A long-anticipated overhaul for one of MARTA’s largest and busiest stations will take a key step forward in coming weeks, officials tell Urbanize Atlanta. 

MARTA plans to release a Request for Proposals within 45 days for transit-oriented redevelopment of H.E. Holmes station, an important Westside transit hub, in hopes of activating parking lots as mixed-use investments in coming years, echoing transformative work at other stations. 

According to MARTA spokesperson Stephany Fisher, the H.E. Holmes station RFP will seek ideas for including affordable and workforce housing, Art in Transit placemaking, and other “significant community amenities” in the mix, such as a seventh StationSoccer location for area youth. 

On Thursday, the Invest Atlanta Board approved a $175,000 grant from the Hollowell/MLK Tax Allocation District for Soccer in the Streets to help create the H.E. Holmes facility for free youth programming for 200 players, ages 6 to 12. 

According to Fisher, those two mini StationSoccer pitches will take shape in the southeast corner of the station parking lot, adjacent to Invest Atlanta’s i-Village, a retail shipping container village. 

Overview of H.E. Holmes StationSoccer concept announced this month to provide free youth programming for 200 players. Invest Atlanta

An architectural rendering drawn up in 2023 by Chasm Architecture illustrates how H.E. Holmes station's south elevation could look and function. Chasm Architecture

Atlanta-based Chasm Architecture was hired in 2023 as the prime design consultant tasked with reimagining H.E. Holmes station, MARTA’s westernmost train stop. Chasm renderings show the 42,300-square-foot structure remade from “a staid public rail station” into “a unique form expressive of movement,” as the design team has described it. Atlanta-based landscape architects Viridian Studios are also on board with the schematic design scope for initial aspects of the project.

MARTA announced plans in early 2023 to gather public input and begin the process of redeveloping the 22-acre H.E. Holmes station property, located near Interstate 285, into “a diverse mix of land uses” with “new neighborhood centers.” The property today includes dated facilities and more than 1,400 free parking spaces.

Chasm Architecture’s focus is on the station itself, and the firm is designing both exteriors and interiors. The concrete H.E. Holmes structure remains “solidly built” but is “cold and uninviting to the 22,000 patrons who use it daily,” architects noted in a project description.

Plans call for removing much of the concrete to create more transparent structures, including a chrysalis over train platforms and glass curtainwalls that would allow light to penetrate across the concourse, according to architects.  

Example of a crosswalk leading to a more open and inviting transit hub. Chasm Architecture

Chasm Architecture

Opened in 1979, H.E. Holmes station, also known as Hamilton E. Homes, is the last western stop on MARTA’s Blue Line, offering both local and regional bus connections, too.

MARTA has specified that all 22 acres around H.E. Holmes station likely won’t be developed at the same time, as a phased approach would allow for construction to coincide with current transit operations, including parking for MARTA riders. (An H.E. Holmes StationSoccer image distributed by Invest Atlanta this month helps paint the picture of what that could look like; see above.) 

Two years ago, MARTA launched the station redevelopment’s interactive website, distributed an online survey, and hosted several community sessions to gather feedback on the H.E. Holmes TOD master plan. High on the H.E. Holmes wish list for meeting attendees was “higher quality retail” such as a grocery store, improved infrastructure (sidewalks, street lighting, and roads), higher-density housing, a communal greenspace, and sports offerings for youth, MARTA officials said at the time. 

The H.E. Holmes station's context as MARTA rail's westernmost stop, near the I-285 Perimeter. MARTA

H.E. Holmes marks one of five stations MARTA pinpointed three years ago—spanning from Bankhead to Brookhaven and Stone Mountain—as being ripe for redevelopment to create more active uses. So far only Brookhaven has seen its former underused parking lots adjacent to a transit hub remade into a new building. 

In 2022, MARTA led a search for Bankhead station redevelopment proposals that culminated in the selection of a development team, but ground has yet to break on that large-scale vision. 

Redevelopment of the agency’s westernmost station would join other MARTA-led TOD projects from Grant Park to Edgewood and Decatur’s eastern fringes that have transformed parking lots into multifamily housing and other uses. 

H.E. Holmes station is named for Dr. Hamilton Earl Holmes, an Atlantan celebrated for desegregating the University of Georgia, alongside Charlayne Hunter-Gault. 

Find more H.E. Holmes station context and images in the gallery above. 

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