A fixture in the heart of Atlanta’s Buckhead district since the 1950s, Pace Academy has been transformed by a three-story, 36,500-sq-ft addition that contains two music rooms, science and makers classrooms, administrative offices and gymnasium. Combined with renovation of the existing Lower School with new media center and full-service kitchen, the project sustains Pace’s efforts to provide students with a safe, stimulating learning environment using the best available educational tools and technology.

Ensuring the new facilities enhanced the surrounding neighborhood was a top priority as well. Throughout the design process, Pace Academy and its design team repeatedly revised their plan to accomplish these goals.

A constrained construction site on an active campus located on one of the city’s busiest roads presented a host of logistical and safety challenges. Among them were limiting interference with local and school-specific traffic, synchronizing deliveries of materials and equipment to accommodate minimal storage and laydown space and coordinating off-site parking and shuttle service for workers. To keep the project on schedule when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down city inspection services, the project team enlisted a qualified third-party specialist to perform the necessary inspections.