To spot Colony Square, just look for the large, white, modernist skyscraper with its neat rows of small square windows-it stands proudly alongside the street, with its bold, blocky shape catching your eye right in front of you.
Alright, here we are at Colony Square, where the future first got a taste of Atlanta back in the groovy days of the late 1960s and early '70s. Imagine Peachtree Street when bell bottoms were still cool and disco was just around the corner-a time when Atlanta thought, “Why not build the very first mixed-use development in the whole Southeast?” So under the vision of architect Henri Jova, three mighty skyscrapers shot up between 1969 and 1975, each sleek and modern, like rectangles stacked by a giant with a love for geometry.
If you listen closely, you might almost hear the rumble of forklifts and the clatter of construction from the original build. These towers were more than just walls and windows-they were dreams of a "micropolis," a city within a city, where urban professionals would work in the morning, grab a bite for lunch, and maybe even lace up their skates at the ice rink below a sky-lit atrium. Yes, before Netflix binges, people really skated indoors for fun!
The main towers-Colony Square 100 and 400-became home to business jets like the Consulate-General of Canada, internet whizzes like WebMD, and radio voices from Entercom Atlanta, bouncing across the airwaves day and night. On weekends, ambitious types might pop by for a coffee at Starbucks, or try to figure out what kind of food ‘Sukoshi’ means (hint: it’s delicious Japanese), all without ever needing to step outside.
But just as the ‘micropolis’ settled into city life, change came knocking. In 2015, North American Properties scooped up the retail and office space for a cool $164.5 million and decided, “You know what this place needs? More green!” Suddenly, the stuffy old mall was out-and in swept sunlight, open lawns, and a food hall for buzzing lunch crowds. The athletic club, the movie theater, the anchor shops, the busy coworking floors of WeWork and Spaces-each added a new heartbeat to the old complex.
Every brick here tells a story, so whether you’re picturing Canada’s diplomats plotting trade deals, or just someone finally nabbing a prime table at Whole Foods, remember-Colony Square has always been about mixing things up. And if you hear faint sounds of skate blades or disco tunes…well, maybe that’s just the spirit of Midtown reminding you that the future is always under construction.
