How State Farm is leading Perimeter Center’s urban evolution

Across metro Atlanta, cities are aiming to build walkable communities as alternatives to planting roots ITP. Nowhere are those efforts playing out more dramatically than Perimeter Center.

The latest step toward walkability is in Dunwoody, where State Farm is making this suburb more urban with its 2.2-million-square-foot Park Center campus on Hammond Drive.

In addition to buildings planned to rise 22 and 19 stories, the second phase of development at State Farm’s campus will include elements to promote connectivity, according to WABE.

That includes a pedestrian bridge over Perimeter Center Parkway that will connect the first State Farm tower, completed in October, to the Dunwoody MARTA Station and a new pedestrian plaza. Cooper Carry is the project architect, and KDC Real Estate Development does the construction.

The expansion of State Farm’s campus will happen over the next five years.

“Rather than building another suburban office park, Park Center’s design creates a dynamic, walkable community that advances the connective character of Dunwoody,” Bill Halter, principal of Cooper Carry’s corporate studio, told Curbed Atlanta. “Developments to the west along Peachtree Dunwoody Road will also become more connected and walkable, as Park Center’s second phase will provide the corridor with enhanced vehicular connectivity and added pedestrian access to the Dunwoody MARTA Station.”

The campus could also link to a multi-use trail and the proposed East-West connector, which would include plans for more street-front retail, according to WABE.

KDC broke ground on Park Center in May 2014. It’s the largest corporate office project in metro Atlanta’s history, and in coming years, State Farm plans to install about 8,000 employees in the area.

• Massive Perimeter development to go before potential neighbors [Curbed]