Classical 1920s building in downtown Atlanta is being razed for hotel

In recent days, the final nail came for plans to incorporate a classical 1920s building into a new downtown Atlanta hotel, as heavy equipment moved in and started ripping away walls.

Demolition work is barreling ahead at 524 West Peachtree Street, alternatively called the Rosser Building for an architecture firm once based there.

Standing at the corner of West Peachtree Street and Baltimore Place since 1920, the structure was designed by prominent Atlanta architect A. Ten Eyck Brown for an automobile distributor, and it was once considered part of the city’s “Automobile Row,” a chain of distributors and dealerships.

Permits for demotion of the four-story structure—an estimated $333,000 job—were issued in September, city records show.

Michael Kahn, Curbed Atlanta

City-led plans to protect the building with a historic designation never materialized, but it’s unclear why. An inquiry this week with city spokespeople wasn’t returned.

Following its automobile uses, the building served as the headquarters for Eastern Airlines. In the 1980s, Rosser-FABRAP moved into the building, occupying it until 2012.

Abandoned and in desperate need of repair, the building was sold in 2015.

Plans that emerged last year hinted at a rebirth—an incorporation of the structure into a dual-branded hotel concept. But developments earlier in 2018 suggested that was not going to materialize.

via Kessler; 2017

Drawings released as part of a Special Administrative Permit filing revealed intentions to wipe out the structure in favor of a six-story parking deck.

Standing across from Emory University Midtown Hospital, the project would bring a hybrid Fairfield Inn & Suites/Townplace Suites to 524 West Peachtree, abutting Baltimore Block, paperwork showed.

The project is designed by LPBC Architects, the firm behind a number of hotels including the hybrid Hilton Garden Inn/Homewood Suites on Williams Street in Midtown.

LPBC via CAP

LPBC, via City of Atlanta