Spoke ATL, a transit-oriented development next to the Edgewood/Candler Park MARTA railway station in Atlanta’s Edgewood community, replaces an underperforming station parking lot with a bridge between two separated halves of the area’s urban fabric.
The community forms the first part of a three-phase development, originally conceived by developer Columbia Ventures in a deal with MARTA. To ensure that the project was ultimately in the community’s best interest, the development and design team conducted a series of meetings with nearly a dozen community groups, as well as professionals and stakeholders.
JHP Architecture / Urban Design envisioned the 224-unit project as a solution to a social problem— namely a large empty space between what the design team found to be “an amazing array of diverse communities.” Spoke not only provides an urban-style connection between these communities, but accommodates current and prospective residents, particularly professionals and families.
To reflect the community’s surroundings and varied adjacent properties, JHP Architecture / Urban Design broke the community mass down into a series of distinct component buildings, ranging up to six stories tall. On its east side, the building has a bent “three-over-two” design—three stories of dark gray exterior façades over two stories of light gray and white—that hugs the adjacent plaza and green space. To the south, facing single-family homes, the building is proportioned to resemble three-story rowhouses with a fourth-story rooftop terrace.
The north and west sides slope down to face the MARTA and an older multifamily project and feature two types of balconies—some with forward-slating solid faces and others set into the façade with full-height wooden screens to deflect rail noise.
Each of the one- to three-bedroom units features spacious living areas and floor-to-ceiling windows. Community amenities include a Peloton fitness center, a saltwater pool, a bark park, a sky lounge, and indoor bike storage.
