. With no indoor galleries this year, the season's major exhibition moves outdoors. The High Life: Contemporary Photography and the Birds runs December 5 through May 2. It brings together more than 50 photographers, including Vik Muniz, Tim Flach and Nadav Kander and is open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with closures for bad weather.

The King Library is keeping its usual weekday hours. The Children's Library has moved temporarily to the second floor of the Dixon building, open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and holds its story times in the Hulitar Garden.

Dates and details to know now

Tickets for November, December and January programs are being released in stages, starting at 10 a.m. each day, according to the Four Arts ticketing schedule. Four Arts Circle and Guardian members can book on October 13, all members on October 15, and the general public on October 22. February through April programs go on sale in January.

Two practical points if you live nearby. First, the Lake Trail is closed where it crosses the Four Arts campus, because it runs through the construction site. Signs on site show the detour back to the trail. Second, parking on campus is tighter than usual, and the Four Arts suggests carpooling, drop-off or a rideshare. Weekday work runs from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and there is no construction on Sundays.

Why this one is worth the detour

For one season, Four Arts regulars will find themselves in different rooms: watching the Met at a school on Seaview Avenue, hearing Lincoln Center players under the Royal Poinciana Chapel's roof, and seeing a world-class photography show among the Hulitar Garden's palms. When the fencing comes down, Palm Beach gets a hall where every seat can see the stage, galleries tall enough for ambitious shows, and a children's library that finally has its own front door. That is a rare upgrade for a Mizner landmark, and the island gets to watch it happen up close.