An ‘outdoor living room’ to bring people together
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}

DETAILS

LocationAtlanta, Georgia, United States
ClientPortman Holdings
Size2.2 acres

The Coda building in Technology Square represents a $375 million investment into Atlanta’s budding innovation district – the Southeast’s premier innovation neighborhood. The area has attracted industry innovation centers including AT&T Mobility, Panasonic Automotive, Southern Company, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot, Coca-Cola Enterprises, NCR, and ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas. Encompassing unprecedented collaborative office space, co-working and research facilities, a high-performance computing center, and interactive community space collectively feed the innovation ecosystem created by Georgia Tech and Midtown, bringing together people in a mixed-use community of innovation, education, and intelligence exchange.

In collaboration with John Portman & Associates, SWA sought to vision the project’s public open space – bordered by retail, a high-performance data center, two office towers, and the historic Crum & Forster building – as a local gathering place and outdoor living room for Tech Square and Midtown Atlanta. Its spatial arrangement and location ensure its success as a nexus that uniquely connects the intellectual capital of Georgia Tech with the thriving business community in Midtown Atlanta.

A giant interactive media wall provides a dynamic backdrop to the central space. A linear banquette seat reinforces clear lines of sight through the space. The space allows brilliant thinkers, creative minds, and smart business people to come together, share their points of view, and start a process that leads to the next big idea.

Related Projects

CyFair College

The CyFair College Campus is a model for environmentally responsible development and restoration of a sensitive ecosystem. Located on the suburban fringe of northwest Houston, it is surrounded by the Katy Prairie, an endangered ecosystem of coastal prairie grass meadows marked by groves of trees and connected to a system of wetlands, bayous, and ponds.

...

University of North Texas Frisco

The University of North Texas (UNT) envisioned a transformative greenfield campus in Frisco to support the region’s rapid growth and diverse economic needs. The site’s challenges, including topographical variation, stormwater management, and integration with natural and urban contexts, required a master plan that fostered innovation and sustainabil...

Stanford Hoover Institution Traitel Building

The Hoover Institution at Stanford University is a public policy research organization promoting principles of individual, economic, and political freedom. CAW and SWA collaborated as a design team to create a building and site that helped promote research collaboration through open site connections and workspace.

SWA focused on a site design that exten...

Soka University

When Japan-based Soka Gakkai International, one of the world’s largest lay Buddhist organizations, decided to establish a fully accredited liberal arts university in southern Orange County, SWA joined with the architects to create a setting that expresses the goals of the new university. Soka means “to create value” and the ideal of Soka education is to foster...

Stanford University Terman Park

The removal of an existing building adjacent to the center of Stanford’s campus provided a unique opportunity to fashion an interim park space. The project emphasizes reuse and seeks to utilize salvaged materials as well as the existing grading and fountain as key features of the park. As a multifunctional performance and recreational space, the project ...

CyFair College

The CyFair College Campus is a model for environmentally responsible development and restoration of a sensitive ecosystem. Located on the suburban fringe of northwest Houston, it is surrounded by the Katy Prairie, an endangered ecosystem of coastal prairie grass meadows marked by groves of trees and connected to a system of wetlands, bayous, and ponds.

...

SunCity Takatsuki

Located in a bedroom community midway between Osaka and Kyoto, this facility has both Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing levels of care. The landscape design, complementing the modernist architecture, is organic and fluid with meandering paths traversing various gardens on the south side of the building connecting feature terraces located at each end of the b...

Cañada College Kinesiology & Wellness

In collaboration with ELS, SWA designed a new landmark for Canada College: the Kinesiology & Wellness Center.  The project replaced a windowless 1960s-era gym building and outdoor asphalt yard with the glassy new building and infinity pool deck on this hilltop campus with fantastic views.  The project also created a new campus arrival and ceremonial overlo...