At Atlantic Station, long-planned, timber offices’ launch marks start of major changes

Roughly three years in the making, an office project promising a distinctive look and vibe Atlantic Station hasn’t seen before has officially launched construction, signaling the start of gap-filling ventures that could change the mixed-use colossus’ functionality and feel.

Claiming a 17th Street parking lot that neighbors Target and the Millennium Gate Museum, the T3 West Midtown project might not be massive in scale at seven stories and 230,000 square feet. But its uniqueness, as Atlantic Station owner Hines has long claimed, should make it stand out.

With a blackened steel façade and skeleton of mass timbers, the T3 project (that stands for Timber, Transit, Technology) is meant to pay homage to the site’s steel-mill history while providing “the richness, character, and warmth of late 1800s heavy timber buildings with the advantages of modern, class-A construction,” per a press release from DLR Group, which has led designs with the Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture (HPA) firm.

It’s the second building of its kind, following another T3 build in Minneapolis. DLR is also teaming with Hines on a T3 Goose Island development in Chicago.

Here’s a specific description:

The project includes workspaces and common social areas designed to foster collaboration, camaraderie, and community, as well as 15,000 SF of ground-floor retail space, a fitness center, and rooftop lounge. T3 West Midtown will provide tenants with first-rate connectivity, and has been named the First Wired Certified Platinum New Development in Atlanta.

It’s anticipated to be complete next summer.

HPA/DLR Group

The unique office stack should be the proverbial iceberg’s tip of significant changes at Atlantic Station in the next two years, should Hines’s grand plans pan out.

In addition to the T3 office building and the proposed Atlantic Yards office development (below) alongside the Connector, a 10-story AMLI apartment development at the northern end of the district (where tennis has been staged) and a ground-up new hotel (neighboring The Atlantic condos) are planned. Both are scheduled to break ground soon.

Hines

But projects aren’t relegated to the mini-city’s perimeter.

At Atlantic Station’s central green space, renovations will create a more open feel (say so long to the former Strip steakhouse and possibly the former Rosa Mexicano buildings) and better unite revamped retail spaces with the street as new retailers move in, Hines officials have said.

Expect a spruced-up H&M in time for the holidays, a shiny Forever 21 location, and new dining options, too.

• Atlantic Station overhaul to include apartments, hotel, offices, and retail [Curbed]