urban safety analysis, architectural programming, architectural and
engineering services for a day facility for senior citizens.
The center MXD designed was a 5,400 square feet and had an
estimated construction cost of 3/4 of a million dollars.
PROPOSED SITE + LANDSCAPE PLAZA PLAN and FLOOR PLAN
One of the major design challenges of this project was the location
of the site which is in the popular Martin L. King, Jr. Historic District.
The east side of the site (on the other side of Fort Street) was bound
by Interstate-75/85. Fort Street serves as an exit and access road for
the interstate, thus noise, traffic and pollution were major design
factors for the MXD design team.
The major design challenge, however, arose when the site was
subdivided three quarters of the way through the design phase of the
project. Half way through the design process, the 1.3 acre site became
slated for "joint use" to accommodate the senior center by Fulton County
and a plaza (Dobbs Plaza) for festive use by visitors to the M.L.K., Jr.
Historic District by the City of Atlanta. MXD's final design scheme
addressed these challenges with the primary goal of all involved being
the safety and security of the senior citizens. MXD developed an
architectural program with goals and objectives, facts, needs,
programmatic concepts, and problem statements which ultimately
addressed all of these issues.
The final design of the plaza was performed by a firm selected
by
the Corporation for Olympic Development in Atlanta (CODA)
& to minimize cost a
different building design was
provided by a "design-build" construction
company.