Former shipping containers have started stacking up as future, supportive living options in another mostly overlooked pocket of Atlanta. 

Following a ceremonial groundbreaking in December, vertical construction has begun on the Waterworks Rapid Housing Project in Berkeley Park, another effort by the City of Atlanta and its partners to deliver affordable housing more quickly than traditional construction, per city officials. 

The Waterworks project is being built with modular construction on city-owned land where Green Street meets Reservoir Drive. That’s due west of Midtown, near the intersection of 17th Street and Northside Drive and the city’s Waterworks Reservoir Number Two. 

How modular-style construction is expected to look in Berkeley Park. Atlantica Properties/Partners for Homes/City of Atlanta; designs, Niles Bolton Associates

Looking east toward Midtown, with 17th Street at right, the general location of the new Waterworks rapid-housing initiative. Google Maps

Plans call for two buildings with roughly 100 units total, both standing three stories. An earlier presentation indicates the apartments will be between 192 and 254 square feet for people in the city experiencing homelessness, with wraparound help provided such as mental health services.   

Officials told Axios Atlanta in December each Waterworks unit will include a washer and dryer and other amenities, and that designs call for each building to look traditional, with the modular construction method undetectable.   

To date, the city has completed three projects as part of its rapid-housing push: downtown’s The Melody, a village of former shipping containers; a building rehab in Old Fourth Ward called 729 Bonaventure; and Reynoldstown motel conversion Ralph David House. 

How the two Waterworks buildings are being positioned next to the Skyline West apartments (top right). Atlantica Properties/Partners for Homes/City of Atlanta; designs, Niles Bolton Associates

Typical floorplans for units under construction at the Waterworks project. Atlantica Properties/Partners for Homes/City of Atlanta; designs, Niles Bolton Associates

A fifth project—405 Cooper St. in Mechanicsville—broke ground on its first phase in June. The approach there will be mixed-income, with 100 modular-built units of supportive housing alongside 70 townhomes priced at market-rate, city officials have said. 

The city’s goal is to open 500 new rapid-housing units total—including the Waterworks initiative—by the end of this year. 

[CORRECTION: 11:23 p.m., Aug. 3: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that each new building will include 100 units, instead of 100 units total.]

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