Georgia Plans First-of-a-Kind Archives Campus

ATLANTA-Georgia’s historical records and documents from Colonial times is getting a new home in summer 2002 near Clayton State University in Clayton County, just south of Downtown.

The 172,000-sf complex will be built for the Georgia Department of Archives and History on a 21-acre site at an estimated hard construction cost of $25 million or about $150 per sf, area construction industry estimators tell GlobeSt.com. State officials couldn’t be reached to learn the project’s budgeted cost or a tentative ground-breaking date.

Gateway Development and the University Financing Foundation are jointly handling construction and project administration details. The Atlanta office of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum is designing the facility.

In a prepared statement, Paul Woolford, HOK Atlanta’s director of design, calls the venture “the first archives campus of its kind in the United States.” HOK’s Mike Miller and Nathaniel Berger are working with Woolford on the project’s design.

The facility will comprise public refeence areas; microfilm and original document reading rooms; exhibition and gallery areas; public training and class rooms; records and microfilm storage vaults; administrative office; and conservation and preservation areas.