Second new Shepherd Center building eclipses halfway point

The Shepherd Center is bolstering its footprint on Peachtree Road in a way the Buckhead hospital says will allow more patients and their families to receive world-class care and accommodations. This includes two new buildings lending oomph to the subdistrict’s vertical growth.

As spotlighted on these pages last week, the Arthur M. Blank Family Residences tower is the southernmost of the two buildings. That 160-unit project recently topped out at 1860 Peachtree Road, where restaurants Uncle Julio’s and Ted’s Montana Grill had long stood.  

On the flipside of Piedmont Hospital’s glassy new 16-story Marcus Heart and Vascular Center, the second new structure is well into its vertical ascent at 2060 Peachtree Road on Shepherd Center’s main campus.

The Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation has just finished pouring the eighth floor of 13 total floors that will be occupied, as Catherine Knuckey, a senior associate with project architect and interior designer RJTR tells Urbanize Atlanta.

The building will include a 30,000-square-foot Innovation Institute, and a dedicated clinical lab on site will test new treatment ideas, according to Shepherd Center officials. It’s also expected to add 48 more beds, allowing Shepherd Center to treat hundreds of more inpatient people annually.

The Marcus Foundation announced an $80-million grant to help fund the expansion in late 2020.

“This is such an impactful project for the families who will benefit from it, and Shepherd Center is an amazing organization,” noted Knuckey.

An access bridge is also being constructed to link the Marcus-Woodruff building to the new rehabilitation center. It’ll feature an uplifting quote by the late James H. Shepherd Jr., a Shepherd Center cofounder.

The new buildings are part of a $350-million campaign to benefit Shepherd Center patients and families called “Pursuing Possible,” which is made possible by contributions from Home Depot cofounders and philanthropists Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus. The Shepherd Center broke ground on both buildings in late-summer 2022 on the western side of Peachtree, slotting them among the medical complexes atop so-called Cardiac Hill.

As is, the Shepherd Center provides care to about 900 inpatients and 7,100 outpatients per year. But space and availability constraints mean the facility can provide housing to families for only 30 days—about half the length of patients’ average stays. For now, the center has 84 housing units on campus and 36 more nearby.

The fundraising campaign is expected to continue into 2025—the same year that marks Shepherd Center’s 50th anniversary.

Shepherd Center officials have said both new buildings are expected to open in the latter half of next year.

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