BUILDING 500 – THE WORKS

2024 AIA Georgia’s Honorable Mention for Adaptive Reuse

The Works is an 80-acre campus of historic warehouse buildings in West Atlanta currently undergoing conversion into retail, dining, and office spaces.  Our team was tasked with spearheading the adaptive reuse of Building 500 located in the northwest corner of the campus.  An imposing 70,000 square feet, the building presented an interesting design challenge to create an engaging built environment that catered to the needs of modern offices and retail shops.  The approach we took was to boldly carve through the center of the building, exposing the existing structure and creating an outdoor pedestrian corridor that would allow natural daylight to filter throughout the building while provide engaging outdoor spaces.  Standing just outside this outdoor corridor is a steel structure embedded into the hardscape that acts as a wayfinder pavilion, providing shade and drawing attention to the back corner of the campus.  Inspiration for the cladding of this structure was drawn from a curious brick unit used in the construction of the original building.

Photography by Blake Burton and Sean Flaharty