This conceptual project is an exploration of combining a variety of program elements on a 3.6 acre site in West Midtown, Atlanta to create a dynamic building with a sense of community. Brink Design examined the needs of the surrounding community and arranged the building to include retail, office space, event space, and restaurant space around 10 multi-level condominium units. The site was selected for it’s proximity to residential neighborhoods, to the primary retail district of West Midtown and to a number of planned developments. The building is designed to be pedestrian friendly and to cater to the variety of residents in the immediate area.
The building was designed to maintain activity on the site for both day and evening functions with ground floor retail, offices and condos with rooftop terraces stacking vertically. The building is bookended by event spaces and dining areas. The south end of the building features a rooftop restaurant and an open roof terrace with skyline views. The design of the building creates spaces for multiple amenity spaces, which are a mix of public and private. This mix creates a variety of experiences for all building occupants ranging from the residents, the office tenants, and retail visitors arriving by car, bike, or on foot.
At the street level the building is meant to echo both the industrial roots and the smaller brick commercial buildings of the surrounding historic neighborhoods. It features exposed concrete, mixed with darker shades of brick and tall expanses of glass to create a modern, clean aesthetic with traditional materials and detailing. The sun-shading facade elements are both functional and provide facade density at both the lower and upper levels. As the building rises, wood slats are added to the facade to break the sun and to provide a higher degree of privacy to the residential units. The arrangement of the slats into volumes gives the facade a density at both a human scale and across the entire length of the facade. While the materials get more modern as the building rises, the more traditional materials are carried through to the top of the building with the implication that the past carries the present and is not forgotten along the way.