Images: Georgia Gold Dome's 'skybridge' connector is taking shape

Not all construction around downtown Atlanta is related to soccer right now.

The gold-topped Georgia State Capitol, one of the state’s most recognizable buildings, is in the process of having a skybridge installed (to the chagrin of some historic preservationists) that’s designed to create better and more climate-controlled access for lawmakers.

Just north of the Gold Dome, across Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, an eight-story legislative office building is replacing two partially vacant, state-owned structures at a prominent downtown corner. 

That 260,000-square-foot office project will include a new parking garage with 500 spaces, all linked via the skybridge to the third floor of the Gold Dome. 

A recent site visit showed that most of the skybridge’s infrastructure was in place, and the important east-west downtown street was still closed with about a week to go before the bulk of 2026 FIFA World Cup festivities start. 

Project leaders the Georgia Building Authority had explored the possibility of creating a tunnel or enhanced pedestrian crosswalk to link the two buildings but determined a bridge was a safer, more secure, and more efficient option. Demolition of the former buildings in the Gold Dome’s shadow started in late summer 2024. 

The new office building will replace a dated, 1980s office stack on the south side of the Capitol that houses most legislative offices and committee rooms today but needs upgrades, such as new mechanical and heating systems, and lacks sufficient meeting rooms, as lawmakers have said. 

The new construction joins major demolition work and Gold Dome upgrades that officials say are long overdue downtown. (State lawmakers have said they’re bursting at the seams of Georgia’s historic 1889 Capitol and the adjacent office building, necessitating the changes.) 

As part of the updates, a fresh, thin layer of actual 24-karat gold was applied to the Capitol dome in 2024. Another aspect of the work will see the restoration of a grand Capitol library that’s been obscured and sectioned into offices under the Gold Dome. 

Other offices built into the building’s original mezzanines will be purged, opening those formerly grand spaces back up, too. 

The cost of the Georgia Capitol redo and new legislative building is $392 million, as paid for with the $36 billion in state revenue lawmakers approved for fiscal year 2024. The budget will also cover safety and security upgrades at the Capitol Hill complex, in addition to $83 million channeled toward preserving the historical integrity of the Gold Dome, project leaders have said. 

Also nearby, Georgia state government in summer 2024 demolished the original World of Coca-Cola (vacant since 2007) to make way for a new surface parking lot next to another state-owned building, the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot events space. 

That project is meant to replace some parking being lost to staging areas for construction crews during the ongoing Gold Dome expansion. 

Project leaders have said current new construction around the Capitol should be finished by the end of 2026.

An earlier, cheaper $208-million proposal to renovate the Coverdell Legislative Office Building on the south side of the Capitol as an overcrowding solution would have created less space—leaving fewer dollars for Gold Dome upgrades—and required that lawmakers work from portable trailers for two years, officials have said.

In the gallery above, find more context and images. 

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