page_title: Architecture of Atlanta
section_title: Firms, Universities, and Organizations
hierarchical_section_title: Architecture of Atlanta / Firms, Universities, and Organizations
caption_attribution_description: The Architecture of peachtree Center, Atlanta
context_page_description: The architecture of Atlanta is marked by a confluence of classical, modernist, post-modernist, and contemporary architectural styles. Due to the complete destruction of Atlanta by fire in 1864, the city's architecture retains no traces of its Antebellum past. Instead, Atlanta's status as a largely post-modern American city is reflected in its architecture, as the city has often been the earliest, if not the first, to showcase new architectural concepts. However, Atlanta's embrace of modernism has translated into an ambivalence toward architectural preservation, resulting in the destruction of architectural masterpieces, including the Commercial-style Equitable Building, the Beaux-Arts style Terminal Station, and the Classical Carnegie Library. The city's cultural icon, the Neo-Moorish Fox Theatre, would have met the same fate had it not been for a grassroots effort to save it in the mid-1970s.
context_section_description: Atlanta is home to the award-winning, internationally acclaimed Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects (formerly Scogin, Elam and Bray Architects). Contemporary practices include BLDGS, Lightroom, Dencity, G+G Architects, Houser Walker Architecture, plexus r+d, Smith Dalia, and Square Feet Studio.  Large firms include Stevens & Wilkinson, Perkins and Will (Owned by Dar Al-Handasah), Collins Cooper Carusi, TVS (Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates), Lord Aeck Sargent a Katerra Company, Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates, and Cooper Carry Inc.
  The Georgia Institute of Technology College of Architecture, located just west of midtown Atlanta offers both pre-professional undergraduate and professional graduate degrees in architecture, and hosts regular lectures and symposia of interest to students and professionals. Kennesaw State University formerly known as Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, a suburb of Atlanta, offers a five-year professional undergraduate degree and also hosts lectures and exhibits works in the architecture building's gallery space.
  The Young Architects Forum of the Atlanta chapter of the American Institute of Architects sponsors open design competitions, exhibits, and lectures of interest to the profession and the general public.
caption: Peachtree Center, exhibiting the contributions of John Portman
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