Downtown Atlanta is in the midst of transformation. As new developments like Centennial Yards rise and events like the 2026 World Cup draw near, many of the city’s existing buildings, especially aging office towers, remain underutilized and overlooked. What role could these structures play in Atlanta’s next chapter?
To explore that question, our team didn’t have to look far. From our office at 303 Peachtree Street in the heart of Atlanta, we found ourselves looking out at Peachtree Center and imagining what it could become. That curiosity led to a full feasibility study and adaptive reuse concept for repositioning Marquis One and Two as a high-performing, mixed-use residential community designed for modern urban life.
This two-part series shares what we learned:
Part 1 introduces the design vision and strategic value of the site, and explores how adaptive reuse can bring new life to outdated assets.
Part 2 dives into the financial modeling, community impact, and broader urban implications, using AI simulations to test the viability and scalability of the concept.
At cove, our goal is to start a conversation with developers, city leaders, and fellow architects about what it really takes to reimagine downtown.
Part 1: The Vision for Mixed-Use Urban Living
What if two aging office towers in the core of Atlanta’s business district could become the spark for the city’s next innovation neighborhood?
Peachtree Center has long been a defining feature of Atlanta’s urban landscape. Designed in the mid-20th century as part of a visionary plan for a walkable, self-contained downtown, it symbolized a new era of growth and ambition for the city. But like many American downtowns, Atlanta’s core has undergone dramatic shifts. Remote work, changing demographics, and evolving preferences have all left once-thriving business districts with more vacancies than vitality. Across the country, developers and city leaders are facing similar questions: what do we do with yesterday’s office towers in tomorrow’s cities?
At cove, we saw an opportunity. Not just to reuse existing structures, but to reimagine them for a future Atlanta. From our downtown office next door, our Atlanta architecture team began a self-initiated study of Marquis One and Two at Peachtree Center. We ran a full feasibility and design analysis, combining deep architectural expertise with our proprietary AI system, Vitras.ai.
Our vision is a vertical neighborhood that meets the moment and projects into the future. Instead of demolition, we proposed adaptive reuse. We imagined transforming the towers into a vibrant, mixed-use development built for modern urban life. The result is a concept that supports over 1,000 new residents, integrates flexible workspace and family-friendly amenities, and delivers a high-performing financial return for investors.
Reclaiming Value in Downtown Atlanta
Marquis One and Two occupy a highly visible and strategically central footprint in Downtown Atlanta. They sit directly adjacent to the Marriott Marquis and connect to Peachtree Center’s recognizable skywalk system. While the broader Peachtree Center complex includes six office towers, retail, and transit links, these two towers are particularly well-suited for resue due to their size, structure, and relative accessibility.
We treated these towers not as obsolete assets, but as foundations for a new kind of urban living. The approach is grounded in adaptive reuse architecture and shaped by our team’s deep local knowledge. This is about more than bringing lights back to empty offices. It is about creating something that supports community and drives value for developers, for families, and for the city.
The Design Concept: A Vertical Neighborhood
The idea of a vertical neighborhood is not just an architectural statement. It is a response to how people live and work today. Across major cities, there is a rising demand for flexible, amenity-rich environments that blend home, work, and community. Younger professionals are seeking housing that aligns with remote and hybrid work lifestyles. Families are looking for convenience and walkability. And cities want to reduce reliance on cars while increasing vibrancy. This adaptive reuse concept brings all of those needs together into a single site.
We envisioned Marquis One and Two as homes for over 1,000 residents living in a vertically integrated environment. The proposed unit mix includes:
728 studio apartments designed for tech professionals, remote workers, and short-term residents
104 two-bedroom units targeting young families and working parents
Rather than a podium tower with retail at the base, this concept distributes key shared amenities throughout the buildings. These include:
Co-working floors with flexible desk and office space
On-site childcare and youth STEM programming
Rooftop community areas for social connection, wellness, and events
Secure bike storage, mailrooms, and fitness amenities on alternating floors
By layering life, work, and learning spaces throughout the tower, we eliminate vertical silos and support spontaneous connection. The goal is not just to increase occupancy. It is to increase energy, vibrancy, and a sense of belonging.
The design reimagines the towers as more than just housing. It restores their relevance through a balance of urban logic and architectural expression.
Why Adaptive Reuse Architecture?
From both an environmental and financial perspective, adaptive reuse offers powerful advantages. It minimizes demolition waste, dramatically reduces embodied carbon, and avoids the high carbon footprint of ground-up construction. In this case, retaining the existing structure avoids millions in demolition costs and dramatically reduces embodied carbon. Structurally, both towers are well-suited for conversion. Their nearly 19,000 SF floor plates and central core configuration enable efficient unit layouts and access to daylight, supporting residential retrofitting without major structural changes. These inherent characteristics reduce the need for major structural interventions, allowing the design to focus on livability, community space, and long-term flexibility.
From a zoning and policy standpoint, the city has shown interest in incentivizing downtown residential growth. Redevelopment of these towers aligns with long-term goals for walkability, housing diversity, and urban vibrancy. When we position this concept within existing policy frameworks and pair it with updated analysis, the design becomes not only feasible but actionable.
Connecting to the Street, the City, and the Legacy
Although the towers are elevated above street grade on Peachtree Street, they occupy a central location in Downtown Atlanta and directly connect to the Marriott Marquis, MARTA, and the broader Peachtree Center network. As part of a cluster of hotels, restaurants, and transit access points, their reuse offers the potential to enhance pedestrian flow and reinforce downtown’s hospitality core. Paired with new street-accessible retail and public realm improvements underway in the district, repositioning the towers could help reenergize adjacent blocks and contribute to a more connected urban experience.
Downtown Atlanta's residential population is projected to grow by more than 50% by 2030, yet much of the existing housing pipeline still targets higher-end developments. Reuse projects like this can help fill the gap with more attainable, transit-connected options.
Peachtree Center holds a distinctive place in Atlanta’s urban history. Envisioned by architect and developer John Portman in the 1960s, it was conceived as a private, mixed-use urban renewal project—a “city within a city”—meant to reinvigorate a declining downtown through a unified district of hotels, offices, retail, and convention space. Portman’s guiding principle of the “coordinate unit” imagined environments where most daily needs could be met within walking distance, connected through elevated plazas and a network of skybridges.
That vision was successful in its time, especially during the 1970s and ’80s, when inward-facing development patterns aligned with national trends in retail and hospitality. But as American cities evolved toward more street-oriented, open public spaces, Peachtree Center’s insular character became a limitation. Its critical mass diminished, and its ability to support the vibrancy of surrounding streets declined.
Our concept builds on Portman’s original ambition, not by recreating the same model, but by reintroducing density, residential life, and everyday activity. By bringing people back to live, work, and gather here, we believe the towers can once again serve as an anchor for downtown, helping businesses thrive and the broader community grow stronger.
A Vision Rooted in Real Possibility
This is more than an architectural idea. It is a real pathway to revitalizing underutilized downtown assets at a time when cities need housing, walkable communities, and reasons for people to re-engage with urban centers. Adaptive reuse projects in cities like New York’s Lower Manhattan, Chicago’s Loop, and Los Angeles’ Historic Core have shown that repositioned office buildings can become catalysts for renewed growth. These models have helped bring people, energy, and revenue back into city centers, and the same is possible here.
It is also a provocation to the real estate world. What if buildings like these were not a liability but the foundation of something much better: an opportunity that is both visionary and financially sound?
What’s Next
In Part 2, we’ll dig into the numbers. We’ll explore how this adaptive reuse concept supports community, delivers strong financial returns, and offers a scalable strategy for cities rethinking downtown development.
For developers, city leaders, and architects exploring office-to-residential conversions, Part 2 will share the financial insights and urban impact data behind the vision.
Stay tuned.