Services Included
Market & Economic Analysis
Mixed Use Strategy
Land Use & Master Planning
Urban Design & Branding
Project Description
Transforming Peachtree Corners into a thriving Innovation Hub with award-winning strategies and cutting-edge technology.
The APA award-winning Innovation Hub Plan recommends planning concepts and strategies that will transform auto-oriented, single-use suburban zones into a mixed-use center of innovation that expands economic opportunity in the community. Working with community leaders and stakeholders, important development strategies and opportunity sites are identified. This includes a continuous loop route linking proposed development nodes and multi-modal connections between them; a network of trails and parks serving the entire community; and appropriate land use transitions integrating and linking surrounding residential neighborhoods. In particular, two intensified “gateway hubs” are proposed along Peachtree Parkway, the major arterial that currently divides the community, infilling a vital mixture of technical and creative office, support retail, residential, hospitality, and civic uses.
Degree of Success: The Peachtree Corners Innovation Hub Master Plan was awarded an American Planning Association award in 2018 by the Georgia chapter. Upon the completion of the Master Plan, the City began work on revitalizing and densifying the 500-acre Atlanta Technology Park with trails, pocket parks, millennial housing, and other amenities to transform the area into an employment hub and centre for the community. In April of 2019, “ASHRAE” the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers announced that they would be moving their global headquarters to the Innovation Hub in a renovated 3-storey building. ASHRAE selected the Technology Park due to its future vision as an Innovation Hub; the non-profit business will use its headquarters as a research & development and showcase for HVAC equipment and technology. Cloudbased software company Brightree also announced a move to the Technology Park in 2019, similarly focusing on the Innovation Hub’s master plan vision as a reason for the expansion to Peachtree Corners.
Major technology companies present include Honeywell, Suniva, Pond & Co., and Global Aviation Co. To launch the rebirth of the Tech Park as part of the Innovation Hub, the City funded the “Curiosity Lab”, a research center focused on self-driving vehicles and transportation technology. Together with the “Curiosity Lab”, partners Sprint, Delta Airlines, and Georgia Power, funded the pilot project for the “Olli” Autonomous Shuttle transit vehicle, which connects to various tech neighborhoods of the Innovation Hub. Georgia Tech University was a key stakeholder in creating the Innovation Hub through its partnership with “Prototype Prime”, in an incubator/accelerator for technology start-ups.
