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Atlanta Mid-City Composition in Brick and Glass Completed in 2002, the 10-story structure uses smart, subtle design to beat site, budget, and scale constraints. A curtain wall with a Mondrian-style composition of glass makes up most of the north and south fronts. This mosaic is framed in a grid of exposed concrete. Concrete piers support open space above the base, making the top seven stories seem to float. Brick fronts on the east and west elevations wrap around corners and flow into the longer sides' glass and concrete facades. The massing is topped by a pool deck and a glass-walled penthouse lounge that provides 360-degree views of the city. "Part of the thinking there was to break down the scale — the building is the entire block," explains Brock. "And so by doing that you create an A-B-A sort of overall rhythm on the side, and then within that, a finer grain of rhythm." Walking around building, he notes, you see "a lot of things that overlap and weave in and out." The glass pattern on the longer sides is made from squares and rectangles in common tints. "They're on every spec office building in the country," Brock says. "You're not paying anything extra for that, but when you mix it all up, it looks like more than it really is." The west and east entries have high, glazed storefronts facing busy streets. The windows' bright metal housing is framed by a granite base, and punched brick above that reflects the style of the nearby Biltmore. Above each street-level retail space is an upstairs residence for shopkeepers. Atlanta's granite bedrock prohibited below-grade parking, so three levels of parking were placed above ground and wrapped with a granite base. The scoring pattern on the rock appears random at first, but it repeats. And the pattern repeats again on an interior wall of a spare west lobby. Lofty Interiors Inside any two-story loft on the south side, winter sun floods the narrow overhanging terrace and reaches well into the living room, warming the sealed concrete floor. But in July, when the sun rides higher, the rays' angle stops a lot shorter — a blessing in Atlanta's brutally hot summers. The overhangs made the architects feel more daring in putting expanses of glass on the south side. Inside the MidCity Lofts, there are pale, bare finishes, open metal steps, and a lot of concrete surfaces. But there is no exposed conduit or ductwork, a loft cliche that Brock finds "boring and tired." The color of the terrace railings was chosen to make them economical and relatively unnoticeable. Brock demonstrated his budgetary pragmatism by "using fairly common materials and assemblies in a way that was fresh." "Most of the work we do, unlike the other studios at Lord, Aeck & Sargent, is for private developers," he says. "Which means that we're designing a 'product' — you have to sell it or lease it. If it doesn't work within the economics of the deal, then it doesn't get built." This site was very expensive to build on, so there are few "structural gymnastics" or "interior design flourishes." Interior hallways run nearly the length of a city block, and could have resembled an endless, generic motel corridor. But high, blacked-out ceilings and a pattern of exposed concrete cylinders are balanced by a repeating carpet pattern. A bright light over each door is followed by three dimmer spots in between. The effect adds a little mystery, breaking up the length and sameness. Three years ago the lofts rose from a nearly blank sea of concrete and asphalt, mostly parking lots. Today, the neighborhood is full of construction cranes. Georgia Tech has added a new college of management; there are lots of sidewalks and more private retail. The old 5th Street bridge is being demolished and rebuilt over 10 lanes of freeway to include trees, benches, broad sidewalks, and even a park-like stretch of sod. Brock says the MidCity Lofts building could conceivably serve any number of uses, which aligns with the firm's commitment to adaptive reuse and mixed-use projects. He and his colleagues are currently designing similar projects in other Southern cities, where they are making renovation and infill fit the history and feel of local sites. On an early spring day, there are pedestrians headed toward the bookstore in the next block. The lofts' cafe has deployed outdoor heaters; the business crowd is eating lunch and reading the newspaper. Next door, the art gallery is open. When MidCity was built, there was little vernacular inspiration. Three years later, in a city built for cars, an urban stroll seems like a pleasant idea. >>> Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum... Lisa Ashmore is a freelance writer based in Atlanta and managing editor of the monthly architectural journal, DesignIntelligence.
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