In Midtown Atlanta, Georgia Tech digs deep for CODA

The old adage says, “What goes up must come down,” but in the case of CODA, there's a lot of going down before it goes up.

Georgia Tech's new high-power computing center + laboratory space + mixed-use development started construction nearly six months ago. But rather than tower cranes jutting from the ground to show for it, a massive pit fills the block between Spring and West Peachtree streets at Tech Square.

Construction crews have dug to new depths—nearly three floors below street level—to prepare for the new high-rise. The soil removed equates to roughly 20,000 dump truck loads.

Michael Kahn, Curbed Atlanta

At the groundbreaking, it was announced that construction would go downward until late spring before the tower would actually begin to rise. Given the progress so far, expect to see work moving in the opposite direction in the next month or two.

When the tower is finally complete in 2019—if plans bear out—it will provide more than 700,000 square feet of space for the university and startup companies, along with high-power computing space. What remains on the site of the old Crum & Forster Building will be transformed into a restaurant, and a new public plaza will connect Spring and West Peachtree streets.

Georgia Tech

• ‘Groundbreaking’ at Tech Square kicks off years of construction for Coda [Curbed Atlanta]
• In Midtown, demolition pending for Coda sites at Tech Square [Curbed Atlanta]
• Mouse Rat - The Pit [YouTube]