Piedmont Hospital tower begins rising along Peachtree Road

Plans have been in the works for more than two years to expand Piedmont Hospital’s Buckhead campus with the addition of a $500 million medical tower.

Now, after a year of site prep following the demolition of a midcentury building along Peachtree Road, vertical construction is beginning on the new Marcus Heart and Vascular Center.

When the first phase of the 16-story tower is complete in 2020, the facility will provide 132 new hospital beds.

Over the course of the subsequent six years, interior work will complete a new floor each year, ultimately increasing the tower to its final capacity of 408 patient beds and 10 operating rooms in 2026, officials have said.

The new building will dramatically change the hospital campus, which once fronted Atlanta’s main thoroughfare with a grove of mature trees. The curving glass tower will lend a decidedly more urban appearance to one of the city’s largest medical facilities.

So far, work has only just reached above the Peachtree Street level of the building, rising from a big pit along Collier Road. Expect the concrete structure to grow dramatically in coming months.

• With trees, building toppled, Piedmont Hospital starts work on flashy new tower [Curbed Atlanta]