Downtown Atlanta offers a wealth of architecture treasures, from some of the oldest buildings in the city to some of its most modern skyscrapers. Read more below or visit the web sites of the Architecture Book Center, Atlanta Preservation Center, Atlanta History Center, and Atlanta Urban Design Commission.

All descriptions on these pages are excerpted from Guide to the Architecture of Atlanta, produced by the American Institute of Architects and published by University of Georgia Press, 1992. Purchase from the AIA GA Bookstore online. Note: The book is over 10 years old and some of the property information has changed (e.g. the Omni was demolished). Please contact appropriate agencies (Urban Design Commission, Preservation Atlanta, etc.) for current status.

Quick Menu:

• Government Walk / South Peachtree / South Downtown
• Five Points / Marietta Street / Fairlie-Poplar
• Northern & Eastern Downtown / Peachtree Center / Hotels
• Civic Center
• Western Downtown
• Sweet Auburn / M.L.K. Jr. Historic District

Government Walk / South Peachtree / South Downtown

Underground Atlanta
Peachtree Street at Alabama Street NW
Adaptive Reuse and Additions 1986-1989; The Rouse

Corporation, master Planner; Cooper Carry and Associates with Turner Associates, Joint Venture Architects, Sanford Nelso, Principal-in-Charge; Roy Ashley and Associates, Landscape Architects; new South Design Associates, Graphic Designers; Richard Rothman and Associates, Master Plan and Urban Design Consultant to the Owner; UDC, GAAIA Awards

Howard Johnson Plaza at Underground
(Connally Building)
90 Pryor Street, SW
1882: Architect Unknown; NR

No other section of Atlanta has as long and eventful a history as the area in which Underground Atlanta now lies, which was the city's birthplace. Reduced to ruins during the Civil War, it became a thriving commercial district in the 1890's. By the late 1920's, a system of viaducts bridging the railroad gulch had been built to accommodate the expanding automobile traffic. As a result, building entrances on Alabama, Pryor, Central, Wall and Whitehall streets were relocated to the level of these viaducts.

In 1968 part of the lower level became an entertainment center, but this first incarnation of Underground Atlanta, after a few years of success, declined, and the last of its businesses closed in 1981. Encompassing the revitalization of six blocks, today's festival marketplace, which opened in June 1989, was developed in public/private partnership, and is managed by the Rouse Company, known for similar projects such as Faneuil Hall Marketplace (1976) in Boston and Harborplace (1979) in Baltimore.

Aimed at attracting both conventioneers and Atlantans, its 223,000 square feet of leaseable space (both above ground and in the enclosed Lower Alabama and Pryor streets) are devoted to upscale specialty shops and food and entertainment establishments. The design challenge resided in the need to provide good access to the complex and to remedy the apparent lack of visual identity and landmark structures (historic buildings and storefronts comprise only one third of the project.)

A sense of the area's history has been built into the project by a walking tour with markers, theme statues, wall murals, and a historical exhibit of great interest at Atlanta Heritage Row on Upper Alabama Street. Large public areas have been created from scratch, in particular the Peachtree Fountain Plaza across from the MARTA Five Points Station, which dominated by a 138-foot "high tech" landmark tower and framed by pavilions resembling train sheds.

This plaza has become the emotional heart of the city, serving as the gathering place for such celebrations as the announcement of the selection of the site for the 1996 Olympic games, the annual lighting of Rich's Christmas tree, and a New Year's Eve extravaganza in the tradition of New York's Times Square.

Upper Alabama Street is treated as a pedestrian mall, and its fine turn-of-the-century commercial structures, such as the Suite Hotel at Underground Atlanta (the original lower floors of which are sheathed in Atlantic terra-cotta made to resemble Tennessee marble while the well-executed brick tower above is a recent addition) and the Block Building have been authentically and beautifully restored. It is unfortunate that the contextualism of the rest of the project does not extend to the parking decks serving Underground Atlanta" these massive structures create barriers between the festival marketplace and the governmental district.

Georgia Railroad Freight Depot
Central Avenue and Alabama Street SW
1869: Corput and Bass, Engineers; NR

The World of Coca-Cola Pavilion
55 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW
1990: Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback and Associates, Architects; UDC Award

For automobiles and tour buses, the primary drop-off point to Underground Atlanta is located near the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot. Built in 1869, this Italianate structure in red brick with stone accents was originally three stories high; it served as offices and a warehouse for the state-chartered Georgia Railroad. Severely remodeled after a fire in 1935, it is the oldest building in Downtown Atlanta, along with the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a block away.

The World of Coca-Cola Pavilion is a welcome addition, defining the street corner and the entrance to Underground Atlanta. The pavilion was conceived as a lighthearted showcase for Coke memorabilia. Notice its bottle-shaped column along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and the neoclassical "Coke frieze, " a whimsical addition to its simple geometry below the roof line. The four-section, square-shaped building is divided into three rectangular pavilions topped by pyramids and connected by glass walls and a covered plaza. From its roof hangs a giant neon Coca-Cola sign, an updated version of the sign that towered above Margaret Mitchell Square on Peachtree Street from 1948 to 1981.

Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
48 Martin Luther King Jr., Drive SW
1873: William H. Parkins, Architect; NR Restoration 1984: Henry Howard Smith, Architect; UDC Award

The shrine of the Immaculate Conception is Atlanta's oldest religious establishment. The first church built on this site in 1848 was among in few structures left standing by the Union army. There are varying accounts of why it was spared. One story is that General Sherman had been warned by its priest, Father Thomas O'Reilly, that its demolition would entail mutiny of all Roman Catholics among his troops.

Nonetheless the original structure was badly damaged by the war, and the construction of a new church was entrusted to William H. Parkins (1836-1894). On the outside, Parkins designed two towers of unequal height and different ornamentation, terminated by impressive finials; he combined elements borrowed from French Gothic churches - the tripartite portal and rose window in particular - with the polychromatic use of materials that was so fashionable in English High Victorian Gothic architecture. The pristine interior is notable for the elegance of its slender iron columns and capitals, its unusual chandeliers, and clover-design paintings of the Apostles on the ceiling of the nave. In 1954 the church was rededicated as a diocesan shrine. Gutted by fire in 1982, it has since undergone a faithful restoration.

Central Presbyterian Church
201 Washington Street, SW
1884: Edmund G. Lind, Architect; NR, LB. Additions and Remodeling 1967: FABRAP, Architects

Campbell-Eagan Educational Building
36 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, SW
1926: Dougherty and Gardner, Architects (Nashville). Renovation 1989: Surber and Barber, Architects

Central Presbyterian Church holds an important place in the history of Atlanta because its congregation has long been at the forefront of social activism in the city. The first church on this site was completed in 1860 and survived the Civil War. The present building was designed by an English-born architect, Edmund G. Lind (1829-1909), who worked for a bout a decade in Atlanta and was also active in Baltimore, where a number of his buildings can still be seen. Its design is reminiscent of small parish churches in Victorian England. The unusual presence of twin openings on the Washington Street entrance facade, as opposed to the customary tripartite bay arrangement, enhances the vertical thrust of the nave. Located behind the main church building, the Campbell-Eagan Educational Building is a fine new-Tudor structure in buff brick with terra-cotta spandrels. It houses a health clinic and two multilevel and assembly on its upper floors.

Georgia State Capitol
206 Washington Street, SW
1889: Edbrooke and Burnham, Architects (Chicago); NHL, HL

When Atlanta became the seat of government for the state in 1879, an architectural competition for the capitol was launched. The building's kinship to the neoclassical Capitol in Washington, DC demonstrated the stat's allegiance to the Union. However, as architectural historian Elizabeth Lyon points out, "The capitols building's architectural vocabulary was classical, but the vertical thrust of its tall dome and the complexity of its massing mark it as a forcefully Victorian building" (Atlanta Architecture, The Victorian Heritage, 1837-1918, p. 38).

The novelty of the design solution resided in the use of fireproof construction devices that had been recommended by the consulting architect, George B. Post of New York City. Facades are in Indiana limestone, while Georgia marble is extensively used for the lavish interior decoration. On Washington Street a projecting entrance pavilion has a four-story pedimented portico supported by columns set on large stone piers; the end pavilions feature matching Corinthian pilasters. The central dome was last gilded in 1981, with gold leaf from the North Georgia mining town of Dahlonega. The grounds are park like, with a variety of monuments and markers. The underground parking facility across the street is well disguised as Georgia Plaza Park by landscape architects and planners Saski, Dawson, DeMay.

Atlanta City Hall
68 Mitchell Street, NW
1930: G. Lloyd Preacher, Architect; NR, LB. Addition 1988 and Renovation 1989: Muldawer + Moultrie with Jova/Daniels/Busby and Harris and Partners, Joint Venture Architects; UDC Awards

Trinity United Methodist Church
265 Washington Street, SW
1911: Walter T. Downing, Architect

Atlanta City Hall, a fourteen-story tower surmounted by a shallow pyramidal roof, was erected on the site of the Neal Residence, which served as General Sherman's headquarters during the Civil War. Unlike the Art Deco setback skyscrapers of New York City which inspired its easily recognizable silhouette, the new municipal building featured relatively obsolete neo-Gothic decorative elements, each setback being enhanced with pinnacles and pointed arches (this type of ornamentation had known its heyday with the completion of the Woolworth Building in New York City in 1913).

All exterior and interior materials were extracted or manufactured in Georgia. On top of a granite base, the reinforced concrete structure is covered with cream-colored tiles and olive green spandrels in terra-cotta (notice the Phoenix motif on the second-story spandrels, symbolizing the quick recovery of Atlanta after the Civil War). No money was spared on the main lobby, with its floors and walls in polished marble and ornate gilded-wood ceiling, entrance and elevator doors in heavy bronze, and brass fixtures. The exteriors and all public spaces have recently been restored to their original grandeur concurrently with the addition on the south side.

The lower addition houses a number of services and offices, including the mayor's office, which are distributed around an impressive sky lit atrium. The form of the city council chamber is expressed on the Trinity avenue entrance facade as a semicircular overhang.

Across the street, constructed since the antebellum period in what used to be a fashionable residential district, is Walter T. Downing's Trinity United Methodist Church (its original building also survived the burning of Atlanta). The exterior ornamentation of this powerful brick structure resides solely in the rhythm of its massive buttresses. Inside, translucent stained-glass windows illustrate the history of the church as well as more traditional religious themes.

Fulton County Government Center
141 Pryor Street, SW
1989: Rosser Fabrap International with Turner Associates, Joint Venture Architects; Oscar Harris, Project manager; Paul Freidberg, Landscape Architect

Fulton County Courthouse
136 Pryor Street, SW
1914: A. Ten Eyck Brown, Morgan and Dillon, Architects

The Fulton County Government Center occupies an entire city block, defined by Peachtree, Mitchell, and Pryor streets and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. In order to match the scale of its surroundings, the building program was divided into several three to ten-story units centered around a glass atrium. The square shapes of the entrance pavilion on Pryor Street and of the openings in the screen wall, the curved glass curtain and gables, all standard devices of post-modernism, are meant to soften the institutional character of the complex.

After the Georgia State Capitol, the nine-story Fulton County Courthouse is the largest public structure built in the classical idiom in Atlanta. The inset section of six giant Corinthian semidetached columns overpowers the modest arched entrances, and looks tightly squeezed in a facade otherwise punctured by utterly utilitarian openings. This arrangement contributes to the general impression of heaviness and mismatched proportions.

The Counsel House
(Bass Furniture Building)
142 Mitchell Street NW
18998: Architect unknown; NR. Addition and Renovation 1924: A. Ten Eyck Brown, Architect. Restoration 1983: John Steinichen, Architect

Cottongim Building
97 Broad Street, SW
Circa 1890: Architect unknown

Concordia Hall
201 Mitchell Street, SW
1893: Bruce and Morgan, Architects

The Counsel House is the finest structure in the Terminus District, a once thriving commercial area that has retained its turn-of-the-century, Mitchell Street was the main artery between the central business district and the affluent residential neighborhood of West End. With the completion of the nearby Terminal Station in 1905, this street attracted a number of small hotels as well. Built as a feed-and-grain store in 1989, the Counsel House has been host to a variety of businesses over the years. The original section, which has known several remodelings and enlargements, has three stories; the addition, which takes advantage of the slope of Mitchell Street, has four. The brick facades feature a homogeneous rhythm of arched windows with terra-cotta capitals and a continuous cornice, ornamented with an inverted pyramidal design in brick. The overall proportions and decorative effect are particularly successful, as is the treatment of the building corner at the intersection of Mitchell and Peachtree streets. Damaged by fire on several occasions, the Counsel House was recently restored with design and financial assistance provided through the city's Historic Facade Program. Inappropriate storefront additions dating from the 1950s gave way to attractive glass planes supported by slender columns.

Other commercial structures of interest awaiting restoration in the Terminus District include the Cottongim Building, a fine example of mill construction with wood joists and cast-iron columns and Concordia Hall (notice the terra-cotta ornaments on the Forsyth Street doorway - especially the lyre at the center of the pediment, which indicates that the buildings first tenant was a literary and musical society).

Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building
(United States Post Office)
77 Forsyth Street, SW
1933: A. Ten Eyck Brown with Alfredo Barili Jr. and JW Humphreys, Architects

Originally built with funds from the Work Projects Administration to house Atlanta's central post office, this monumental structure was located in the vicinity of the now demolished Terminal Station. It was designed in the stripped-down classical style that prevailed for public structures in the 1930s not only in New Deal America but also throughout Europe. The highly symmetrical facades of this freestanding block feature a series of setbacks. They are sheathed in granite left plain and smooth with the exception of an occasional fluted "pilaster" and carved frieze. Vacated by the Postal Administration in 1980, the recently renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building now houses government offices.

MARTA Five Points Station
30 Alabama Street, SW
1979: Finch-Heery, Joint Venture Architects; Vincent Kling (Philadelphia), Design Consultant to MARTA

Considering the decentralized character of Atlanta's metropolitan area, the MARTA rapid-transit system, which opened in 1979, should probably be regarded as a symbol of the city's self-esteem as well as a solution to traffic congestion problems. MARTA's stations were designed by Atlanta firms as highly visible civic monuments, generally uncluttered by advertising billboards and providing little public seating (in an effort to discourage loitering), rather than as understated but functional access points to the rapid-rail system. The stations are for the most part super-structures, sometimes raised well above ground with boldly designed roofs.

Two MARTA rail lines intersect at the Five Points station, which enclosed 200,000 square feet of floor area. A grade-level landscaped plaza covered by a pre-cast concrete canopy provides natural lighting to the underground concourse level. The selection of materials - marble and glass tiles for the walls, cast-in place concrete with metal coffer liners for the ceilings - contributes to the stately character of the two train levels, which are reached by stairs and escalators sheathed in granite.

A dramatic counterpoint to the rigorous overall geometry is brought to the design by three neoclassical arches, visible from the intermediate level at the end of the northbound track. The arches at one time crowned the Whitehall Street facade of the Eiseman Building (1901, Walter R. Downing), which was demolished to make way for MARTA.

The pedestrian mall on Broad Street was planned as part of a promenade through Downtown. Unfortunately the monumental stations and its modern surroundings divide rather than unite the southern and northern parts of the central district.

MARTA Garnett Street Station
Forsyth and Garnett streets, SW
1981: Cooper Carry and Associates and Jones and Thompson, Joint Venture Architects; GAAIA Award

Garnett Station Place
(Southern Belting Company Building)
236 Forsyth Street SW
1915: Lockwood Greene, Engineers; NR. Remodeling 1985: Stang and Newdow, Architects; DC Award

The MARTA Garnett Street Station was expected to act as a nucleus for major redevelopment in the area. Exposed concrete columns support the railway platform and upper public concourse. Glazes aluminum frames are used as wind breaks and offer protection from the elements for the predominantly open-air structure.

Currently occupied by offices, Garnett Station Place is an open-plan structure in brick with stone accents which was built by a manufacturer of belts for textile looms. Its facade on Garnett Street is particularly well composed, with its stately balconied entrance and windows of different widths (the center and corners are marked by narrower glass panes).

Five Points / Marietta Street / Fairlie-Poplar

Wachovia Bank of Georgia Building
(First National Bank Building)
2 Peachtree Street, NW
1966: FABRAP with Emory Roth and Sons (New York), Architects; Cecil A. Alexander, Designer

Built on the site of the Peachtree Arcade, the forty-one story Wachovia Bank of Georgia Building was the tallest structure in the Southeast at the time of its construction. Its slab like profile and abstract ornamentation is characteristic of late International Style skyscraper design. Emphasizing the vertical thrust of the tower, the unbroken marble columns provide a sharp color contrast with the bronzed aluminum spandrels. A slight horizontal recess defines the top, which houses two mechanical floors.

The project included the drastic remodeling of the existing bank building built in 1903 (with floors added in 1928) at the corner of Peachtree and Marietta streets. In order to allow for an unobstructed view from, and of, the new office tower and to achieve stylistic "harmony" the height of the old structure was reduced by half and refaced in white marble.

William-Oliver Building
32 Peachtree Street, NW
1930: Pringle and Smith, Architects

This sixteen-story steel-frame office building was named for developer Thomas G. Healey's grandsons William and Oliver. The facade of the William-Oliver Building displays a tripartite arrangement. The base is cladding red granite, the larger openings of the first two floors expressing their design for commercial use. The shaft is sheathed in smooth limestone. In order to enhance its vertical thrust, windows at the corner and ends of the building are left unadorned while the six central bays, on Peachtree Street as well as on Marietta Street, are set between cast stone panels in low relief. Art Deco ornamentation is concentration two upper floors, with friezes featuring geometric patterns of chevrons and waves as well as rosettes and other stylized floral arrangements. Characteristically, horizontal divisions are as "superficial" in the quasi-monolithic shaft of the William-Oliver Building as they are strongly marked in the adjoining Nations Bank Building designed almost three decades earlier. On Peachtree Street, a delicate bronze awning leads to the off-center lobby, which has kept its original decoration, with inlaid marble patterns on the floors and fine bass floral ornamentation on the ventilating grilles and elevator doors.

Nations Bank Building
(Citizens and Southern National Bank Building, Empire Building)
35 Broad Street, NW
1901: Bruce and Morgan, Architects, NR. Remodeling of Lower Floors and Interiors 1929: Hentz, Adler and Shutze, Architects; Philip Shutze, Designer

Fourteen stories high, the Nations Bank Building was the first steel-frame structure to be built in Atlanta. Its clear-cut silhouette, simple fenestration, and heavily decorated terra-cotta top bear the influence of the Chicago School. In 1929 the building became the headquarters of the Citizens and Southern National Bank, which asked Philip Shutze to redesign its three lower floors. Because the impression of load-bearing masonry was regarded as better suited for a banking establishment than large glass panes were, the original display windows were replaces by classical motifs apparently "carved out" of Indiana limestone.

Philip Shutze was inspired by Italian Mannerism, and especially by the city gates of Verona by Michele Sanmichelo (1484-1559). As Henry Hope Reed points out, "the bold quoining and voluted keystones of the round-arched bays and the use of rustication and quoining inside the entrance bay result in masterly play of light and shade and convey an imperial bay result in a masterly play of light and shade and convey an imperial sense of scale" (Classical America, p. 18). Notice also how symmetry was restored to the Broad Street facade in spite of the presence of uncentered entrances. Reached from Marietta and Walton streets through lofty arcaded entryways and a more intimate elevator lobby in the early Renaissance style on Broad Street, the banking hall is a long nave articulated by colossal Corinthian pilasters. While its walls and floors feature several kinds of Georgia, Tennessee, and European marbles in a warm gold-brown color scheme, the ceiling, from which hang gigantic chandeliers, is left bare. The Pantheon, which Shutze had measured during his internship at the American Academy in Rome, served as direct source for the pedimented niches (their bases house ventilation ducts) and for the floors with alternate square and circular patterns. Also, of Roman inspiration are the bronze desks and the eagle motif found throughout the design. On the other hand, the officers' area, with its mahogany panels, is decorated in a cozier American Georgia style.

In 1991 Citizens and southern Bank merged with North Carolina National Bank to become Nations Bank, which has moved its Atlanta corporate headquarters to its midtown property. Fortunately the banking hall, in which Shutze demonstrated a "great sense of correctness" and "meticulous attention to details" will remain as one of the greatest of its kind in the United States (Elizabeth Dowling, American Classicist, p. 51).

Forty Marietta Building
(First Federal Savings and Loan Association Building)
40 Marietta Street NW
1964: Tomberlin and Sheetz, Architects; Chastain and Tindel, Structural Engineers

An innovative structural solution gave birth to the unconventional exterior of the seventeen-story Forty Marietta Building. It is supported by six giant pentagonal columns, visible from the exterior of the building, with post-tensioned beams spanning its column-free interior. The exposed curved faces of the deep spandrel beams that ring each floor alternate with ribbon windows in grey-tinted glass. The elevator service tower toward the rear is partly of poured-in-place concrete to stiffen the structure.

Forty-One Marietta Building
(Standard Federal Savings and Loan Building)
41 Marietta Street, NW
1975: Toombs, Amisano and Wells, Architects; GAAIA Award

Bank South Building
(Fulton National Bank Building)
55 Marietta Street, NW
1958: Wyatt C. Hedrick (Dallas) with Wilner and Millkey, Architects

Walton Place
(Georgia Railway and Power Building)
75 Marietta Street, NW
1907: Morgan and Dillon, Architects. Restoration 1988: stand and Newdow, Architects; UDC Award

On the opposite (northern) side of Marietta Street, notice the striking contrast in size and ornamentation between the Forty-One Marietta and the Bank South buildings with their marked horizontal rhythm of ribbon windows, and the brick-and-stone facade of Walton Place (encompassing an entire city block). The latter is an early example of the consolidation of all services in one location for a large utility company.

Healey Building
57 Forsyth Street NW
1913: Bruce and Morgan with Walter T. Downing, Architects; NR. Renovation 1988 Stang and Newdow, Architects; UDC Award

The Healey Building is an elegant office tower, which was named after its developer, William T. Healey, and most likely designed by Walter T. Downing. The vertical thrust of the uninterrupted piers is terminated by a strong projecting cornice. At the time of its construction, the Gothic style of the terra-cotta ornaments was considered the most fashionable for skyscraper design. Notice the unusual design of the slightly projecting display windows on the two-story base in the English perpendicular arcade once extended from Poplar Street completely through the block to Walton Street. Its junction with the elevator lobby facing on Forsyth Street is marked by a rotunda bathed in natural light. This rotunda was intended as a connection to a twin tower on Broad Street, the construction of which was abandoned due to the outbreak of World War I and the death of William T. Healey. The building started to decay when it was sold by the Healey family in 1972. After it was acquired by a Dutch consortium in the mid-1980s, the entire block was restored, with the construction of a well-integrated lobby facing on Broad Street as a continuation of the existing neo-Gothic rotunda.

Two of the Healey Building neighbors are worth mentioning: the monumental United States Eleventh District Court of Appeals, with its fairly heavy-handed Beaux-Arts ornamentation, and the Grant Building, with its neo-Renaissance exterior in limestone and terra-cotta.

United States Eleventh District Court of Appeals
(Federal Courthouse and Post Office)
56 Forsyth Street, NW
1911: James Knox Taylor, Architect. Restoration and Renovation 1987: Robert and Company, Architects

Grant Building
(Grant-Prudential Building)
44 Broad Street, NW
1898: Bruce and Morgan; Architects. Renovation 1980: Toombs, Amisano and Wells, Architects; UDC Award

Muse's Building
(George Muse Clothing Company Building)
52 Peachtree Street, NW
1921: Hentz, Reid and Adler, Architects; Philip Shutze, Designer

This seven-story building was commissioned by the George Muse Clothing Company, which until 1992 operated a store there. The Muse's Building occupies the site of a Confederate arsenal during the Civil War. Since the creation of Woodruff Park, the need for a structure of equal height to abut it to the north on Peachtree Street is all the more obvious. Until that happens, its narrow silhouette will continue to look unexpectedly picturesque. Hentz, Reid and Adler exploited here the same Itlaianate idiom they did in their design for Rich's Department Store. The rusticated base in limestone features large display windows with consoles as keystones, a motif that Shutze repeated in the nearby Nations Bank Building. The entrance on Peachtree Street has since been remodeled. Above this base, elaborate cartouches frame the corner and end windows. The rest of the building is sheathed in plain beige brick and terminated by a richly carved frieze and a cornice supported by brackets.

Flatiron Building
(English-American Building)
84 Peachtree Street Street, NW
1897: Bradford Gilbert, Architect (New York); NR. Renovation 1977-1987: Brisbin, Brook and Beynon, Architects (Toronto); UDC Award

Since the unfortunate demolition of Burnham and Root's original Equitable Building in 1971, the eleven story Flatiron Building is now the oldest skyscraper still standing in Atlanta. Its designer, Bradford Gilbert, was the supervising architect of the 1895 Cotton States Exposition. He is credited with building the first steel-framed skyscraper in the United States - The Tower Building in New York City (1889). The picturesque and uncommon triangular shape of what was originally called the English-American Building was imposed by its location on the narrow corner of Broad and Peachtree streets. Complying with the traditional tripartite composition of the turn-of-the-century skyscrapers, the two lower and the two upper floors are separated from the building's shaft by strongly projecting horizontal bands. Above the colonnaded base, the ornamentation relies on straightforward rhythms created by continuous bay windows and unbroken piers (notice how these piers emphasize the slenderness of the apex). Gilbert's design predates Daniel Burhham's New York Flatiron Building (1901) at the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue. That landmark became so popular that its Atlanta predecessor adopted the same name between 1916 and 1920, and again during the past decade. Neither the exterior color scheme nor the current decoration of the entrance lobby is original.

Equitable Building
100 Peachtree Street, NW
1968: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Architects (New York Office); FABRAP, Consulting Architects; James Wylie, Landscape Architect

The thirty-five-story Equitable Building occupies the site of the former Piedmont Hotel, which opened in 1903. The office tower's setback position from Peachtree Street allows for the presence of a small triangular piazza, and its dark mass, in sharp contrast with the silhouette of its older neighbors, is very noticeable in the Atlanta skyline. With a clearcut composition stressing the horizontal rhythm of the girders, while strong vertical divisions are placed intentionally far apart, the Equitable Building closely resembles the Chicago Civic Center (1965) and belongs to the family of International Style skyscrapers inspired by Ludwig Mies van de Rohe's Seagram Building (1958) in New York City.

Rhodes-Haverty Building
134 Peachtree Street NW
1929: Pringle and Smith, Architects; NR, LB

Atlanta History Center, Downtown Office
(Hillyer Trust Company Building)
140 Peachtree Street, NW
1911: Hentz, Reid and Adler, Architects; NR. Interior Remodeling 1987: Lord and Sargent, Architects; UDC Award

Named after its developers, furniture magnates AG Rhodes and JJ Haverty, the twenty-one-story Rhodes-Haverty Building was the tallest structure in Atlanta until the construction of the Bank South Building in 1954. The stern gray granite veneer of the tree-story base and neoclassical store entrance are not original to the building, which once featured much larger display windows. In order to enhance the vertical thrust of the Peachtree Street facade, openings at the corner are let unadorned while the four center bays have terra-cotta spandrels contrasting with the buff brick facing. A stringcourse with Art Deco chevron motifs isolates the last three floors from the building shaft. With its arcaded two-story bays, low gable, and corbelled arches punctuating the roofline, the top is reminiscent of Byzantine or early Romanesque architecture. The lobby incorporates walls and floors in travertine, elaborate carved ceilings, and delicately incised elevator doors. The Atlanta History Center, Downtown Office is located in the former headquarters of the Hillyer Trust Company, one of Atlanta's first banking institutions. Badly damaged by weather exposure, the upper six stories of what was conceivably one of the narrowest highrise office buildings in the United States were razed in 1978.

Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library
1 Margaret Mitchell Square
1969-1980: Marcel Breuer and Hamilton smith Associated Architects (New York) with Stevens and Wilkinson, Architects; UDC Award

Margaret Mitchell Square
1986: Joint Venture of Robert and Company with Williams Russell and Johnson, Architects; Kit Tin Snyder, Sculptor; UDC Award

The Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library occupies a full city block and replaced the Carnegie Library (1902), Atlanta's first and probably finest public building in the Beaux-Arts style. The design which was commissioned in 1969 took more than ten years to reach the construction stage and is reminiscent of one of Breuer's better-known compositions, the Whitney Museum in New York City. Both buildings have boldly cantilevered masses pierced by only a few large openings (in Atlanta, offices are grouped around a terrace so that their small windows do not disturb the monumental character of the Peachtree Street elevation). Large precast panels with diagonal striations sheath the exterior. Two floors were added at the back of the building when bids for the construction of the library came in below budget. Landscaped plazas, including Margaret Mitchell Square, have been designed on all sides of the complex street crossing, in order to define and enliven this prominent urban square.

Northern & Eastern Downtown / Peachtree Center / Hotels

Winecoff Hotel
176 Peachtree Street, NW
Circa 1913: William L. Stoddart, Architect

Carnegie Building
(Wynne-Claughton Building)
133 Carneigie Way, NW
1926: G. Lloyd Preacher, Architect; HB

The Winecoff Hotel was named after its builder and owner, William Fleming Winecoff. The base and top sheathed in limestone and crowned by a powerful detailed cornice are in sharp contrast with the brick shaft of this fourteen-story building. The structure's primary significance is that it led to a nationwide change in fire-safety regulations because of a fire in 1946 that killed 119 people, including Mr. Winecoff. In more recent years it has served as a retirement home and an office building. Completing the triangular city block is the Carnegie Building, which uses the same brick-and-stone color scheme and decor.

Georgia Pacific Center
133 Peachtree Street, NE
1982: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Architects (New York Office)

In 1978 Georgia-Pacific, a giant forest-products corporation moved its headquarters to Atlanta from Portland, Oregon. In 1982, the Georgia-Pacific Center replaced Loew's Grand Theater (site of the world premiere of Gone with the Wind), which had recently been damaged by fire. This fifty-two-story, 1.36 million-square foot skyscraper is clad in Texas granite pierced by narrow energy-efficient openings. In this highly visible downtown location where Peachtree Street changes the city's grid and bends to the north toward Midtown, its stepped-back silhouette on the east side makes the Georgia Pacific Center a distinctive landmark in the city's skyline. According to its designers, it was intended as a "design response to the site and varied heights of surrounding buildings." It offers the advantage of a large range of floor sizes with a conventional elevator system.

High Museum of Art at Georgia-Pacific Center
133 Peachtree Street, NE
1986: Parker and Scogin, Architects; UDC, SARC, AIA Awards

The downtown branch of the High Museum of Art at Georgia-Pacific Center is intended for thematic displays of objects from the museum's permanent collection, as well as for small- or medium-size traveling exhibitions. It is reached through the main lobby of the Georgia-Pacific Center, which features a large white sculpture by Louise Nevelson. The museum itself is housed in a long and narrow glass-enclosed space along Houston Street. Because this "greenhouse" did not comply with the fire, climate, and security regulations proper to museum spaces, a self-sufficient environment was created within what was originally designed as an exhibition space for Georgia-Pacific products. A freestanding steel-frame structure is clad with an exotic wood veneer of African anigree, remarkable for its fine grain and golden tone. Upon entering, visitors descend a ramp, which provides dramatic vistas of both the museum and the cityscape. Exhibits are held in two large superimposed galleries and in narrower lateral displays paces, totaling five thousand square feet. Most impressive is the pristine Upper Gallery, with its translucent barrel vault and floor inlaid with glass blocks. The High Museum at Georgia-Pacific Center, which was recognized for design excellence by the American Institute of Architects in 1988, demonstrates that a rigorous geometrical order can convey a serene atmosphere, enhancing art works and welcoming the visitor.

Candler Building
127 Peachtree Street, NE
1906: Murphy and Stewart, Architects; NR, LB, UDC Award

Set on a triangular lot at the corner of Peachtree, Pryor, and Houston streets, the seventeen-story neo-Renaissance Candler Building, entirely covered in white North Georgia marble, was the tallest and the best-equipped office building in Atlanta at the time of its construction. In this speculative venture, the founder of the Coca-Cola Company, philanthropist Asa Grigga Candler (1851-1929), built a monument to his own success, spending lavishly on the ornamentation, which was supervised by the sculptor FB Miles.

On the outside, decorative sculpture flourishes on the two-story base and on the top three floors, which are terminated by a powerful cornice supported by brackets in the shape of lions. At the street level, each bay features in its center a medallion reproducing the profiles of famous men, among them Shakespeare, Raphael, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Cyrus McCormick. The recessed entrance on Houston Street, which originally gave access to a banking hall, is no longer in use. It is through one of the lateral arched entryways framed by term-supported brackets that the visitor proceeds to the lobby. This space features an extraordinarily free and playful assemblage of early Renaissance motifs. The monumental staircase is supported by bronze birds and fabulous animals crowd its marble banister; a frieze of putti and foliage frames busts of local politicians and literati, such as Sidney Lanier and Joel Chandler Harris, as well as those of Asa Candler's parents, Samuel and Martha. Notice also the letterbox boasting the Candler family coat of arms and motto, ad mortem fidelis (faithful until death) and the marble alligators above the drinking fountain.

AT&T Communications Building
(Southern Bell Telephone Company Building)
51 Peachtree Center Avenue, NE
1929: Marye, Alger and Vinour, Architects; NR

In the prosperous 1920s the Souther Bell Telephone Company envisioned a twenty-five-story setback skyscraper, which would have been by far the tallest building in Atlanta, as its new southeastern headquarters. Such an ambitious undertaking was consistent with the Bell Company's philosophy that a strong design policy was the best means of boosting its corporate image. Unfortunately, with the depression in the 1930s, the building was scaled down to only six floors (subsequent additions in 1947, 1948 and 1963 resulted in a building that is now fourteen stories).

The base of what is now called the AT&T Communications Building in smooth-faced limestone features Art Deco flutings in very low relief and panels with intricate floral and geometric patterns. The elongated and sharply contoured entrance portal on Peachtree Center Avenue is surmounted by an elaborate keystone motif and flanked by stylized human figures (notice also the sharp eagle profiles and metal torcheres on the side). The ornamentation of the AT&T Communications Building was not particularly advanced for the late 1920s, when more colorful and abstract features had become the fashion in New York City.

Hurt Building
50 Hurt Plaza, SE
1913, 1926: J.E.R. Carpenter, Architects (New York); NR LB. Renovation 1985: Associated Space Design, Architects and Interior Designers; UDC Award

Trust Company Bank Building
25 Park Place, NE
Tower 1969, Banking Hall 1973: Carson, Lundin and Shaw, Architects (New York City). Columns from the original Equitable Building, 1892: Burnham and Root, Architects (Chicago)

Ten Park Place South Building
(Thornton Building)
10 Park Place South, SE
1932: A. Ten Eyck Brown, Architect; LB

Olympia Building
23 Peachtree Street, SE
1937: Ivey and Crook, Architects; LB

The Hurt Building was named after Joel Hurt (1850-1926), the enlightened developer who commissioned Frederick Law Olmsted to lay out Druid Hills and Burnham and Root to design Atlanta's first skyscraper, the Equitable Building, whose columns have been kept on the building's original site in the Trust Company Bank Building plaza. Originally trained as an engineer, Hurt made preliminary drawings for his seventeen-story speculative office tower before entrusting its final design to J.E.R. Carpenter, a New York architect whose eclectic practice included many posh apartment houses on Park and Fifth avenues. The Hurt Building occupies an elongated triangular site. Its front part was erected in 1913, with an apex cut back thirty feet in order to allow a greater window area and more visibility from the heart of Downtown. Begun in 1924, its two wings were completed two year later. The monumental stone base is articulated by stern pilasters, the rotunda at the apex by engaged Corinthian columns. The shaft, in light grey porcelain brick with ocher and green terra-cotta spandrels, is surmounted by an elaborate rotunda, also in terra-cotta. The domed ceiling of the entrance rotunda, which is supported by marble columns, has been beautifully restored, the lobby dramatically enlarged and remodeled.

Two small commercial structures of the 1930s with a restrained but elegant ornamentation complete this tour of the financial district: the Ten Park Place South Building and the Olympia Building (named after Olympia Beach in Florida, a previous venture of its developer Frank Hawkins).

MARTA Peachtree Center Station
Peachtree Street at Ellis Street
1982: Toombs, Amisano and Wells, Architects; Joseph Amisano, Designer; UDC, GAAIA Awards

At the MARTA Peachtree Center Station, trains arrive in a vault 44 feet high and 770 feet long, tunneled through solid rock 100 feet below grade. The existing striated granite, reinforced with steel rods placed in drilled holes, was used as both structural support and natural architectural finish. During the excavation, engineers devised special blasting controls and drilling patterns in order to create a rough-hewn textured surface. The overhead part of the rock arch, which had to be protected with a thin concrete shell, is covered by aluminum acoustical panels with integral lights. Here Piranesi meets high tech, and the contrast between awesome natural elements and sleek man-made materials is very successful.

Macy's Department Store
(Davison-Paxon Department Store)
180 Peachtree Street, NW
1927: Hentz, Adler and Shutze, Architects; Starrett and Van Vleck, Contractors (New York)

In 1925 the southern department-store chain of Davison-Paxon was bought out by R. H. Macy and Company, but in an attempt to maintain the goodwill of the local clientele, the Macy's name was not adopted until the 1980s. The design of the new Macy's Department Store in Atlanta was entrusted to local architect Philip Shutze and Starrett and Van Vleck, a New York contracting firm that dad been involved in the design of a number of department stores. Shutze's mark is evident on the exterior. With its base of two-story arched openings (the present canopies are not original to the design), unadorned upper floors, and prominent cornice, the massive block closely follows the prototype of the Italian Renaissance palazzo. Economic constraints dictated the lack of expensive materials and elaborate ornaments. The walls in rough dark brick (marble facing was intended but never installed) are enhanced by limestone trim. On the Peachtree Street facade, uniformity is broken by niches on either sided of the entrances and reinforced by the window pattern above.

One-Ninety-One Peachtree Tower
191 Peachtree Street, NE
1990: John Burgee Architects with Philip Johnson, Architects

A free interpretation of turn-of-the-century neoclassical skyscrapers, this fifty-story granite-clad office tower is a welcome addition to the downtown skyline. Derived from Johnson's AT&T Building in New York City, its monumental arched entryway on Peachtree Street leads into a six-story skylit atrium surrounded by retail space on the ground level. One-Ninety-One Tower is set well back from Peachtree Street in order to be more respectful of the scale of Macy's Department Store across the street. The center of the shaft is recessed to give the impression of two slender towers, which are notched in order to provide for twelve corner offices on each floor and crowned by identical columned aediculae.

Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel
210 Peachtree Street, NW
1976, Renovation 1986: John Portman and Associates, Architects

On a relatively small site, where the first mansion for the governor once stood, followed by the Henry Grady Hotel, John Portman built the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, a 1078-room, seventy-story concrete structure, which remains (to this date) the tallest hotel in America. A taut cylinder, sheathed entirely in reflective glass, is set above a massive concrete base. Transparent elevators leading to a revolving restaurant and cocktail lounge (which provide spectacular views of the city) run in a glass-walled tube attached to the circular guest tower.

The Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel epitomizes the way in which John Portman has turned the traditional components of street life inward. Its blockhaus-like entrance on Peachtree Street (the auto entrance is in back, on Spring Street) leads to a five-story atrium surrounding the circular elevator core. This atrium was transformed in the late 1980s when the indoor lake and cocktail lounge "lily pads" were superseded by a post-modern stage set. Described by Portman's publicists as "a modern interpretation of a classic Venetian piazza," the new design lacks the honesty and playfulness of its predecessor. The hotel's massing suggests Portman's later and more elaborate designs, such as the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles and Renaissance Center in Detroit.

209 Peachtree Street Building
(Regenstein's Department Store)
209 Peachtree Street, NE
1930: Architect Unknown

Cornerstone Building
(J.P. Allen Building)
215 Peachtree Street, NE
1928: Morgan, Dillon and Lewis, Architects; NR. Renovation 1989: Turner Associates, Architects

Built by retailers whose large stores were originally located in the Whitehall Street area (the area south of Alabama Street along what has since been renamed Peachtree Street in an effort to encourage development), these two low commercial structures exemplified the move of commercial enterprises to the north that took place in the 1920s. While its base has been altered, the 209 Peachtree Street Building retains the fine Art Deco ornamentation of its upper floors. Notice the monogram of its builder, the Peters Land Company, in the two center spandrels. The contrast between the smooth stone veneer of the piers and the black spandrels, "capitals," and roundels, ornate with stylized floral motifs is quite striking but is not original (the black paint is a recent addition). Across International Boulevard, the recently renovated Cornerstone Building features the same general organization as the 209 Peachtree Street Building, with more conservative, stripped-down classical details.

Peachtree Center Tower
230 Peachtree Street, NW
1965: Edwards and Portman, Architects

Peachtree Center Mall
231 Peachtree Street, NE
1973, Addition 1979, Renovation 1986: John Portman and Associates, Architects; UDC Award

After its hotel atriums, Peachtree Center is best known to architects and the general public for its cluster of office towers. The first to be built was the Peachtree Center Tower, completed in 1965. Its precast concrete panels, which hang from the steel skeleton and frame narrow floor-to-ceiling openings, were duplicated with minor variations in six other towers, ranging in height from twenty-five to thirty-five stories and oriented east to west in an arrangement inspired by New York City's Rockefeller Center (Hofmesiter, Corbett and Hood, 1931-1939). Instead of being distributed among he office towers, shops and other amenities have been centralized in Peachtree Center Mall, which connects four towers below grade (John Portman's offices are located above the mall, in a space originally constructed to house a dinner theater). Of the design features that make reference to Rockefeller Center (the integration of pedestrian outdoor and indoor spaces and a unified facade treatment), the most important, the narrow public promenade opening on Peachtree Street, has lost a significant part of its appeal. In 1986 the drastic renovation of the lower-level food court and retail spaces included enclosure of the sunken garden courtyard (where employees once at their brown-bag lunches under bright yellow parasols) and installation of a transparent canopy along Peachtree Street, which has visually cut off the mall space from the street.

Atlanta Merchandise Mart
240 Peachtree Street NW
1961, Addition 1968: Edwards and Portman, Architects. Addition 1986: John Portman and Associates, Architects

Atlanta Apparel Mart
250 Spring Street,NW
1979, Addition 1989: John Portman and Associates, Architects

Inforum
250 Williams Street, NW
1989: John Portman and Associates, Architects

Atlanta Gift Mart
230 Spring Street, NW
1992, John Portman and Associates, Architects

Along with the Decorative Arts Center in Buckhead (351 Peachtree Hills Avenue, NE), Peachtree Center's wholesale facilities form the Atlanta Market Center, which is operated and partly owned by John Portman. The requirement for ample and flexible space dictated their gigantic scale. The Atlanta Merchandise Mart, in which John Portman's new concept of wholesale services was first embodied, has more than tripled in size since its original phase was constructed in 1961. The Atlanta Apparel Mart has no fewer than 2.1 million square feet of showroom and exhibition space for the apparel industry. Its concrete exterior conceals a five story skylit atrium in the shape of a hemicycle, with balconies patterned after those in the Hyatt Regency Atlanta Hotel. Reflective glass minimizes the bulk of Inforum, a marketing center for computer and information-processing products and the only one of the above mentioned facilities open to the general public. The latest addition to the Atlanta Market Center is the Atlanta Gift Mart, which sits atop a parking garage designed by Portman in the late 1960s.

Capital City Club
7 Harris Street, NW
1911: Donn Barber, Architect (New York); NR

Founded in 1883, the Capital City Club is the oldest private club in Atlanta. It remains a popular (and exclusive) gathering place for the city's business and professional leaders. The four-story building (the floor above the dentiled cornice is a later addition) was designed by the Beaux-Arts-trained architect Donn Barber (1871-1925) in the dignified and rather severe mode that characterizes prestigious New York City clubs such as the Colony Club (McKim, Mead and White, 1906). Projecting twin porches topped by an elegant balustrade provide a stately base to the entrance facade on Harris Street. Located on prime real estate, the club site has long been coveted by developers.

Hyatt Regency Atlanta Hotel
(Regency Hyatt House Hotel)
265 Peachtree Street, NE
1967: Edwards and Portman, Architects. Additions 1971, 1982: John Portman and Associates, Architects

The 800-bedroom Hyatt Regency Atlanta Hotel was the first major hotel to be built in downtown Atlanta since the 1920s. Since its dramatic opening in 1967, the hotel has added 550 additional bedrooms in two adjacent towers: one is cylindrical and served as a design precursor for the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel; the other imitates the original exterior expression. Outside, the concrete mass is crowded by the sci-fi blue dome of the revolving lounge, which once provided a commanding view of the downtown skyline but is now boxed in by more recent high-rise construction. The deliberately low entrance canopy and vestibule give no hint of the spectacular full-height atrium inside. In addition to the traditional registration area, the twenty-two-story skylit courtyard (a design that required changes in the local life safety codes) includes a gigantic aviary, an open cocktail lounge covered by a suspended canopy, the 120-foot sculpture "Flora Raris" by Richard Lipphold, and the exposed glass-enclosed "bubble" elevators that have become Portman's trademark. Dining areas on a more intimate scale are connected to the central "piazza," and meeting and banquet facilities are located on the lower levels. On the guest-room floors, instead of the customary bleak corridors, rooms open on to plant-lined balconies. In effect, John Portman expanded to an unprecedented scale the grand hotel lobbies of such Gilded-Age caravansaries as the Brown Palace in Denver and the Palmer House in Chicago. Eliciting a tremendous public response, Portman's design launched a new formula that he exploited in other hotels for the Hyatt chain and that has been widely imitated.

Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel
265 Peachtree Center Avenue, NE
1985: John Portman and Associates, Architects

Marquis One and Marquis Two Towers
245 and 285 Peachtree Center Avenue, NE
1985, 1989: John Portman and Associates, Architects

With 1,674 guest rooms, the Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel is the largest convention hotel in the Southeast. Its exterior envelope in poured concrete consists of a low-rise podium and a tower with tapered walls on the north and south sides. The swelling atrium rises forty-eight stories, a height of 515 feet, with a volume of 9.5 million cubic feet. Its gigantic proportions overwhelm Portman's traditional hotel lobby features, including the hanging fabric sculpture by French artist Daniel Frafffin. Each balcony, with its metal railing, looks like the rib of some fabulous prehistoric animal. The Marquis One and Two Towers flank the entrance to the north and south, and as with most of Portman's Peachtree Center buildings, their lobbies interconnect with the hotel for easy pedestrian movement without venturing outside.

One Peachtree Center
303 Peachtree Street, NE
1992: John Portman and Associates, Architects

The sixty-story One Peachtree Center office tower, which includes 32,000 square feet of retail space, was designed as an anchor for the northern end of Peachtree Center. Stressing broad vertical divisions, its exterior in granite of different shades of grey and its faceted pyramid top in reflective glass are in sharp contrast to the concrete slabs of Portman's earlier office towers. The two-story lobby can be entered on any of the four sides through granite pavilions that bridge a circular reflecting pool.

Sacred Heart Church
(Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus)
335 Peachtree Center Avenue, NE
1897: Walter T. Downing, Architect; NR

First United Methodist Church of Atlanta
360 Peachtree Street, NE
1903 Willis F. Denny, Architect

A highly visible and well-preserved landmark, the Sacred Heart Church enabled the Marist fathers to centralize their educational and religious facilities in Atlanta. Its exterior, in warm red brick with terra-cotta and marble accents, epitomizes Walter T. Downing's eclectic approach to architectural design. Elements of the decor - the triple arched-doorway surmounted by a low-pitched gable, the twin octagonal towers, resting on square bases - are loosely patterned after Romanesque precedents, but the verticality is unmistakably Gothic in character. Built of Stone Mountain granite, the Gothic Revival First United Methodist Church of Atlanta hosts the oldest organized congregation in the city. Its pulpit, iron fence, and stained-glass windows are part of the original church of 1847.

Peachtree Summit
401 West Peachtree Street, NE
1975: Toombs, Amisano and Wells, Architects; Joseph Amisano and Ronald Sineway, Designers; UDC, GAAIA Awards

MARTA Civic Center Station
West Peachtree Street at Interstate 75/85 1979: M. Garland Reynolds and Partners, Architects; Welton Becket, Associate Architects (Los Angeles)

Of a planned three-building complex, only the thirty-story Peachtree Summit tower has been built. The form of its faceted base was dictated by the irregular shape of the site. The facades, in cast-in-place concrete and reflective glass, are a straightforward expression of the columnar structure: on three of the corners, triangular "prows" or "handles" serve as balconies; above the twenty-third floor, where the corner buttresses are no longer needed to take wind stresses, they have been glazed and turned into prestigious offices. The three-story public lobby relates to both the lower street level that existed at the time of construction and the new level of West Peachtree Street that resulted from the construction of the MARTA Civic Center Station over the interstate highway.

Civic Center

Georgia Power Company Corporate Headquarters
333 Piedmont Avenue, NE
1976 - 1981: Heery and Heery, Architects; Mack Scogin, Design Coordinator; Merrill Elam, Senior Project Designer; GAAIA Award

Atlanta Civic Center
395 Piedmont Avenue, NE
1968: Robert and Company, Architects

Located on a twenty-three acre parcel in the Bedford-Pine Redevelopment Area, the Georgia Power Company Corporate Headquarters complex consolidates the operations of the company and symbolizes its commitment to energy conservation. The three-level sweeping brick-and-granite structure, for special use and twenty-four-hour-a-day functions, has on its roof a solar collector field. The highly visible twenty-four-story, which houses executive and general office space, features a curtain wall of insulated glass windows and reflective non-vision glass (the black color led to its being nicknamed "Darth Vador"); the angle of its stepped-back southern facade is precisely configured so that direct entry of the sun's rays is completely eliminated at the summer solstice. Across Ralph McGill Boulevard is the Atlanta Civic Center, whose striated ocher brick walls accented with white concrete balconies and colonnades houses the city's theatrical auditorium and exhibition space. That latter is now used as a hands-on science museum known as SciTrek, designed by Rosser Fabrap International.

Western Downtown

The Omni
100 Techwood Drive, NW
1968-1972: Thompson, Ventulett and Stainback, Architects; Prybylowski and Gravino, Structural Engineers; GAAIA Award

Jointly owned by city and county, the 377,000-square-foot multipurpose Omni seats 16,500 spectators and was originally built as home to both the Atlanta Flames, a professional ice-hockey team now based in Calgary, and the Atlanta Hawks, the city's professional basketball team. The arena allows flexible seating arrangements for other types of events, including the 1988 Democratic national Convention and numerous rock concerts. The seating bowl is placed on the diagonal axis of a 360-foot square, which improves visibility and increases the number of premium seats. Walls are sheathed in Cor-Ten weathering steel with large glass planes alleviating the corners. Spanning the entire space, four cantilevered wall trusses support an unusual roof structure (an ortho-quad truss" system; which conspicuously incorporates evenly spaced truncated pyramids. The interior plan is successful, but the design suffers from unfortunate siting, which complicates ground-level access and confounds the visitor trying to reach the coliseum through a maze of poorly planned streets.

CNN Center (Omni International)
190 Marietta Street, NW
1976: Thompson, Ventulett and Stainback, Architects; Marvin Housworth, Associate in Charge; GAAIA Award

The components of the CNN Center are differentiated on the outside: two fourteen-story office buildings and a five-hundred -room hotel form massive blocks of Alabama limestone, while the full-height atrium, in weathering steel and bronze glass, dramatically slopes toward the Omni. Placed on a diagonal, a bridge connects the megastructure with the large parking deck erected in 1966. Omni International, which originated while the arena was under construction, was intended as a family recreation center. Its atrium featured not only a breathtaking eight-story escalator (at that time the world's longest), but also an Olympic-size indoor ice-skating rink. When the enterprise first opened, it housed a number of posh retail stores, restaurants, and an indoor amusement park. Unable to bring families back to the central city or compete with shopping and entertainment center in the suburbs, the venture was nearly abandoned until T.V. mogul Ted Turner bought the property, renamed it CNN Center, and moved his broadcasting studios and headquarters there.

Georgia World Congress Center
285 International Boulevard, NW
1976, 1985: Thompson, Ventulett and Stainback, Architects

A convention and trade-fair facility financed by the state, the Georgia World Congress Center was built in two phases. The eastern portion, with its two long sides entrenched between the railroad tracks, was built in the 1970s. Its 350,000-square-foot exhibition hall was at the time the largest single-floor exhibition hall in the United States. Adding one-and-a-half times the original square footage, the 1985 addition includes an entrance pavilion on International Boulevard with a stepped down atrium in glass and weathered steel and a concrete frame pedestrian concourse. As of this writing new additions to the Georgia World Congress Center are in the planning stage.

Georgia Dome
285 International Boulevard, NW
1989-1992: Heery/Rosser Fabrap International/Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback and Associates, Joint Venture Architects; Scott Braley, Project Director, Weidlinger Associates (New York) and Harrington Engineers, Structural Engineers

Enclosing thirty-seven acres of floor space, the Georgia Dome boasts not only a 70,500-seat stadium designed to accommodate the Atlanta Falcons football franchise, but also 120,000 square feet of exhibition space, which is created from sections of the playing field. The Georgia Dome (the third largest domed stadium in North America in terms of seating capacity) was the site of 1994 Super Bowl and various venues of the 1996 Summer Olympics, as well as serve as an extension of the nearby Georgia World Congress Center. On the outside, this double purpose is reflected in the superimposition of the world's largest rigid cable-supported oval dome, with a translucent roofing membrane made of Teflon-coated fiberglass on a corporate-looking base, with metal panels and five-story glazed atrium at each of the four corners. In the stadium, the 850-foot clear span allows close views of the game from any seat. Construction started in March 1990 was completed in August 1992: the accelerated timetable was made possible by overlapping the design and construction phases of the project.

Sweet Auburn / M.L.K. Jr. Historic District

First Congregational Church
105 Courtland Street, NE
1908: Bruce and Everett, Architects; LB

First Congregational Church, founded on the present site in 1867, has always had a congregation deeply committed to social activism and the well-being of the black community. Its corner location makes the 1908 structure, in tan brick with white accents resting on a rough-hewn granite base, appear monumental. The treatment of the entrance facade on Houston Street, the "side elevation" on Courtland Street, and a corner tower anchoring the design contribute to its grandeur. Although the consistent use of arched openings acts as a unifying device, the ornamentation is eclectic and full of fantasy. The entrance porch looks Romanesque at first glance, but it is supported by coupled Ionic columns and topped by a Spanish Mission motif; the belvedere atop the tower is directly inspired by those of Italian Renaissance villas; and the large stained-glass window on Courtland Street is straightforwardly Victorian.

Baptist Student Center, Georgia State University
(Dixie Coca-Cola Bottling Company)
125 Edgewood Avenue, SE
1891: Architect Unknown; NHL, LB. Addition 1988: Interior Remodeling and Facade Restoration 1989: Cavender Associates, Architects; UDC Award

The establishment of the Dixie Coca-Cola Bottling Company in 1900 marked the first application of the franchise concept to the soft-drink industry. This modest structure, which served as the firs bottling plant of the Coca-Cola Company for just over a year, became a National Historic Landmark in 1977. Characteristic of the Queen Anne style, the building features a complex roof, with hipped sections and stepped Flemish gables, a square wood-shingled turret addressing the street corner (the second floor originally was used as a residence), and materials and textures combined in a picturesque fashion. In 1966 it became the Baptist Student Center for Georgia State University, which necessitated the recent nonintrusive addition built on Courtland Street.

Atlanta Life Insurance Company Building
148 Auburn Avenue, NE
Date and Builder Unknown. Renovation and Facade 1927: Aiken and Faulker, Builders

Herndon Plaza
100 Auburn Avenue, NE
1980: Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback and Associates, with JW Robinson and Associates, Architects

John Wesley Dobbs Building
(Southern Schoolbook Depository Building)
135 Auburn Avenue, NE
Circa 1910: Hentz and Reid. Renovation 1988: ER Mitchell Construction Company

Founded by Alonzo F. Herndon in 1905, the Atlanta Life Insurance Company is one of the largest black-owned business enterprises in the country. The facade of its first headquarters, the Atlanta Life Insurance Company Building at 148 Auburn Avenue (originally a YMCA building), was given a facelift in 1927: old-fashioned colossal neoclassical columns and pilasters supporting a wide entablature were intended to express the stability of the insurance business. Classical as well, but more restrained, is the facade of the annex built next to the original building in the 1930s. In contrast, the abstract masses of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company's current headquarters, Herndon Plaza, with its boldly cantilevered executive floor, bear witness to an aggressive and dynamic entrepreneurial vision. Across from it is the John Wesley Dobbs Building, one of the finest commercial structures in red brick with stone accents remaining in the area. This building (restored with the support of the Historic Facade Program) houses the first phase of the APEX (African American Panoramic Experience) Museum. Funds are being raised to initiate the second phase, a research library for African-American history.

Odd Fellows Building
250 Auburn Avenue, NE
Tower 1912, Auditorium Addition 1914: William A. Edwards, Architect NR. Tower Restoration 1988: Stang and Newdow, Architects; UDC Award. Auditorium Restoration 1991; Perkins and Partners, Architects: UDC Award

Big Bethel A.M.E. Church
220 Auburn Avenue, NE
1891: Architect Unknown

As indicated on its doorway, the Odd Fellows Building was completed in 1912 and served as the regional headquarters of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, a major trade and social organization. The six-story structure housed a number of black businesses. Its lower annex, completed in 1914, incorporated a concert hall and theater. For the most part, the picturesque brick-and-stone detailing was inspired by early English "Jacobean" precedents, while the highly stylized African-American heads ornamenting the facade ere intended to celebrate the Sweet Auburn community. Damaged by fire in 1923, the nearby Big Bethel A.M.E. Church lost most of its fine Romanesque Revival detailing in the subsequent reconstruction. This historic structure also served as the first school for black children in Atlanta.

Georgia Hall, Grady Memorial Hospital
36 Butler Street, SE
1892: Eugene Clarence Gardner and Sons, Architects (Springfield, Massachusetts); NR, LB, UDC Award

Steiner Building, Grady Memorial Hospital
(Albert Steiner Ward)
62 Butler Street, SE
1923: Hentz, Reid and Adler, Architects; Neel Reid, Designer; HB

Grady Memorial Hospital
80 Butler Street, SE
1958: Robert and Company, Architects. Goddard Chapel 1956: Philip Shutze, Architect

Atlanta's first publicly supported hospital, Georgia Hall (often referred to as Old Grady Hospital) opened in 1892. The institution was named after Atlanta Constitution editor and New South advocate Henry W. Grady (1851-1889). Both its historical significance and its architectural distinction justify the nomination of this three-story structure, I red brick resting on a granite base, to the National Register of Historic Places. Georgia Hall has a Romanesque Revival arched entrance portico topped by a carved frieze that incorporates the name of the hospital. The bracketed eaves of the hipped roofs of both the main building and the side tower as well s the scaled down window pattern make the structure look more residential than institutional. Originally a porte cochere was attached to the right end of the Butler Street facade and wards were placed at the back. (These were subsequently demolished in 1959 to make way for a parking lot.) Notice on the same block Neel Reid's Steiner Building, a palazzo-like structure covered in buff brick, which was built as a cancer ward but now houses offices for faculty members from Emory University. In sharp contrast to these modest structures, the twenty-one-story main building of Grady memorial Hospital stands on the next block across Armstrong Street. The visitor is surprised to find in this modern structure the jewel-like neoclassical Goddard Chapel, designed by Philip Shutze. Grady Memorial Hospital is one of the largest health-care facilities in the Southeast, in terms of both square footage (1.2 million) and number of patients treated annually. An ambitious campaign of renovation and additions to Grady Memorial Hospital is scheduled to be completed by the end of 1995.

Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change
(King Memorial Center)
449 Auburn Avenue, NE
Memorial 1977, Freedom Hall 1981: Bond and Ryder, Architects (New York), UDC Award

Ebenezer Baptist Church
407 Auburn Avenue, NE
1922: Architect Unknown

The Martin Luther King Jr. Center of Nonviolent Social Change was established in 1968 and is visited by more than a million individuals each year. Approaching the Center from Downtown along Auburn Avenue, the visitor passes the Victorian red brick facade of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King, his father, and his grandfather each served as pastor. At the Center, a progressive visual sequence of architectural spaces gradually leads the visitor to a meditative space focused on the entombments of the civil-rights leader: rows of trees planted on lawns along the avenue, a narrow bright blue reflecting pool (symbolizing the life giving nature of water), a Chapel of All Faiths (receiving a soft reflected light from the underside of its vault), and the Freedom Walkway (a vaulted colonnade stepping the length of the site, with niches designed for future murals of King's leadership in the civil-rights movement). The simple white marble block of the tomb was placed dramatically at the center of the pool on a circular brick platform. Much more understated is the brick cylinder hosting the eternal flame, placed directly on axis with the crypt. At the eastern end, enclosure is provided by the two-story Freedom hall, where the information center is located and placed a t right angle to the three-story Memorial Hall, an administration, program and archives building, complete with a large exhibition area. The repetitive concrete barrel vaults with brick infills, which characterize all of these building, are reminiscent of Le Corbusier's Maisons Jaoul near Paris (1955) and respect the quiet red and grey harmony of the memorial ground.

Martin Luther King Jr. Birth Home
501 Auburn Avenue, NE
Circa 1893: Architect Unknown; UDC Award

Fire Station No. 6
39 Boulevard, NE
1894: Bruce and Morgan, Architects; UDC Award

Wigwam Apartments
587-591 Auburn Avenue, NE; 44-50 Randolph Street, NE
1940; Vincent Daley, Architect

The Martin Luther King Jr. Birth Home was owned by the civil-rights leader's maternal grandfather. The King family lived there until 1041. A two-story frame house with clapboard siding, its irregular massing, porch ornaments, and gable are derived from the Queen Anne style. The National Park Service began restoring the site in 1974. The Park Service has purchased and restored several houses in the area to the time period 1929-1941, which is when Dr. King lived in the neighborhood. Among these are several-two-story Victorian homes along Auburn Avenue as well as more modest "shotgun" houses that were built around 1905 (these are among the last examples remaining in Atlanta of this residential type so common in southern cities at the turn of the century). They form an interesting residential ensemble with their aligned projecting gables oriented to the street. Of both historical and architectural interested across Boulevard from the King Center is the still operating Fire Station No. 6, a flat brick structure graced with fine Romanesque Revival detailing.At the intersection of Randolph Street and Auburn Avenue, the Wigwam Apartments are a rare example of Streamlined Moderne apartment houses in Atlanta. The flat-roofed, stucco exterior is animated by wrapping corner windows and setback stairs and terraces.

West Wing, Georgia Baptist Medical Center
300 Boulevard, NE
1925: Burge and Stevens, Architects

North and East Wings, Georgia Baptist Medical Center
300 Boulevard, NE
1951: Stevens and Wilkinson, Architects; SARC, AIA Awards

Professional Building, Georgia Baptist Medical Center
300 Boulevard, NE
1951: Stevens and Wilkinson, Architects; AIA Awards

East Professional Building, Georgia Baptist Medical Center
315 Boulevard, NE
1974: Stevens and Wilkinson, Architects; GAAIA Awards

The original 1925 portion of the Georgia Baptist Medical Center, currently known as the West Wing, is now hidden from view by the 1951 North and East Wings on Boulevard. This addition, in the International Style, received the American Institute of Architects' Award of Merit in Hospital Architecture. Its street facade enhanced by a regular grid of concrete and aluminum sun-shades significantly reduces air-conditioning costs. The asymmetrically placed entrance is marked by a large concrete awning characteristic of the 1950s. The Professional Building to its north was also recognized by the AIA with an Award of Merit in 1957. Across Boulevard, the East Professional Building is a four-story block with an elegant window pattern that alleviates the corners. The hospital complex has the unusual distinction of having had almost all of its recent structures designed by the same architectural firm, Stevens and Wilkinson.

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