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

CityWalk Orlando, Universal Studios

Universal City is an urban entertainment destination on the South border of Orlando, Florida; at its heart lies the Citywalk, the gateway for all arriving guests as they enter “Universal Studios Florida” or the “Islands of Adventure” from parking structures. The primary area, containing multi-themed, high-energy clubs, restaurants, bars...

Avenida Houston

SWA and the architect’s narrative of nature and industry united underscores the design of the new 140,000-square-foot (3-1/2 acre) Avenida Houston plaza, adjacent to the freshly renovated George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. Key to the theme of nature as it plays out in this new events space is the famous central flyway that offers hundreds o...

Monet Avenue 2.0 at Victoria Gardens

A decade after completing Victoria Gardens, the owner was looking to refresh the project to keep it relevant for years to come. SWA redesigned a three-block streetscape and plaza along Monet Avenue, a main retail street there. The focus is on the next generation of users, with a shopping environment that highlights the social landscape and blurs the lines betw...

Heights Mercantile

Heights Mercantile is a mixed-use space centered on a bike trail in the heart of the beloved Houston Heights neighborhood. It transformed vacant office and warehouse sites into a community-anchoring redevelopment featuring 16-first-to-market specialty brands and four chef-driven restaurant concepts. As the development’s backbone, adjacent hike and bike trails ...

Kenzo Winery

Kenzo Winery, located in the hilltops of southern Napa Valley in California, is a high end private winery nestled within a larger, 4,000 acre estate. The ecological framework of Napa Valley focuses on maintaining and enhancing the natural beauty of the landscape, while allowing local residents and visitors the ability to enjoy the area and experience the cultu...

Nasu Highland

SWA collaborated with the architect to provide site planning, schematic landscape design and design development for this brand new membership clubhouse facility with an 18-hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., International. The development includes a major arrival entry with a stone podium surrounded by a fountain pool. The clubhouse is surrou...

Heights Mercantile

Heights Mercantile is a mixed-use space centered on a bike trail in the heart of the beloved Houston Heights neighborhood. It transformed vacant office and warehouse sites into a community-anchoring redevelopment featuring 16-first-to-market specialty brands and four chef-driven restaurant concepts. As the development’s backbone, adjacent hike and bike trails ...

2010 Asian Games Village

SWA collaborated with the Guangzhou Urban Planning Design & Survey Institute on a new urban design concept for the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. Situated between mountains to the North and the Pearl River to the South, Guangzhou has a unique condition, which allows for the use of existing water channels for the framework of a new open space network. By abstr...