Atlanta's First Condo Tower in Years Could Look Like This

The largest condominium proposal in post-recession Atlanta could set the bar for daring design. Atlanta developers JPX Works plan to build a 23-story tower with about 65 units on the site of a low-rise, circa-1955 condo building that fronts Peachtree Road in Buckhead. JPX is led by Bruce Fernald and Jarel Portman, the youngest of iconic Atlanta architect John Portman's six children. JPX recently sold their Inman Quarter mixed-use development; this new venture is called 2520 Peachtree for the site's address.

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Manhattan-based ODA Architecture, the designers, drew inspiration for the tower from Frank Lloyd Wright's "Fallingwater," and their vision calls for "villas in the sky" featuring large outdoor spaces and just three units per floor, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports.

2520 Peachtree would join much shorter condo projects down the street, including Seventh Midtown (nine stories) and One Museum Place (five). In a way, its emphasis on large balconies and green elements recalls the regaled EVIVA Peachtree apartments proposal, designed by Perkins + Will. Still, not every observer is elated; one anonymous emailer to the tipline called the 2520 Peacthree vision an "atrocity" this afternoon.

Nonetheless, the project received unanimous approval from a Buckhead neighborhood group this week. JPX expects to close on the property in October and launch construction in mid-2016.

· Incredibly gripping profile of Jarel Portman [AJC]
· JPX Works plans 23-story Buckhead condo tower [ABC]