Fresh renderings: Portman’s Midtown towers could link via sky bridge, shared terrace

Once complete, the new John Portman and Associates-designed office towers lining Midtown’s West Peachtree Street could look—and function—like more than three independent buildings.

Comprised of Georgia Tech’s computing center Coda, as well as two office towers to be anchored by healthcare giant Anthem, the two city blocks between Armstead Place and 3rd Street are drastically changing.

“We broke the scale into what looks like a cluster of skinnier towers, rather than one big building with a large floor plate,” John Portman and Associates architect Pierluca Maffey told Curbed Atlanta of 712 West Peachtree, a 23-story tower planned adjacent to the nearly topped-out Anthem building.

712 West Peachtree’s design will mimic that of the building it’s slated to share the block with.

“They’d be siblings, but not twins,” said Ryan Haney, the project manager and a John Portman and Associates architect, noting that 712 would be about 11 feet taller.

The two Anthem towers would also be practically joined at the hip.

According to new renderings provided by the design firm, the under-construction buildings would be linked by a terrace at the eighth floor, and maybe by a sky bridge at the 17th floor, too.

“Many studies were done on this [17th floor] connection, and it hasn’t been solidified yet,” said Portman spokesman Malik Leaphart.

Both buildings will also feature atria linked by staircases “so people can go up and down the building without having to use the elevators,” Maffey said, nodding to similarities to Coda’s “collaboration core,” which boasts the world’s tallest spiral staircase.

Additionally, the Anthem towers are slated to feature parking decks squeezed between ground-level retail spaces and the office space above.

“We focused on raising parking 30 feet above street level to encourage street activity,” Maffey said. “We recessed columns and cantilevered the building to provide more space for people at grade.”

712 West Peachtree could begin vertical construction this coming fall and is expected to be complete in mid-2021.

The Anthem tower at 740 West Peachtree is on track to wrap construction in January 2020, Portman officials said.

This story was updated on May 14, 2019 at 2:02 p.m. to include more comments from Maffey.