State Farm at Park Center
Close collaboration creates a delightful, mixed-use urban center in metro Atlanta.
Project Facts
| Location | Dunwoody, Georgia |
| Owner | KDC Development & Investments |
| Size | 1.6 Million SF |
| Status | Completed 2020 |
| Certifications | LEED Gold |
Overview
Walter P Moore provided structural engineering and parking consulting services for State Farm’s new corporate office, designed as a walkable, live–work–play corporate environment that creates a mixed-use urban center in Dunwoody. The project includes multiple office towers and it fully integrates with the MARTA people mover system, through the help of a new MARTA connector building that provides public transit connectivity.
Services
Challenges
Transit Connectivity
The new MARTA connector building needed to connect directly to the office complex and was constructed in a small sliver between the existing, fully operational North and South rail tracks, without placing additional loads on the track foundations.
Deep Excavation
The design called for a 50-foot-deep basement below the water table, and this required careful soil load transfers after excavation.
Parking Requirements
We had to provide parking for thousands of vehicles inside each tower’s structural grid while preventing overcrowding due to the large volumes of vehicular traffic passing through the garage.
Scheduling
The scale of the complex demanded coordination between multiple independent construction crews working on different parts of the project.
Solutions
Collaboration
Working with other stakeholders, we developed a foundation system comprising a structured slab-on-grade supported by grade beams to transfer loads to micro piles without burdening existing track foundations.
Strategic Load Transfers
Walter P Moore designed the below grade portions of the structure with a permanent shoring wall and strategic tieback de-tensioning sequence to transfer soil loads and address the challenges of deep excavation.
Optimizing Floor Area
We analyzed vehicular throughput and crowding to recommend points of ingress and egress. We also removed columns where possible and adjusted the grid to add more above-grade parking spaces.
Timely Coordination
We brought a sophisticated delivery model to the project and leveraged our expertise to resolve critical construction issues while coordinating with each construction crew.
Results
A Walkable Community
A 200-foot clear span pedestrian bridge connects the towers and the MARTA connector building also links to Dunwoody Station from the office tower’s lobby, providing a level of walkability only seen in city centers.
A Landmark Project
State Farm Park Center houses over 8,000 employees and is the largest corporate office project in Atlanta’s metro history. It gives Dunwoody a mixed-use urban character with transit connectivity.
Efficiency at Scale
The project spans approximately 3 million SF of built-up area with one 13-story tower above 12 floors of parking and 23 and 19-story office buildings featuring above and below-grade parking for over 7,000 cars.
Sustainability
The project earned LEED Gold certification. Optimized concrete mixes and CarbonCure technologies reduced the overall carbon footprint.
Project Team Leaders
