Georgia Tech is expected to break ground this week on a block-altering, multi-tower project that’s been percolating and undergoing site preparations for more than three years.
A formal groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled Thursday at 828 West Peachtree Street for the third phase of Georgia Tech’s Technology Square, an education, retail, and dining district that opened its initial phase in the early 2000s.
Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera is expected to lead the groundbreaking, with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue, and other dignitaries in attendance.
Tech Square’s Phase III will include two towers totaling 400,000 square feet, with development beginning at the northwest corner of West Peachtree and 5th streets, across the street from The Biltmore.
The project's scope will include an underground parking deck and a large plaza with street-level retail, according to an announcement supplied to Urbanize Atlanta by Georgia Tech officials today.
The lone available, lightly updated rendering for Tech Square's third phase, per Georgia Tech officials. Courtesy of Georgia Tech
Named for philanthropists Penny and William “Bill” George, the George Tower will be home to the highly ranked H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, in addition to other programs, according to Georgia Tech. The second high-rise, Scheller Tower, will house Tech’s graduate and executive education programs in the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business.
The block in question is bounded by West Peachtree, Spring, and 5th streets, and Biltmore Place. It’s one block north of Tech Square’s Coda, a John Portman and Associates-designed office tower.
To set the stage for Tech Square growth, two low-rise buildings fronting West Peachtree Street were razed last year for an interim parking lot. The eastern side of that block was converted into a temporary campus “flex area” for additional parking and greenspace to host outdoor concerts, food trucks, and pop-up restaurants.
Tech officials have said both new Phase III towers are scheduled to open by 2025.
The two low-rise West Peachtree Street buildings demolished in 2021 to make way for Tech Square's next phase. Google Maps
Plans for the Midtown block throughout last fall and winter. Courtesy of Georgia Tech
The first sections of Tech Square debuted in 2003, transforming what had been barren lots on the western edge of Midtown into an education hub on the opposite side of the Connector from Georgia Tech’s campus.
The Fifth Street Bridge Park opened four years later, laden with greenspace, as a means to more safely and pleasantly connect the two university entities.
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