Free automated network near ATL airport called “one of the region’s most innovative transit projects”
Another autonomous vehicle test project is officially en route, this time on the southern fringes of ITP Atlanta.
ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts officials broke ground last week on a long-planned Automated Transit Network Demonstration Pilot program, marking what project leaders called a major milestone for “one of the region’s most innovative transit projects.”
The pilot project calls for a free, public, on-demand ATN network that will stretch for ½ mile along a dedicated guideway, linking the ATL SkyTrain at the Georgia International Convention Center to the Gateway Center Arena.
The project will use technology from Glydways, a California-based self-driving vehicle developer.
Example of a Glydways vehicle bound for the 1/2-mile route on the southside. Glydways/ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts
The possibility of autonomous shuttles, buses, or pods zipping around near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has been explored for years. That push echoes alternative-transportation projects underway elsewhere in the metro, such as Cumberland’s forthcoming CAM Network and the Beltline-supported Beep project in Southwest Atlanta.
Near the airport, the goal of the ATN Demonstration Pilot is to showcase the capacity, scalability, and capabilities of such a system in real-world environments, according to project officials.
Gerald McDowell, AACIDs executive director, said in an announcement the pilot will provide “an innovative mobility solution for the future of transportation in our region.” Chris Riley, Glydways chief commercial officer, said the project “will demonstrate how our technology can be scaled and replicated in other communities, creating safe, cost-effective transit options across the country, and globally.”
The 1/2-mile pilot project is scheduled to open for public use in December.
Plans for the pilot Glydways route in relation to Georgia International Convention Center.Courtesy of ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts
Expansion beyond the initial route will hinge on a feasibility study led by MARTA that’s currently underway. Analysts will be closely monitoring the pilot project’s performance, scalability, and system capacity to determine if expansion to other south metro points of interest is feasible, per AACIDs leadership.
AACIDs, a self-taxing district of commercial property owners, comprises the Airport West CID and the Airport South CID and covers a 15.7-mile area across Fulton and Clayton Counties and several cities, including portions of Atlanta, East Point, Hapeville, South Fulton, College Park, and Forest Park.
A rendering illustrating Glydways functionality at the convention center stop on ITP Atlanta’s southside.Courtesy of ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts
A future alternative transit connection between the airport’s domestic and international terminals could also be in the works, AACIDs officials have said.
The logic goes that the service could help solve a primary complaint from international passengers—that connecting to MARTA from the international terminal is too difficult, or what Glydways officials have called a “missing link.”
Only a few large developments are still in the works along 14th Street, a corridor that defined DC’s development boom a decade ago.
Today, UrbanTurf takes a look at the projects planned, delayed or under construction along and adjacent to the 14th Street Corridor. If we missed a big one along this route, shoot us an email at editor(at)urbanturf.com.
After securing all necessary approvals, Eastbanc and Jamestown listed the development site that sits at the Metro station at 13th and U Streets NW (map) for sale last year. The project, which was pitched back in 2022, never got started due to high construction costs.
The approved proposal included a 10-story building with 117-143 new residential units, retail, and 55-67 hotel rooms. There are also plans for 36 stacked duplex units along a “mews” greenspace in the public alley perpendicular to U Street.
Apartments, A Plaza + Dave Chapelle
There hasn’t been much movement of late on plans to redevelop DC’s Reeves Center at 14th and U Streets NW.
In 2023, MRP Realty, Capri Investment Group and CSG Urban Partners were chosen to redevelop the building into 108,000 square feet of new Class A office space for the NAACP and DC agencies, a 24,000 square foot plaza, 322 mixed-income apartments, and a 116-key hotel. The retail space will include a restaurant from Top Chef participant Carla Hall and a comedy club from Dave Chapelle.
A 17,000 public plaza would be named for Frederick Douglass, and the project will provide space for The Alvin Ailey School, the Viva School of Dance and the Washington Jazz Arts Institute. Michael Marshall Design is the project architect.
14 Church
A large new condo development is coming to a block in Logan Circle that helped start the development boom along 14th Street NW over 20 years ago.
Holladay Corporation is set to deliver 14 Church, a 65-unit project at 1455-1457 Church Street NW (map), at the end of 2026. The six-story building, designed by Eric Colbert and Associates, will incorporate the façades of the two existing structures on the site along with the adjacent empty lots. The development will deliver a mix of one- and two-bedroom condos and building amenities include a roof deck, a bike room and underground parking.
In the northwest of Taiwan lies Taoyuan City, a large metropolitan area that hosts the country’s largest airport, serving as the main gateway to the country. Over the past twenty years, Taiwan has been transforming its aboveground railway system into an underground transport network. Like other cities in the country, Taoyuan has grappled with the constraining influence of railway tracks on the development of its city center. Amidst this significant ongoing transformation, there is a strong aspiration to forge connections between the northern and southern parts of the city.
As a pivotal initiative within the two-phase masterplan, Taoyuan Station is set to emerge as the city’s central axis. Located in the old city center, the new Taoyuan Station is a large, covered plaza encompassing commercial spaces, a metro, a bus station, and underground railways. The roof canopy spans three volumes and two voids, which are well-connected to the underground levels. The heavy structural columns are divided into slimmer ones, creating a sense of lightness that supports the large canopy, making it appear as if it is floating above the site.
Taoyuan, known as the Airport City, embodies this spirit with the station’s canopy resembling an origami aeroplane. The soffit pattern, combined with linear lights, creates a dynamic ceiling that captures the attention of the station’s users. Recognizing the subtropical climate of Taoyuan, and as part of Mecanoo’s sustainable and holistic design approach, the canopy provides shade and shelter for the public space. This design seamlessly merges the city and the station, enhancing the public character of the transportation hub.
As a compact and efficient transportation hub, passengers can navigate and move through the station with ease. The central circulation of the station provides access from multiple directions to the platform levels. Lighting and landscape design will help guide people around the station and provide greenery to the urban fabric. Considered a catalyst rather than a destination, the station will provide essential services such as a café, a convenience store, a restaurant, and a souvenir shop. The second phase of the master plan on the east side of the station will house a multi-story building that will provide commercial and office spaces.
Architecture studio HKS and NFL team the Washington Commanders have revealed images of a “monumental” stadium wrapped in a colonnade, set to be built in Washington, DC.
With a capacity of more than 70,000, the Washington Commanders Stadium at the RFK Campus was designed by HKS to be monumental, both in its sheer size and impact on the Washington DC skyline.
It will be wrapped in a white colonnade that recalls the city’s civic monuments including the Lincoln Memorial.
HKS has designed the Washington Commanders Stadium
According to the team, it was designed with respect to the layout of Washington DC – known as the L’Enfant Plan – with deference to the Capitol Building and the RFK Stadium that is currently on the site.
“Every design decision is guided by the significance of place – shaped by its local, regional and national history and generations of memories rooted in RFK Stadium,” said HKS global venues director Mark A Williams.
“Monumental in presence, grounded in the L’Enfant Plan and scaled to the urban fabric of the district, the stadium design will be a bold civic landmark that carries the city’s architectural legacy forward in a way that is confident, dynamic and unmistakably Washington, DC.”
It will be wrapped in a colonnade
Positioned on a roundabout interchange adjacent to the Anacostia River and the parklands of the RFK Campus, the stadium will have a cable-net, anti-clastic glass roofing system.
The shape of the roof “establishes a dynamic yet respectful profile rising to welcome visitors from the north and south while maintaining a lower presence along the east–west axis in deference to the US Capitol and monuments,” according to HKS.
The sleek column system will stand in front of large expanses of glass. Around the roofline, the columns will intersect with a massive bezel-like form that lines the rim of the bowl. The columns will be most likely be made from coloured concrete.
Renderings show a potential lantern-like effect at night, given the large amounts of glass used for the facade treatment.
At the primary entry points on the east and west side, the bowl will dip down to compress a wide glass-fronted entryway. Within the stadium, the field will be sunk meaning visitors enter at a higher plane, similar to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
This entrance will sit on a plinth, reminiscent of other civic buildings in Washington DC.
Hardscape surrounding the stadium will allow for pre-game gatherings and other public events, and the renderings show millions of square feet of development, laid out to adhere to the Perkins Eastman masterplan of the RFK campus, which connects to the river.
The stadium has classical and modern elements
The stadium design has been highly anticipated. Though the Washington Commanders stopped using RFK in the late 1990s, other sports such as football, baseball and collegiate American football were played there through the 2010s, with the George Dahl-designed stadium going out of commission in 2019.
It is currently being gradually disassembled.
RFK’s site has been contentious given the multiple jurisdictions in Washington DC. However, last year, the property moved from being administered by the National Parks Service to the local government, which leased out the land to the Commanders and approved the development plans late last year.
Due to its proximity to the capital, the design has also been the subject of national debate. The Donald Trump-appointed chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), the commission that oversees buildings in the Capital Region, suggested that the stadium should be “classical” at a meeting in December.
A source close to the project said that the decision to have the collonades on the stadium occurred well before these comments, and that the Washington Commanders’ management and architects will work with the NCPC, which has an advisory but not approbative say in the matter.
The renderings suggest an integration of both classical and contemporary elements in the design.
Washington Commanders president Mark Clouse emphasised the focus on football in his statement on the design release, as well as the importance of the structure to the wider community. Community engagement processes requesting feedback for the design are ongoing.
“We’re designing a stadium that amplifies the energy of football, supports year-round events and becomes a place the community can be proud of,” said Clouse. “We look forward to hearing feedback from our community as the design continues to evolve.”
Large windows will sit between the columns of the colonnade
Washington DC’s mayor Muriel Bowser emphasised the proximity to public transport, as well as the job creation attendant to the project.
“These renderings give DC a lot to look forward to – a beautiful and unique waterfront stadium and the return of our Commanders; year-round events that are steps away from an entertainment district and public transportation,” said Bowser.
The Washington Commanders will continue to play at their current stadium in the adjacent state of Maryland until the Washington Commanders Stadium at the RFK Campus opens around 2030.
A plan is in the works to give a boost to the struggling H Street Corridor.
DC’s Office of Planning (OP) along with the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development has picked architecture firm Torti Gallas to conduct a land use and market study for the corridor that saw a huge development boom between 2010 and 2018.
The study will focus on the stretch between 3rd Street NE and 15th Street NE, examining market trends and the possibility for more development and public realm improvements. Torti Gallas will be tasked with “creating an economic development strategy that promotes a vibrant mix of retail and housing while enhancing the pedestrian experience along this significant transit corridor,” according to OP.
The H Street Corridor has encountered significant headwinds in the post-pandemic world. A 2023 article in the Washington Post outlined how increased crime in the area was resulting in a sense of unease among residents, and a number of neighborhood establishments closed as a result. The streetcar, that opened to significant fanfare in 2016, will shut down at the end of March.
Video hosted by Fred Mills. This video contains paid promotion for Snaptrude.
IMAGINE a 200 metre high skyscraper.
It soars 50 floors above Singapore. It must battle against wind loads and seismic forces, requiring some incredible engineering just to stop it from collapsing under its own weight.
The same as, well, any other skyscraper. But what if we add another 200 metre high skyscraper right next to it? And instead of just standing there, they leaned inwards and against each other.
Then we added a few more. And balanced a 340 metre skyscraper on its side over the top of the lot of it.
Quite frankly, it’s insane.
This is the Marina Bay Sands. You may have seen images of it before – It has become the iconic emblem of Singapore.
But the fact that this building remains upright is no less than a feat of engineering excellence. And it doesn’t get enough credit for how game changing it was.
Plus, it’s not done yet.
Getting the world’s attention
To understand Marina Bay Sands, you have to understand Singapore’s ambition.
In the early 2000s, Singapore was already a thriving financial hub. But the country knew that to compete with cities like Hong Kong, Dubai, and Las Vegas, it needed more than just banks and office towers.
It needed attractions. A cultural and entertainment hub that could draw in tourists, conventions, and attention.
The government launched a bold plan: transform the Marina Bay waterfront into a new focal point for the city. At the heart of that vision would be a mega-resort.
In 2006, the contract went to Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Their proposal, designed by starchitect Moshe Safdie, stood out not only for its scale but for its daring design.
Above: Marina Bay Sands started out as a wild idea. Image courtesy of ARUP/Clarice Fong.
Three towers connected by a SkyPark that stretched across them like a giant surfboard. A design many doubted could even be built.
Safdie’s concept was about more than creating an icon. It was about urban integration.
The three hotel towers were sculpted to resemble a deck of cards being shuffled, a nod to the casino inside.
These lean slightly inward, opening toward the waterfront and framing the city beyond.
The towers would then flare at the base, this would have the added benefit of creating a continuous atrium that would go on to connect all three buildings.
Each “leg” of the tower would lean against the other creating a non-uniform, curved form.
Although beautiful, this resulted in an enormous technical and engineering challenge.
Because of the flared design the primary forces acting on the towers were gravitational loads rather than wind or seismic forces like you’d see in a typical skyscraper.
Engineers would have to make sure the buildings wouldn’t just fall over in the wind, but their sheer weight and the way they lean against each other wouldn’t cause them to collapse in on themselves.
Literally on top of that, there was the SkyPark. A vast public space that at 1.2 hectares, was large enough to hold gardens, restaurants, an observation deck, and the now world-famous infinity pool.
It would balance on top of these “flared leg” towers.
Engineering an impossible building
So, from the very beginning, Safdie’s design had one big question hanging over it: could engineers actually make it stand up?
The thing you have to know about Moshe Safdie, is that he loves an impossible building. A building that so defies gravity it could look out of place even in a cartoon.
Just look at the buildings that made him a star. These are the original designs for Habitat 67. Enormous housing structures that, like Marina Bay Sands, leaned against each other.
He carried this in on his further works too, like the Altair Tower and Habitat Qinhuangdao.
But was this audacious design for Singapore even possible?
The first challenge was the site itself. This land right here where Marina Bay Sands was to be built didn’t even exist 50 years earlier.
Above: The land Marina Bay Sands was built on didn’t exist just a few decades ago. Image courtesy of ARUP/Darren Soh.
It was reclaimed from the sea using sand fill. In the 1970s and through to the 1950s enormous barriers were constructed to hold back the water. These were then filled in to create more landmass.
Hardly the most stable ground for three 55-storey towers.
To counter this, engineers had to sink 5,000 piles as deep as 50 metres into the ground. These piles transferred the load to firmer rock and soil beneath the reclaimed land. Without them, the towers would sink, tilt, or worse.
Each pile was carefully tested, and the foundations became one of the largest piling operations in Singapore’s history.
With the foundations in place, construction of the three towers began in 2007. Each tower was built separately, rising in stages from the ground.
But, of course, the towers don’t stand perfectly upright. They lean inward, by up to 26 degrees, in order to create the vast atrium at ground level.
Aligning these towers precisely was critical. If they were even slightly off, the SkyPark wouldn’t fit. Surveyors used laser technology and GPS monitoring to keep everything within millimetre accuracy.
To combat the engineering challenges of the “flared legs” reinforced concrete shear walls roughly 71 centimetres thick at their base were arranged around the towers.
These walls act as the primary vertical and transverse support. Concrete core walls further help resist buckling and support longitudinal stability.
Post-tensioned, flat slabs were placed between shear walls in the floor. This also created greater structural efficiency and allowed for flexible room layouts.
Massive steel trusses on the mechanical level tie the flared legs of each tower together
This again made the structure stronger and helped the towers resist significant shear forces at the transition point.
Because of the asymmetrical design, during construction there were temporary supports and real-time monitoring for each of the towers.
Engineers had to keep a watchful eye on the buildings as they rose.
The infinity pool to end all infinity pools
By 2009, the three towers had topped out at 55 storeys, around 200 metres tall. But the real challenge was still to come.
The SkyPark is the heart of Marina Bay Sands. A 340-metre-long structure stretching across the three towers, weighing 7,000 tonnes of steel, and extending out 67 metres beyond the edge of the final tower.
To build it, engineers divided it into 14 steel segments, each weighing hundreds of tonnes.
These were fabricated offsite, floated in by barge, and then hoisted into place by strand jacks, powerful lifting machines that could slowly pull the sections into position.
Above: The skylark had to be hoisted into place. Image courtesy of ARUP/Darren Soh.
It was one of the most complex lifting operations ever attempted. Each segment had to be placed with absolute precision. If the towers had shifted even slightly during construction, the SkyPark wouldn’t align.
In total there was more than 7,000 tonnes of structural steel lifted into place.
This included 14 prefabricated steel segments, each weighing between 500 to 1,000 tonnes.
First, huge hydraulic strand jacks were fixed to temporary support frames at the top of the three towers.
Steel cables were then threaded through anchor points on the roof and attached to the segments.
Finally, each segment was raised slowly, a few meters at a time, with real-time monitoring of stresses and tower deflections.
The operation often took several days per segment, sometimes conducted overnight to reduce wind exposure and being quite literally blown away.
At 200 metres high, wind gusts could destabilise a segment. Lifts were carefully timed during calm weather windows.
Once at destined elevation, the segment was slid into position and welded to the piece that had been placed there beforehand.
Every single aspect of this operation had to be incredibly precise, to the millimetre.
To pull off this incredible feat, the engineering team took their inspiration for how bridges are built to develop a construction method.
The cantilevered section, projecting out over the city, was the most daring of all.
Engineers had to design an internal truss system that distributed the enormous weight back into the tower. As of today, it remains the world’s largest public cantilevered platform.
Holding it all together is a hidden steel framework running beneath the SkyPark. At its heart are giant box-shaped beams, some nearly three storeys tall, that carry the load of the deck. These are tied together with long steel trusses stretching between the towers, while V-shaped supports rise from the rooftops and connect back into the concrete cores.
This arrangement spreads the forces evenly, counteracts the pull of the cantilever, and keeps the SkyPark steady despite the natural movements of the towers below.
Engineers also had to account for the fact that each of these towers would move slowly and subtly over the course of a day, and indeed over the course of its entire lifetime, due to thermal expansion, wind loads and concrete shrinkage.
In fact, the SkyPark can move up to 20 millimetres every day.
This is something every single skyscraper has to contend with. What most skyscrapers don’t have to deal with, however, is having three separate towers linked together at the top.
To allow for movement without ripping the SkyPark apart, joints are incorporated between each tower. Over 500 hydraulic jacking points are installed beneath the infinity pool to adjust alignment over time.
To counter wind-induced and human-induced vibrations a 5-tonne tuned mass damper is also used.
Of all the features, none captured the public imagination quite like the infinity pool.
At 150 metres long, it’s the largest rooftop pool in the world. Swimming there feels like floating above the city, the water appearing to spill off into the skyline.
Above: Hidden engineering keeps the towers upright. Image courtesy of ARUP/Darren Soh.
But building a pool at that height isn’t easy. The structure had to be divided into three sections, each aligned with one of the towers beneath it.
Expansion joints were added to let the pool flex and shift as the towers move with wind, gravity and even the slow settling of their foundations.
Without these joints, the rigid concrete shell of the pool would quickly crack under the strain. Even the water had to be safely managed: hidden tanks and pumps constantly balance its level, creating the seamless edgeless effect, while keeping millions of litres safely in place.
The pool and the deck of cards towers are such an iconic sight its often easy to forget that, architectural wizardry aside, this is, after all, a hotel running a vast operation.
Across its 845,000 square metres it boasts 2,500 rooms and suites, the world’s largest atrium casino, 1,600 slot machines and 500 tables, a luxury shopping mall complete with canals, two theatres, a lotus flower shaped museum and countless restaurants and bars.
Coordinating all these different functions was a design challenge in itself.
Engineers had to ensure efficient circulation, fire safety, and integration with the city’s transport systems, all while maintaining the buildings’ sleek look.
A skyline completed
By the time it opened in April 2010, Marina Bay Sands had cost $5.5BN, making it one of the most expensive standalone casino-resorts ever built.
The global financial crisis of 2008 hit partway through construction, raising doubts about whether it could even be finished. But Singapore and Las Vegas Sands pushed ahead, convinced of its long-term value.
And they were right. Within a few years, Marina Bay Sands became one of the most profitable casinos in the world. Its convention centre attracted global events. Its SkyPark became one of the most visited tourist attractions in Asia.
Beyond profit, the project achieved what Singapore had set out to do: transform its global image.
Marina Bay Sands gave the city a recognisable icon, like the Eiffel Tower for Paris or the Opera House for Sydney. It became the centrepiece of Marina Bay’s development and of Singapore.
Above: Marina Bay Sands is now one of the most iconic buildings in the world.
Tourism surged. Conventions relocated. Films, music videos, and advertisements used Marina Bay Sands as a backdrop. In less than a decade, it helped cement Singapore as one of the world’s most modern, ambitious cities.
Marina Bay Sands is rightfully considered one of the world’s greatest engineering marvels.
In the hands of a group of visionary architects and engineers it went from an impossible sketch to the most iconic structure on the Singapore skyline.
And it’s about to get even bigger.
The fourth tower
Today, Marina Bay Sands is adding a fourth tower. At 55 levels, the new tower will lean forward, rotated at a 45° angle. It too will have a SkyPark, this time over two levels.
It will also include public observatories and restaurants. Rooftop gardens, private cabanas, yoga zones, and a cantilevered wellness terrace.
Beneath it is a 15,000-seat entertainment arena designed by the minds behind Las Vegas Sphere.
Originally estimated at USD $3.3BN, now bumped to around USD $8BN, it shows how complicated and ambitious this project is.
Safdie already built Singapore its icon, now he’s adding to his masterpiece.
Only time will tell if it will be as successful, but either way – it certainly be as expensive.
Additional footage and images courtesy of Tore Svein Olsen, The Star, Bloomberg, Koon Holdings, URA, MND, Somefromofhman, ARUP, Jenny Lie, Innovez Engineering, and Marina Bay Sands.
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Happy New Year 2026 from edESTESdesign! We wish everyone a year filled with creativity, inspiration, and success. May this new year bring you joy and new opportunities to shine. Cheers to a fantastic year ahead!
IN THE south west corner of the Arabian desert, an enormous trench has been formed. It may look like it was carved out by an alien presence but it is in fact evidence that one of the most ambitious construction projects in history is steaming ahead.
The 200-metre wide trench runs from the Hejaz mountains across to the Gulf of Aqaba. As if that wasn’t enough, a small portion of it contains the start of what will be the biggest set of foundations ever built. Once that concrete has set, the first vertical structures will begin to emerge.
This incredible hive of activity is in fact the construction site of The LINE, Saudi Arabia’s wildly ambitious megacity in the desert. To put it another way, the thing everybody said would or could never be built is actually being built.
Above: Satellite imagery showing construction of The LINE Image: Google.
2026 will be make or break for The LINE. This is where deadlines need to be met and progress will be measured in height, not hype. Regardless of what you think of this mind boggling project, there’s a country with its future invested in it and a leader whose reputation is staked on it.
So, the trillion dollar question: will it ever be built?
Let’s start with the basics. The LINE is Saudi Arabia’s plan for a 170-kilometre linear city, rising to a consistent height of 500-metres. When it’s complete, it’ll form the capital city of NEOM, a vast new region in the country’s northwest, dreamed up by the country’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. NEOM, in turn, forms a key pillar of Vision 2030, a countrywide plan to transition the Saudi economy away from oil dependency by 2030.
Above: An early render of The Line. Image: NEOM.
How is it being built? The initial challenge for any projector of this scale is geology. The LINE crosses wildly varying terrain: hard mountain rock, soft open desert, and salty coastal plains. To build anything across such varied land, you first need a uniform, stable footing.
That’s where foundations come in. The LINE will rest on a subterranean structure known as a piled raft foundation. The “piles” are sunk deep into the earth, along the Line’s footprint. These cylinders of reinforced concrete bypass soft, unstable strata of earth and rest upon the hard bedrock below. The flat concrete “raft” lays on top of these piles and creates a flat, uniform platform to build on.
To pull this off, an automated factory is churning out 32-metre long rebar cages, used to mould and reinforce each pile. Meanwhile, drilling rigs use GPS to precisely bore the holes these rebar cages will be dropped into. A biodegradable liquid is pumped into the holes to stop them from collapsing before concrete can be poured in.
But it’s not just soft earth engineers have to grapple with. Being so close to the sea, this stretch also needs protecting from the highly saline ground water. Left untreated this could rust the steel cages and over time corrode the concrete piles.
To solve this, the world’s largest de-watering system was created. 500 wells were drilled along a stretch of The LINE, each equipped with a water pump at its base. Water is pumped out at a rate of 90,000-cubic metres per hour towards a settlement pond where the quality of the liquid is checked. From there, the water is filtered and pumped out to sea in a series of discharge pipes.
Work on the foundations for phase one is nearly complete which means the project is about to enter its next milestone: going vertical.
On a typical skyscraper, that means building the core. If you’ve ever walked past a construction site, you’ll have seen these go up, they’re not very attractive, but they’re critical to how a skyscraper works. It’s essentially the backbone of the building, and it’s formed by pouring concrete into a mould that gets pushed up by hydraulic jacks.
Above: A typical skyscraper core under construction.
But with The LINE, there’s a twist. Because it’s a city, not a building, it won’t have a 170-kilometre long core that everything sits inside. Instead, it will feature thousands of cores. These will be developed features in their own right but crucially, they will also support a series of decks.
Imagine taking Manhattan’s grid, folding it up and stacking it vertically. These decks are the city’s avenues and the cores are the streets linking each one. This is where the city will come to life. On these decks you’ll find schools, housing, transport, everything you need to make a city function.
Phase one will see 4.8-million tonnes of steel outrigger beams hoisted up to support five decks running through each. Usually on skyscrapers, the steel frame and cladding start to be added before the core is finished. That’s potentially why 2026 could be a huge year for The LINE, because it’s the first stage we can expect to see fast progress.
Above: Steelwork outrigger beams are expected to be installed on The Line’s cores
By Henry Queen – Staff Reporter, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Ten acres in the heart of Downtown Atlanta have sold to a company that envisions an eye-catching project on property that is no stranger to ambitious proposals.
Webstar Technology Group on Wednesday said it closed on the site at the corner of Ted Turner Drive SW and Whitehall Street SW in the Castleberry Hill area. The price was not disclosed, and a deed for the sale has not yet been recorded. Previous financial disclosures said the sale was valued at $33 million.
David Branch and Peyton Stinson with SSG Realty Partners represented the seller, McCall Railroad LLC. Jae Kim with CBRE represented the buyer, a subsidiary of Webstar called Forge Atlanta Asset Management. The firm has said it will sell cryptocurrency tokens to help finance the project. That would not “replace traditional financing, but rather adds a new, carefully structured opportunity,” per the company.
“Closing on the land for Forge Atlanta marks a major milestone in our vision to transform an under‑utilized industrial block into a vibrant, mixed‑use district,” Webstar Technology Group CEO Ricardo Haynes said in a statement. “By integrating traditional real estate financing with compliant blockchain technology, we are opening the door for residents, investors and communities to participate in Atlanta’s growth.”
Webstar, a public company, is valued at roughly a penny on OTC Markets, though it has inched up in recent days. As of Sept. 30, Webstar had $7,789 in cash and a little over $600,000 in total assets — most of which were related to this real estate project, according to a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Phase 1 of Forge Atlanta, as this project has been dubbed, would include a 300‑key hotel, approximately 600 residential condominiums, and about 60,500 square feet of retail and entertainment space, according to a news release. About 1,600 parking spaces are also planned. The condos are expected to be priced from $750,000 to $2.4 million.
The 10-acre Downtown Atlanta site that sold on Dec. 17 is highlighted in yellow.
A September feasibility study from CBRE and Turner and Townsend said the overall plan is to build 950 hotel rooms, over 2,300 condo units, two 300,000-square-foot office buildings, two 100,000-square-foot data centers, two 40,000-square-foot conference centers, a 50,000-square-foot entertainment center and more.
Across all phases, there may be more than 8.5 million square feet of development, carrying a cost of $3.77 billion, according to the feasibility study. Ernst & Young and Develop Fulton projected the full project would create 3,000 jobs (construction and permanent) and generate an economic impact of over $7 billion, Webstar said.
It’s a staggering proposal that raises some questions. Bisnow reported in July that Webstar has left behind a trail of red flags, including nonexistent permits, collapsed land deals and unverifiable resumes.
Some elements of the project may be difficult to execute. In 2024, the city of Atlanta banned new data center development within a half-mile of MARTA stations, and the Forge property is within that distance from MARTA’s Garnett station. Condo development in Atlanta has been limited in the near two decades since the Great Recession. New office construction has plummeted since the pandemic.
Plus, Downtown Atlanta does not typically attract projects of this scale meant to make a profit. The ongoing $5 billion Centennial Yards development is supported by up to $1.9 billion in public financing, which was approved by Atlanta City Council in 2018.
Meanwhile, the nearby revitalization of historic buildings in South Downtown is made possible because of tech entrepreneur David Cummings’ investment, bolstered by proceeds from the growth and eventual sales of his former startups. The project does not need to hit a certain internal rate of return to pay investors or lenders.
“We’re not competing to get IRR returns to go sell the buildings,” SoDo Atlanta LLC CEO Jon Birdsong, Cummings’ business partner, recently told Cushman & Wakefield’s Tim Wright on the Sunbelt Developers podcast.
Develop Fulton did recently advance a public financing plan for the first phase of the Forge Atlanta project. The authority’s board of directors voted in October to approve a $223.7 million bond inducement resolution, resulting in approximately $9.7 million in tax savings over 10 years for Webstar.
A public commenter during the Develop Fulton meeting raised questions about the accuracy of Webstar’s presentation and criticized the company’s lack of public engagement.
In its Dec. 17 news release, Webstar committed to hosting community meetings, workforce development programs and cultural events starting in 2026.
According to the news release, other companies involved in the project include:
Turner & Townsend will provide development management.
Skanska has participated in preliminary discussions and pre-construction planning as a potential general contractor, subject to the negotiation.
Skyline Engineering will provide in‑house oversight and quality control.
Kimley-Horn will serve as the lead engineer.
Nelson Worldwide will lead design.
A ceremonial groundbreaking is projected for mid-2026, and construction of the first phase is expected to last up to three years.
DC leaders discuss transit options for the Commanders’ new stadium.
D.C. council members and transportation leaders met for hours on Wednesday to figure out the best way to get people in and out of the new Commanders stadium.
Planning starts:
We’re just about 14 months away from the start of construction, but the conversation about transportation is well underway.
Leaders repeatedly made it clear that this transportation plan isn’t just for Commanders’ fans on eight or nine Sundays — it’s for the people who live in these neighborhoods surrounding the stadium 365 days a year.
AI Conceptual Illustration
“Even folks who were opposed to the stadium early on, they know it’s coming, so they want it to be successful,” D.C. Councilmember and Chair of the Transportation Committee Charles Allen said.
He says success means a smooth ride for fans and everyday residents.
“It’s not having tens of thousands of people driving cars here. It’s thinking about transportation. Get people on Metro,” Allen said.
“I can imagine there’s going to be a lot of cars and people trying to park, so being able to alleviate that is going to be a benefit to the community,” resident Olo Olakanmi told FOX 5.
Big picture view:
The D.C. Council hearing saw representatives from the D.C. Department of Transportation, WMATA, and the Commanders, as well as ANC commissioners in neighboring communities.
Allen emphasized that this is more than just a stadium — they’re also planning 6,000 to 8,000 new homes, 20,000 people living in a brand-new neighborhood.
AI Conceptual Illustration
As of now, there are two parking garages planned for the Commanders Stadium, expected to hold about 6,000 vehicles. But when it comes to transit, there are several possibilities at play.
Dig deeper:
Metro would need major upgrades to use the Stadium Armory stop — likely including adding an entrance, elevator, and expanding the mezzanine.
A new Metro stop could end up costing hundreds of millions of dollars and take years to build.
WMATA is getting $2 million from the District for planning. General Manager Randy Clarke said that the goal is to have 40% of game day traffic come from public transit.
But that could also include bus rapid transit lines moving people from Union Station to the stadium along the H Street corridor.
“I have confidence we’re all going to work together, and everyone has the same goal here — to make this the best possible urban sports facility and mixed-use development in the country,” Clarke said.
The plan right now is to have shovels in the ground by March 2027 and construction complete by May 2030.
“We want to make this the most transit-friendly stadium but also make sure all modes of transportation are optimized for folks to get there,” DDOT Director Sharon Kershbaum said.
So, a lot of these transit decisions need to be made fairly quickly.
