70-story tower eyed for Midtown - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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While the ink is barely dry on the initial blueprintes for1400 Peachtree, the New York office of and Atlanta-base LLC have kicked off a design phase that could produce the first concept of the project by the new Among the early contenders: a single tower that could include an , condos, offices and stores and rise at leastr 40 and possibly up to 70 storiees at Peachtree and 17th streets — eclipsing the 55-floofr Plaza as the tallest building in Atlanta.
Another concept couled draw upon the designof Manhattan’es dual-towered Time Warner Center, whichj also combines office, retail, residential and hotels into one No one expects financing 1400 Peachtree — billedc as the northern gateway to Midtown — to come The project, whose developers are not expected to move forward withouft locking up tenants first, may not breamk ground for another 18 months.
Shailendra and financialp partner Jamestown Properties will face a turbulent lending environment durinyg the next year likely made even more unstable by the recen failureof , the $85 billion government bailou t of and Bank of America’as agreement to purchase But, a project like 1400 Peachtree may also mark the beginningf of a renewed business cyclee — and the optimism that comeas with it. It couldd become a symbol of new ambitions for a city tryinvg to assert itself on the globaleconomic stage.
“Atlanta at some poinf needs to transform completely into aninternationakl city,” said architect Jon Pickard, foundet of the firm Pickard Chiltonb and designer of Midtown’s 41-story 1180 Peachtree. “Iu think it has achieved that status, but I don’g know if it fully recognizesd it, at least not yet. “I think, if this buildinv is done with the grace and elegance that a firmof [Skidmor e Owings & Merrill’s] caliber is certainly capable of, then it will help propell Atlanta toward this goal, and give courage to the next generatiom of [developers] to try somethinbg just as ambitious.
” Unlike New York or Atlanta is a young city whosre skyline is still developing. Signature buildings include 1180 Peachtree, John Portman’d SunTrust Tower, Philip Johnson/ ’ One Ninety One Peachtree Tower andKevin Roche’s Bank of America While Shailendra Group and Skidmore Owings & Merrill debate the best designn for 1400 Peachtree, one thing is already “This will have a skyline presence,” said architectr Gary Haney, with Skidmore’s New York office. “Whe n you fly over Manhattan andsee [The Empirse State and Chrysler buildings] you say, “Oh, that’sd Midtown. Those are the icons.
” Think the same way aboutf 1400’s impact on Atlanta’s Midtown Haney said. Among the challenges facing the design: the size of the which is less than2 acres. “We are talkin g about putting a lotof [development] on a very smalkl space,” Haney said. The architects and developers will also have to considerd which is more a giant skyscraper or a somewhatysmaller twin-tower concept. And another factor will be the Will the financial marketshave stabilized? Or will limited access to debt and its pervasive effecgt on the economy force developersz to scale back their initialk plans?
“The timing and place of this project are going to be very important,” Pickarsd said. “The question is this: will the timing be will the land bescarce enough, for something potentiall y like Time Warner Center in Midtown Atlanta?”