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

Montclair State University Student Center and Quad

SWA/Balsley collaborated with DIG Architects and Montclair State University to reimagine the campus student center, adjacent quad, and connections to the surrounding campus. Through site analysis and project stakeholder meetings, key pedestrian and vehicular circulation routes were identified for resident students, daily commuters, and University staff. The st...

RIT Global Village and Global Plaza

Global Village, a pedestrian-only infill neighborhood adjacent to Rochester Institute of Technology’s academic core, and its mixed-use centerpiece, Global Plaza, create a social heart for 17,200 students and 3,600 faculty and staff. The landscape architects and architects collaborated on an urban design that establishes multiple “crossroads” ...

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...

Universidad de Monterrey Campus Master Plan

The project focuses on improving the sustainability of the 247-acre campus, designing a shift from a vehicular orientation to one that encourages pedestrian, bicycle, and transit use. Site design strategies employ indigenous plant materials and natural water retention and filtration for low-maintenance landscaping. Phase 1 includes site design for one of Latin...

Norton Simon Museum

Since 1975, the Norton Simon Museum has anchored a stretch of Pasadena’s Colorado Boulevard as a defining cultural institution in Southern California. Its sculpture garden — designed by Nancy Goslee Power and modeled after the gardens at Giverny — has long shaped how visitors experience the museum, offering a quiet, green threshold before stepping inside...

UC Davis West Village

UC Davis West Village is a new 225-acre development in Davis, California, that responds to a substantial growth in the number of students, faculty and staff living on the University’s campus. The city of Davis is a unique and cherished community, and great care was taken throughout the design and planning process to pay homage to its history and culture. The n...

Stanford University Campus Planning and Projects

Over the past 20 plus years SWA has been working with Stanford University to reclaim the 100 year old master plan vision of Leland Stanford and Frederick Law Olmsted for the campus. This series of campus improvement projects has restored the historic axis, open spaces and landscape patterns. With Stanford Management Company, SWA designed the Sand Hill corridor...

Chabot College Library & Grand Court

In collaboration with architects Group 4 and HMC, SWA transformed Chabot College’s predominantly paved Grand Court into an outdoor living room at the heart of the 14,000-student campus. The opportunity to reimagine the space came in conjunction with siting, massing, and designing the new iconic, three-story faceted library where the campus’ main walks intersec...