– per Perkins & Will website:

Located just off the Atlanta Beltline, the Dairies redevelopment transforms a historic icon of Reynoldstown into a new center of gravity for Atlanta’s vibrant Eastside neighborhoods with food, craft beer and shopping.

Like so many postindustrial sites defining the twenty-first-century cityscape, the Atlanta Dairies factory was a skeleton of the intown hub it had been 50 years ago. We saw in that skeleton the spine of a creative urban center that would set the pace of life in the surrounding neighborhood.

Part architecture, part landscape and urban strategy, our design makes the most of the pedestrian-oriented traffic flows the Atlanta Beltline has made possible.

Along with its historic building, the original factory’s docks and network of catwalks were restored to make seamless transitions for people entering from the Eastside Trail up the street. Drawn to the vintage Dairies sign, walkers and cyclists can slip right into a sweet urban plaza that captures the neighborhood’s energy within a pocket-park experience.

Framing the plaza is the historic building, now with a second-story addition, a brand-new office building, and a 2,200-seat music venue. The play of vintage and contemporary facades is a nod to the layered history the client was determined to preserve in this legacy space for the city.