Photos: Wood-boned Brookhaven City Centre debuts (sans rainbow dome)

The first ground-up new city hall in the 13-year history of the City of Brookhaven has officially arrived—just not in as colorful of a state as initially planned. 

Joint venture developers McCarthy + Barnsley celebrated the grand opening last week of Brookhaven City Centre, after having broken ground in October 2023. The $78-million project marks the first mass timber municipal building completed in Georgia, and Brookhaven’s first purpose-built city hall since the city of nearly 60,000 people was incorporated in the summer of 2012. 

As photos provided by developers vividly illustrate, colored glass panels throw unique lighting patterns across the wood-clad interiors at certain times of day, but the same can’t be said for the 58,250-square-foot building’s distinctive white dome. 

Triangular glass panels affixed to the dome were removed earlier this summer when passersby and Brookhaven residents complained they were too brightly colorful—reportedly likening the dome to Magna-Tiles or a circus big top—and city government intervened. Brookhaven Mayor John Park issued a June statement saying the glass tiles weren’t the “muted tones of the city’s signature colors” as intended and that the dome would remain open-air until further notice. 

In any case, the 4047 Peachtree Road building now stands adjacent to MARTA’s Brookhaven-Oglethorpe University Station as the first step in creating a place-defining city center.

It features exposed wood throughout upper levels—offering carbon sequestration benefits, reduced construction waste, and durability, per developers—and concrete for the below-grade, 70-space parking garage. 

The five-story timber building houses Brookhaven’s administrative offices and city council chambers—but roughly 60 percent of it will remain open to the general public, according to McCarthy + Barnsley officials. 

Also topped with a rooftop garden and terraces, the Sizemore Group-designed building features a three-story atrium under a skylight, a sport multipurpose room, a catering kitchen, an Explore Brookhaven visitor store, and a variety of other spaces for public use. Elsewhere on site, a communal greenspace will host public events. It’s all designed to achieve WELL Gold and LEED certification. 

The site in question, where Peachtree Road meets North Druid Hills Road, was formerly a 1.2-acre MARTA parking lot. Brookhaven signed a $13.6-million, lease-purchase agreement with MARTA for the land that will be good for 50 years.

The McCarthy + Barnsley partnership was formed in 2020 between McCarthy Building Companies and Barnsley Construction Group, a women-owned firm headquartered in Atlanta. Brookhaven City Centre marks their sixth project. According to development officials, the new city hall required bringing in a skilled labor force that specializes in mass-timber construction and working with engineered wood in tight spaces.  

“Brookhaven City Center establishes a new standard for municipal design in Georgia, and we're proud to have helped realize this vision," Rob Schulten of Barnsley Construction Group said in an announcement. 

City Centre isn’t the only sizable Brookhaven development to take shape within a few blocks of MARTA.

Charlotte-based developer Terwilliger Pappas has delivered a project called Solis Dresden Village that includes 176 apartments, seven townhomes, and a row of new retail in the 1300 block of Dresden Drive. (That development team has noted their site is about a five-minute walk from the train station.) We’ve asked in recent weeks for an update on retail openings there and will publish a separate story should that come. 

Head up to the gallery for a thorough tour of Brookhaven's new multifunctional city hall.  

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