Location for

the new facility is at the centerpiece of the planned Gateway Center complex

at Camp Creek Parkway and Roosevelt Highway, a stone's throw from the

main street of College Park. Gateway Center will be a multi-purpose complex

combining the convention and meeting capabilities of the new GICC with

2,000 hotel rooms, a consolidated rental car compound serving Hartsfield,

a people mover and office buildings.

Its proximity

to Hartsfield dictated much of the GICC's building structure, which had

to be both low enough to accommodate low-flying planes and sturdy enough

to withstand and buffet the noise from the hundreds of take-offs and landings

at Hartsfield each day. In addition, after visiting other similar facilities

throughout the US, the GICC's building committee directed its architectural

firm to design something contemporary and cutting-edge.

Starting with

a rectangular box-like structure, the architectural firm of Smallwood,

Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart and Associates, was quickly inspired to add

roundness and dimension to the building.

"Curves

and circles became a pervasive theme of our work, both inside and outside

the building," said Jack Pruitt, the firm's interior design lead

on the project. "By sheer necessity, this building had to have a

lot of hard edges, primarily to make it soundproof, so we added a lot

of circular forms to soften them."

Another restriction

for a building in the midst of Hartsfield's flight patterns is that a

lot of glass is a no-no. "Instead, lighting has ended up playing

a key role," said Pruitt. "And our circle theme extends to the

lighting in the ceiling, where we used cloud-like shapes."

It also extends

to added details in the pre-function spaces of the facility, where large

architectural elements encompass curved wood panel grids with dozens of

smaller circles inside. A giant mobile made by Los Angeles artist Brad

Howe suspends more than 2,000 ovals and other curved shapes in an 80 x

10 x 10 foot space in the Exhibit Hall Concourse, the prefunction area

outside the GICC's grand Ballroom.

Inside the

Ballroom, which is Georgia's largest at 40,000 square feet, circular patterns

are repeated in the ceiling and in the swirling carpet underfoot.

"We intentionally

made the carpet intensely colored and full of shapes, to add contrast

to the neutral wood tones, white walls and metal accents in much of the

building," added Pruitt.

Metal accents

were a natural for the building, both inside and out. "We used metal

sculptures to play off of the materials of aviation," said Pruitt.

"At the entry drive to the new GICC, for example, we placed seven

tall windsail sculptures fabricated in the same way that airplane wings

are made, and inside the building, metal shapes play into the signage

and the commissioned artwork."

Extensive artwork

for the new building was commissioned by the Atlanta firm, EDL & Associates,

from ten artists who live and work in California, Georgia and North Carolina.

Brightly colored paintings, wall sculptures, glass vases and a series

of black and white photography join Howe's mobile.

"The GICC

committee provided a wonderful template upon which to build art,"

said EDL Project Manager Brenda Locke. "Our artists were all quite

impressed with the creative freedom they were given, and I think it shows

in their work."

"We have

taken the opportunity we've been given by the fifth runway to create a

world-class new facility that has many new, cutting-edge and state-of-the-art

features," said Hugh Austin, executive director of the GICC. "We're

immensely pleased with the physical beauty of the building, but also wanted

its features to add to the experience of the meeting professional and

the guests that they bring with them."