With the design of this mid-rise, mixed-use complex in
downtown Atlanta, comes a reframing of what a sustainable
city looks like when specifically addressing social,
economic, and environmental barriers in an urban habitat.

As in most urban environments today, Atlanta suffers
economically from 20.8% of its residents living below the
poverty line, in turn causing a divide socially between city
dwellers of different classes. Environmentally, there is the
relentless problem of mitigating our impact on the natural
world as our cities continue to grow.

The city’s economic barriers are addressed with expandable
housing modules (allowing spaces to grow as one’s
ability to afford it increases), with set expandable growth
based on location in the tower, guaranteeing people of
different classes live alongside each other in a vertical
neighborhood.

Socially, the physical barriers of walls were removed, or
reduced, in community spaces that otherwise would
further separate people just by function (example: gyms
require memberships).

Environmentally, the footprint of interior space was minimized,
taking every opportunity to overlay green space
with an urban, outdoor experience. This creates a new
programmatic approach to a community space, and maximizes
green space returned to the city.

The tower (or dowel), sits between two, notched arms,
working to draw people into the heart of the site from the
two main roads, while simultaneously framing the MARTA
station.

Structurally, the platform over the stations and in the pool
deck utilizes smaller beam members from locally sourced
trees to create an arch, and inverse arch, minimizing
material usage across long spans. The tower uses a similarly
sized post and lintel construction in an efficiently
sized tower footprint allowing completely open spaces for
the movement of the modules. The modules utilize a cork
brick construction atop CLT decking creating lighter
weight modules for easier mobility.