The Hinman gets a $9.5M reno and throws a big party!

I went to the grand re-opening on March 30. Every Atlantan interested in design should have been there. It was the total package: architecture, design, historic preservation, LEED Gold retrofit, champagne, and mini-cupcakes.

Ten years of pitching, finagling, designing, building, and preserving, an act of the Georgia Legislature in 2008 and all we got is a GREAT building.

See the 1939 building with the curved roof? Party central without a bad seat in the house.


Inside: The 50-foot high-bay laboratory. It originally housed the Georgia Tech Engineering Experiment Station. Now it's home to the graduate level architecture studios and more.


Some of our current and future architecture stars are in this picture.


Though it's a huge space and hundreds of folks were partying, you could find any number of comfortable places for conversation.

I grinned uncontrollably for two solid hours and it wasn't (just) the champagne or the white chocolate strawberries.

And there I was in the crows nest, where the boss researchers oversaw the un-boss researchers; to my right the suspension bridge, to my left the guillotine door.


This is the suspension bridge. Balconies, bridges, overlooks, gashes, slashes, stairways, just everything and not a bad view in the house.


A view from the bridge looking towards the mezzanine and crows nest.


Even during the party, some baggy-eyed grad students tried to meet their deadlines. Much cardboard and many sharp knives are consumed in this place.


The bridge has a gash for a stair and a whole nest of easels. Wire netting keeps you safe and preserves the light and the view.


A different view wherever you go.


A spiral stair? Why not?


New plywood, old building.


Of course the bridge stair cuts right into a plywood table. Of course. It keeps you from bumping your head.


Preserving the original stair rail was a major goal. Plywood and glass make the view change with every step.

From nearly everywhere in the high-bay atrium you can see this big smile.


It's the perfectly lit, historic traveling crane. Now it holds up the mezzanine bridge.

Who's who?

"Designed in 1939 by P.M. Heffernan, architect and later director of the Tech School of Architecture (1956-1976), the 35,000-square-foot building has been artfully preserved and revitalized in collaboration between Lord, Aeck & Sargent’s Historic Preservation Studio and Office dA as the architects and The Beck Group as construction manager."

Thomas P. Hinman was a dental surgeon, a prominent Georgian and inductee of the International Hall of Fame of Dentistry.	P.M. Heffernan designed the building and became director of Tech's School of Architecture. "After placing first in the 28th Paris Prize of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects of New York, he became an eleventh (Premiere Classe), at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France, 1935 - 38."
Jack Pyburn, FAIA, Lord, Aeck & Sargent’s principal in charge of the project. Mr. Pyburn is an Historic Preservation Architect.	Nader Tehrani , lead designer is professor of Architecture and the Head of the School of Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Alan Balfour is Professor and Dean of the College of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.	Douglas C. Allen is Professor of Architecture and Senior Associate Dean, College of Architecture.

Oh, and want blue and yellow bathrooms?


Congratulations Georgia Tech.
Terry, Class of 1972