Client/Developer: Equity Office Properties and Cousins Properties

Background
Located at the intersection of Interstate 285—known as The Perimeter—and Georgia Highway 400, Perimeter Center is one of Atlanta’s largest and most important Edge Cities. Once at the edge of metro Atlanta, Perimeter Center is now in the middle of rapidly expanding north Atlanta. The area features a large conglomeration of office and retail development, as well as some residential uses. The transportation infrastructure also includes the city’s MARTA rail line. Despite these successes and advantages, Perimeter Center is built in an auto-oriented and largely haphazard development pattern that threatens the viability and quality of life in the area.

Process
In 2002, Equity Office Properties and Cousins Properties engaged The Center for Connective Architecture at Cooper Carry to design a mixed-use development to be known as Perimeter Town Center. With only two existing office buildings, the site is largely a blank canvas with excellent connectivity to the Dunwoody MARTA station and Perimeter Mall. The Center worked with the clients and stakeholders to design what could become the new model for transit-oriented development in metro Atlanta. The design was coordinated with the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Livable Centers Initiative to support a common vision for the area.

Solution
The vision for Perimeter Town Center gives the Edge City the characteristics that are the hallmarks of great urban areas. The design creates a memorable public realm (including a 60-foot-wide park in the middle of Perimeter Center Parkway), enhances the pedestrian experience, expands the street network, mixes land uses in close proximity, increases density, engages the MARTA station to make it more useful and viable, and connects to surrounding parcels in such a way that the area becomes more than isolated buildings in fields of parking. Among the most important changes will be the addition of residential units. Perimeter Town Center will be a true neighborhood, full of residents who add vitality, safety, and take pride in the place.