Images: How 'iconic' LED tower near Atlanta interstate turned out

After months of construction, an untold number of head-scratches from nearby interstate drivers, and one marriage re-proposal, an LED tower standing over Atlanta TV and film studios that’s been called “iconic” has officially arrived.

As depicted in recent aerial footage and photos, the 140-foot-tall tower clad in LED panels lights up a greenspace at the Assembly Atlanta TV/film studio complex and is visible to Interstate 285 travelers. It serves as a statement piece and towering message board near the main studio entry.

According to Assembly officials, the modernistic spire is the largest freestanding LED screen in North America. (Elsewhere along I-285, the TK Elevator tower at The Battery Atlanta stands 420-feet tall with LED capabilities but includes offices and other functions.)

For context, the Doraville tower stands nearly three times taller than Marietta’s famed Big Chicken—another local roadside landmark—and 23-feet wide. The tower’s purpose is to display news on events, advertisements, and other announcements. The earliest project renderings referred to it as the “Iconic Tower,” meant to make an impression on Assembly Atlanta visitors as they approach the entry just south of I-285.

Meanwhile, Assembly has remade Doraville’s former General Motors plant site into 22 new soundstages resembling a Los Angeles-style studio city.

Backlots have taken shape with distinctive facades designed to mimic brownstones in New York City, a grittier section with exposed fire escapes called “Tribeca,” a fancier district that will stand in for streets in European capital cities, and another area meant to be the French Quarter in New Orleans.

The first Smith Dalia Architects-designed phase alone includes more than 1 million square feet of film-production space—from warehouses to dining halls and bungalows for private production—across 53 acres. In addition to I-285, it’s situated next to MARTA’s Gold Line, about 11 miles north of Midtown.

Another phase-one section is a public-accessible greenspace called Assembly Commons, featuring a 2-acre central lawn and large retaining pond with water jets at the bottom that create fountain effects.

Atlanta-based Gray Television, the project owner and one of the nation’s largest owners of broadcast TV stations, says the studios will be among Georgia’s largest, with the full development eventually claiming 135 acres. It’s being developed by Gipson Company.

GM’s factory shuttered in 2008, ending a 60-year run and leaving the site in limbo for years. Gray bought the property from Atlanta developer Integral Group in 2021, acquired the site’s existing Third Rail Studios a few months later, and launched soundstage construction in 2022. A ceremony was held in early 2023 to mark the end of phase one’s vertical construction. 

Aspects of the project that haven’t moved forward as initially planned include housing, hotel rooms, eateries, and shops. Gray officials in 2023 blamed “macroeconomic concern about real estate,” including supply issues, for bumping back the timelines for developing Assembly’s more traditional mixed-use facets.

On a lighter note, have a gander at the TV/film studio’s flashiest addition to date in the gallery above.

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