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Atlanta’s former Coca-Cola packaging warehouse was converted into Westside Paper, a mixed-use complex with retail, restaurants and offices. Perkins&Will reorganized the obsolete 250,000-square-foot building by cutting it into three sections and inserting new promenades. Those openings bring daylight, ventilation and direct entrances into spaces that would otherwise have been deep inside a warehouse. The project keeps major pieces of the industrial structure—including its overhead steel armature, masonry walls and steel-and-glass clerestory windows—while adding dark-bronze steel and new Mondrian Stone masonry for a clearly contemporary layer.
What is Westside Paper in Atlanta?
Westside Paper is the adaptive-reuse redevelopment of a former Coca-Cola packaging warehouse on a 15-acre site in Atlanta’s Westside neighborhood. Rather than demolishing the industrial building, the project team adapted it for several everyday uses: retail stores, restaurants and office suites. The result is a campus intended to function as a destination as well as a workplace, with circulation routes that connect tenants to one another and to the changing neighborhood around them.
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The case study published by Building Design + Construction on January 18, 2024, identifies the development as the Westside Paper Mixed-Use Redevelopment. It reports an approximately 250,000-square-foot former warehouse and a 15-acre redevelopment site. The report does not publish a construction cost, an exact opening date, a measured occupancy rate or quantified energy and carbon results, so those figures should not be inferred from the project’s design description.
How was the Coca-Cola warehouse transformed?
The decisive move was to divide the large warehouse into three parts and cut new promenades through the building. Victoria Walsh, AIA, LEED AP, an architect at Perkins&Will, described the strategy as follows: “Our big move was cutting up the warehouse into three separate parts. New promenades through the building allowed natural light, ventilation, and direct entry to the office and retail spaces.”
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That intervention addresses a common problem in industrial conversions. A deep, uninterrupted shed can provide abundant floor area but leave interior rooms far from windows, entrances and fresh air. By creating linear passages through the mass, the designers turned the warehouse’s size into a sequence of more legible addresses. Tenants can be reached from the promenades instead of relying on a single front door or long internal corridors, while visitors gain visual cues about where the building begins and ends.
The promenades also make the old structure readable. Cutting through the building exposes its depth and allows people to experience the relationship between the retained industrial frame and the new circulation system. In an adaptive-reuse project, that kind of spatial change can be more consequential than a new finish: it determines how daylight, air, movement and storefront visibility work every day.
Which original warehouse features were preserved?
Westside Paper retains several elements that communicate the building’s manufacturing and packaging history:
- Overhead steel armature: The large structural and industrial framework remains visible as part of the project’s identity.
- Original masonry: Existing masonry walls provide the primary historic texture and carry the visual weight of the old warehouse.
- Steel-and-glass clerestory windows: High-level windows were kept and painted dark bronze rather than replaced with a wholly new glazing system.
Clerestory windows sit above normal eye level, so they can admit daylight without giving every room a conventional street-facing window. In a large industrial building, that high band of glass can be especially valuable after subdivision: it helps light reach deeper floor areas and preserves a visible reminder of the original roofline and construction.
Preservation here is selective rather than frozen in time. The team kept the pieces that establish scale, material and industrial character, then changed the circulation and tenant infrastructure needed for contemporary occupancy. That balance allows new uses without disguising the building as a new construction made to look old.
What new materials create the old-versus-new contrast?
New construction elements were designed to sit beside, not imitate, the historic fabric. Echelon Masonry’s Mondrian Stone supplies a new masonry surface, while steel elements and the retained clerestory frames were painted dark bronze. The contrast is intentional: the lighter, newly installed stone reads as a contemporary intervention against older masonry, and the dark metal creates a controlled outline around openings and circulation areas.
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Walsh explained the material logic this way: “The light/dark contrast between the Mondrian Stone and painted bronze steel allowed for that clear delineation between old and new.” That distinction helps visitors understand which parts belong to the original warehouse and which parts were added for its second life. It also avoids a frequent adaptive-reuse pitfall—using faux-historic finishes that blur the difference between preserved material and new work.
The palette was selected to harmonize with Atlanta’s emerging Westside aesthetic, according to the project description. In practice, that means the new masonry and metal are contemporary enough for shops, dining and offices but restrained enough to keep the retained brick and steel from becoming decorative scenery. The materials support the project’s main architectural argument: industrial history can remain legible while the building receives a new public-facing role.
Why were the promenades important for light, air and access?
The promenades solve three connected problems—daylight, ventilation and entry—rather than treating circulation as a purely internal convenience.
Daylight: Open cuts through a deep plan create more edges where natural light can enter. High clerestory glazing can then contribute light to the circulation routes and adjacent tenant spaces. The available sources describe the design intent, but they do not provide daylight measurements or a post-occupancy study.
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Direct access: Retail and office tenants can address the promenades directly. That makes entrances easier to find and gives the complex a more walkable, street-like sequence than a single-door warehouse conversion would provide.
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These benefits are mutually reinforcing. A route that is bright and naturally connected is more likely to be used as a public spine; a route lined with entrances gives daylight and ventilation improvements a daily purpose. The design therefore treats environmental quality and commercial circulation as one spatial problem.
Who designed and delivered Westside Paper?
The reported delivery team combined a developer, an architecture practice and specialist engineering and construction firms:
| Role | Organization |
|---|---|
| Owner/developer | FCP (Federal Capital Partners) |
| Design architect and architect of record | Perkins&Will |
| MEP engineer | Barrett Woodyard |
| Structural engineer | Shear Structural |
| General contractor/construction manager | Gay Construction |
Perkins&Will’s dual role as design architect and architect of record put the same practice in charge of the project’s conceptual transformation and its documented architectural delivery. Barrett Woodyard addressed mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems required for offices, restaurants and retail. Shear Structural handled the engineering implications of modifying an existing industrial frame, while Gay Construction served as general contractor and construction manager.
The source does not break out individual scopes, fees or construction milestones for these firms. Their listed roles should therefore be read as the project team identified in the case study, not as a detailed record of every subcontractor or package.
How did the surrounding Westside neighborhood influence the design?
The project was planned while Atlanta’s Westside was undergoing rapid change. Walsh noted that “With the Beltline Spur Trail planned for the abandoned railroad and other neighborhood transitions, the design goal became how to modernize the existing building while preserving its industrial history.” The planned trail connection made movement through and around the site more important than a conventional warehouse frontage would have been.
Walsh also observed, “The neighborhood has rapidly changed with so much residential development moving in.” That context helps explain the mix of uses. Offices provide daytime activity, restaurants extend use into evenings, and retail gives nearby residents and trail users a reason to enter the property. The complex is not described as a self-contained industrial campus; its value depends on becoming part of a neighborhood that is adding housing and public routes.
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The case study reports that the 15-acre location was largely leased to multiple vendors, with only a few spaces remaining at the time of reporting. It does not publish a tenant-by-tenant roster, lease values or a final occupancy percentage. “Largely leased” is therefore the appropriate description of the reported leasing position, rather than a claim that every space was occupied.
What makes this an adaptive-reuse project rather than a simple renovation?
Adaptive reuse changes a building’s purpose while retaining enough of its existing physical and cultural identity to make the previous life matter. Westside Paper fits that definition because a packaging warehouse was reorganized for a fundamentally different program—retail, dining and offices—without erasing its industrial structure and materials.
A simple renovation might update finishes, equipment or tenant layouts within the original logic of the building. Westside Paper required a deeper spatial change: the warehouse was cut into three sections, new public promenades were inserted, high-level glazing and masonry were retained, and new building systems had to support varied commercial uses. The project therefore combines preservation, structural adaptation, environmental upgrades and urban reconnection.
Adaptive reuse also carries uncertainty that new construction can avoid. Existing walls, frames and windows must be surveyed and incorporated; new penetrations must work around what remains; and the final tenant mix can change after design. The published material describes the architectural strategy and team, but it does not provide a complete condition assessment, code analysis or construction sequence.
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What can other warehouse-conversion projects learn from Westside Paper?
- Make a large building legible. Dividing a very deep plan into clear sections can help visitors understand where they are and help tenants gain identifiable addresses.
- Use circulation as environmental infrastructure. Promenades can do more than move people: they can create daylight and ventilation opportunities while improving visibility between uses.
- Preserve a coherent set of historic cues. Retaining the overhead armature, clerestory windows and masonry keeps the former industrial function present without requiring every surface to remain untouched.
- Show the difference between old and new. A deliberate material contrast, such as light Mondrian Stone against dark-bronze steel and older masonry, can make the intervention understandable.
- Design for the changing district. Planned trails and new housing affect where entrances, public routes and tenant uses should face. A warehouse conversion works best when it participates in those connections.
- State evidence limits clearly. Leasing information, environmental performance and cost should be reported only at the level supported by published sources; Westside Paper’s case study does not supply quantified sustainability results or a project budget.
Where can I learn more about adaptive reuse architecture?
For a broader architectural framework, Birkhäuser’s Adaptive Reuse: Extending the Lives of Buildings by Liliane Wong is a 264-page reference published with a 2025 copyright date. The publisher describes it as covering adaptive-reuse history and theory, building typology, materials and construction, preservation, urban design and interior design. It is useful for placing a project such as Westside Paper within the larger discipline, but it is not a project-specific technical report.
The most direct project source remains the Building Design + Construction case study, which identifies the building’s reported size, site area, design moves, materials and delivery team. Readers seeking certified environmental data, detailed tenant information or final financial figures should look for separate owner, architect or project-authority publications because those details are not included in the cited report.
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What is the project’s significance for Atlanta?
Westside Paper demonstrates how an obsolete industrial building can become a neighborhood connector instead of a barrier. Its significance is not simply that an old warehouse received new tenants. The project changes how the building meets people: promenades replace an inward-facing shed with a sequence of accessible routes, while retained steel, windows and masonry preserve a physical link to Coca-Cola’s packaging history.
The approach also reflects the practical pressures of a growing district. Reusing a 250,000-square-foot structure on 15 acres can provide substantial commercial capacity without starting with a blank site, although the available sources do not quantify avoided demolition waste, embodied carbon or operating-energy savings. What can be stated confidently is the architectural outcome: a large industrial shell was subdivided, opened and materially differentiated so it could support retail, restaurants and offices while remaining recognizably industrial.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Westside Paper open to the public, and when did it open?
The cited case study describes the complex’s retail, restaurant and office program and reports that most spaces had been leased, but it does not give a definitive public-opening date or a complete operating schedule. Confirm current access, tenant hours and events through the individual businesses or the property’s current management information.
Does the project have a published construction cost?
No construction-cost figure appears in the supplied project report. Any budget quoted elsewhere should be checked against a primary owner or project-team release because the case study does not establish one.
What sustainability data is available for the warehouse conversion?
The published description explains how promenades, clerestory windows and retained materials support daylight, ventilation and reuse, but it gives no measured energy savings, carbon accounting, water data or certification result. Those design intentions should not be treated as quantified performance.
What does a clerestory window do in a warehouse?
A clerestory is a high-level window band placed above ordinary eye level. In a deep industrial building, it can bring daylight into upper portions of the plan while preserving wall area for structure, storage or tenant layouts.
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