Updated vision emerges for skyline-altering Midtown tower

Midtown planning leaders reviewed revised plans this week for major construction projects that could make the subdistrict taller, denser, and more pedestrian-friendly.

Most notably, developer Trillist presented updated plans—including a couple of new renderings—for the long-anticipated 1138 Peachtree Street project.

The venture promises a 46-story, residential-heavy mixed-use tower at a nearly one-acre site where a handful of high-rise projects—such as a Mandarin Oriental hotel pitched before the recession—have fizzled over the years, as outlined at Tuesday’s Midtown Development Review Committee meeting.

Midtown Alliance officials noted on Twitter the tower could ascend more than 550 feet, potentially ranking it among Atlanta’s top 15 tallest buildings—and the highest built in more than a decade.

Trillist, via Midtown Alliance

In the works since 2013, the Trillist development, if realized, would feature 317 luxury apartments and about 10,000 square feet of ground-level retail space fronting Peachtree Street and Crescent Avenue, per DRC materials.

It would also include a nine-floor parking deck with 450 spaces.

In typical DRC fashion, the committee’s board members raised concerns about how the parking deck’s facades would fit against the community’s urban backdrop, and about how the retail space would engage passersby.

“The retail space within the ground floor of the Crescent frontage does not meet minimum depth requirements, nor does the elevation meet requirements which specify the appearance of a horizontally storied building for the first three floors,” reads a DRC recap.

Officials also said Trillist and architects at Smallwood need to further assess the pedestrian connectivity between Peachtree Street and Crescent Avenue.

What’s next?

“The DRC indicated a willingness to entertain creative options for the important element of the pedestrian walkway [between the two streets], and it anticipates that the applicant will return with a more concrete proposal for review and comment,” the DRC post reads.

DRC officials also reviewed revised plans for the Campanile building expansion, which is underway just across the street from Trillist’s project, at 1155 Peachtree.

Dewberry Group, via Midtown Alliance

The base of the late-1980s office building owned by the Dewberry Group is now being wrapped in a six-floor, 125,000-square-foot retail podium

“In the podium, new floors will align with the existing floors of the office tower to create office floor plates of approximately 45,000 square feet,” according to the DRC.

Also, expect new terraces on the fourth and sixth floors, which promise “sweeping views of outdoor amenity spaces for office tenants.”

DRC officials’ assessment of the updated plans focused on designs for the “generous public space” near the tower’s front entrance, along with elements related to the streetscape on all four sides of the block.

They suggested revising plans for the 13th Street frontage to include on-street parking and a wider sidewalk.

Dewberry is expected to come before the DRC at a later date with updated plans, too.

Smallwood, courtesy of Dewberry Group