Another intown apartment conversion is percolating for a historic high-rise that lorded over downtown Atlanta for decades as the city’s tallest building, according to recent paperwork filed with the city. 

The multifamily remake is planned for the 1920s Rhodes-Haverty Building long occupied by Residence Inn by Marriott hotel at 134 Peachtree St., according to plans filed April 21 with Atlanta’s Department of City Planning. 

Plans call for a phased conversion of almost all floors of the 21-story hotel tower. It's situated just north of Woodruff Park at a location that fronts the Atlanta Streetcar line, less than a block from an entry to MARTA’s Peachtree Center station. 

Phase one calls for converting floors three through 20 into 160 apartments, with no changes to the building’s exterior or height. Eight accessible units with roll-in showers would be included on floors three through 10, per filings. 

The project scope calls for “limited interior unit renovations” and for keeping the hotel’s current infrastructure such as plumbing and life-safety systems in place. 

Peachtree Street facade of the 1929 Rhodes-Haverty Building today. Google Maps

Residence Inn by Marriott's 134 Peachtree St. NW location in relation to Woodruff Park, Centennial Olympic Park, and other downtown landmarks. Google Maps

The property owner is listed in city filings as Irving, Texas-based LLC Grand Prix Atlanta. Questions submitted to the applicant regarding a timeline for the conversion project and other details were not returned as of press time. 

Atlanta-based planning and architecture firm TSW is also listed as being involved in the project. 

For several years, a new Residence Inn by Marriott project has been in planning stages for a vacant downtown corner across the street from Centennial Olympic Park, but it has yet to break ground. Revised plans at that .8-acre site call for 188 rooms in a 14-story new building. 

The Rhodes-Haverty Building, designed by noted architecture firm Pringle & Smith, was completed in 1929 and stood as Atlanta’s tallest building for a quarter-century. It was converted to the Residence Inn in the 1990s and still features restored, original lobby murals by artist Athos Menaboni. 

“Not only the height of the building, but its [three-street façade] siting contributes to its visual prominence,” notes a City of Atlanta summary.  

Looking south, today's Residence Inn by Marriott (center) in relation to, from left, Georgia-Pacific Center, the Candler Building, and Atlanta's Central Library. Google Maps

The building was renovated in 2015 and suffered some fire damages last summer but has continued to operate as a hotel. Current rates start at $156 nightly for a queen suite. 

The hotel stands across the street from the 51-story Georgia-Pacific Center. That landmark tower is planned for a conversion to more than 400 apartments and 80,000 square feet of retail space (reduced from earlier designs) in the first phase alone. 

Other changes at the world headquarters of Atlanta-based pulp and paper giant Georgia-Pacific would include a landscaped, MARTA-connected central plaza spanning about 1 acre and facing Peachtree Street along the Atlanta Streetcar line. 

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