Photos: Check out the transformation of Georgia Tech’s old Engineer’s Bookstore

Now called the Annex Bookstore, the circa-1930s building was saved from demolition

By Sean Richard Keenan@ThatSeanKeenan Oct 4, 2018, 12:45pm EDT

a picture of the renovated bookstore — The revamped Engineer’s Bookstore today, following a needed update.

In the summer of 2016, when word spread that a circa-1930s bookstore near Georgia Tech was to be razed and replaced with a gas station, historic preservationists leapt to save it.

Once called the Engineer’s Bookstore (and a five- and 10-cent store before that), the humble retail building stands on a Means Street corner, just southwest of the school’s main campus, in the Marietta Street corridor.

It took a landmark designation by the Atlanta Urban Design Commission to protect the bookstore—not to mention the Hotel Roxy, Atlanta Contemporary, Allied Factory Lofts, and the Carriage Works—from a seemingly inevitable demise.

But preservation efforts didn’t end there.

This week, JLL shared images with Curbed Atlanta of the building’s primped interior, which is now occupied by the Havas culture and entertainment center and called the Annex Bookstore.

JLL’s project and development services division oversaw the restoration process, with Adaptive Reuse Director Rainey Shane at the project’s helm. (Shane also worked on Ponce City Market and is leading the restoration of Pullman Yard.)

Below, have a glimpse at before and after photos to see how far the decades-old structure has come.