Title: Atlanta Dairies
Location of Proejct: Atlanta, Georgia
Project Completion Date: November 2019
Firm Name: Perkins and Will

Short Description: For 60 years, the Atlanta Dairies cooperative, with its familiar milk carton sign and Streamline Modern façade, was a hub of commercial activity near downtown Atlanta. The client’s vision for the 10-acre property is to create a new cultural and entertainment destination while preserving the best qualities of the site’s industrial character. Original elements including catwalks, loading docks, concrete structures, and the iconic milk carton sign have been carefully restored and integrated into the new development. The program includes a mix of specialty shopping, dining, entertainment venues, and office space, all connected by green-space and anchored by 300 multifamily apartments.

Architect's Statement: For 60 years, the old Atlanta Dairies cooperative, with its familiar milk carton sign and Streamline Moderne façade, was a hub of commercial activity near downtown Atlanta The client’s vision for the 10-acre property is to create a new cultural and entertainment destination to the area while preserving the best qualities of site’s industrial character.
Original elements such as catwalks, loading docks, concrete structures, and the iconic milk carton sign will be carefully restored and integrated into the new development The program includes a mix of specialty shopping, dining, entertainment venues, and creative office space, all connected by greenspace and anchored by 300 units of multifamily apartments.

The design strategy feeds off the existing network of steel catwalks that bisect the site and that were originally used in the milk pasteurization process. These catwalks, along with a new catwalk spine, become the organizing elements for the site, linking the development together and becoming your guide into and through the site. This spine becomes the axis from which all program elements branch off.

The site is layered in many ways; historically, topographically and programmatically, with new, existing, and adaptive reuse structures. These layers are all connected with these organizing elements. The goal of the site is to take an industrial impervious brownfield and transform it into a pervious park, while retaining the character of and paying homage to the original site. The concrete that currently covers the site will be replaced with plantings native to the Piedmont region, and which would have been around during the site’s peak functioning period. Replacing the concrete from the loading dock, ‘back of the house,’ and other areas of the site with plantings will result in the majority of the site becoming a pervious green space.

Salvaging materials from the site is a large part of the project transformation. Concrete is being repurposed into caged retaining walls, which will also allow rainwater to permeate through. Steel from the site is being repurposed in the furnishings and amenities found around the site.

Also on the site will be a stormwater system, along with strategically placed bioswales, and water retention and infiltration systems.

The design of the two entirely new structures on the site, the new 4-story office building and the 1,800-seat music venue, uses a contemporary façade language that together with the second story addition on the adaptive reuse building, complements the historic Streamline Moderne building. These buildings surround a smaller family courtyard as well as the main plaza that takes advantage of a natural slope to create an amphitheater and a series of terraces that become event spaces for the development.