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A welcome addition to Atlanta’s skyline

Atlanta will soon welcome a new 42-story building to its booming skyline: Hilton’s first ground-up Signia by Hilton hotel. Our team recently celebrated the topping out of this project that overlooks Mercedes-Benz Stadium and State Farm Arena.

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1 / 3 (Rendering credit: Gensler)
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2 / 3 (Rendering credit: Gensler)
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3 / 3 The recent topping out of the project.

Once this hotel opens in 2024, visitors will be welcomed with 976 guestrooms and suites, a signature upscale restaurant, soaring atrium bar, the largest ballroom in the state of Georgia, and a rooftop pool. 

The timing of this project couldn’t be better for the city because in a few years, Atlanta will host several matches of what will likely be the world’s biggest sporting event—the 2026 World Cup.  

This event is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of individuals who are traveling to Atlanta to watch a game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and now they will have one more option to stay.

Re-using foundations to improve sustainability

The hotel is located on Georgia World Congress Center’s campus, which provided some challenges for our team during construction.

A portion of the hotel footprint sits on what was previously the Georgia Dome, the old sports stadium before Mercedes-Benz Stadium was constructed.

The existing foundations from the Georgia Dome were designed as part of the foundation systems of this building. These foundations were uncovered, rehabilitated and reused for this project.

There is also an existing two-level parking deck that was repurposed to serve as the base of the lobby, ballroom and other meeting event space for the hotel.

“Anytime you’re reusing something rather than creating it from scratch, it helps the environment. The existing Georgia Dome foundations are comprised of pile caps and other auger cast piles that go down to bedrock elevations. If one of those components wasn't reused, the design would have had to consider adding in a foundation. From a cost and sustainability perspective, you're repurposing and reusing rather than demolishing and having to build a new component of the building,” explains Mark Pasciuto, project executive.

This project, which is seeking LEED® Gold certification, will feature several sustainability initiatives, including a rainwater management system, bicycle facilities and hydration stations to support a zero bottled water policy.

Reaching an impressive safety milestone

Recently, our teams celebrated over a million man hours worked without a lost-time incident—a big milestone for any construction project.

“We’re very proud of this milestone, especially considering that we’ve got 600 workers that are commuting daily to the site right now,” says Veronica Gross, project executive.

Safety has played a critical role on this project, and our team is even beta testing Arrowsight, a video monitoring software that records worksite conditions in real time.

Our team first identifies parameters for safe and unsafe acts—like wearing proper PPE—and then the software utilizes artificial intelligence to determine if an employee is not wearing a hard hat or vest.

That information is then provided to Arrowsight so a technician can review the data that's collected by the system.

If it's validated to be a safety issue, it's pushed over to our safety management team, who reviews it a second time and then can take steps to improve safety on the site.

“Oftentimes, our EHS manager will share the safe and unsafe acts with our project team and the trade subcontractors to improve safety on the jobsite,” says Mark. “On two or three occasions, the system has identified significant issues that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.”

“This tool allows us to have more eyes and ears on the jobsite to monitor unsafe acts. There’s a lot of square footage to cover and only so many people on our site. Our team members are becoming more accountable for their actions and looking out for one another. It’s been a huge benefit for this project,” adds Veronica.

Making a huge impact on the local community

Planning has already begun for the hotel’s grand opening next year, as well as for the World Cup in 2026.

“Georgia World Congress Center is already in meetings pertaining to the World Cup, so this hotel will be a huge asset to the area and the city. They’ve already got a huge backlog of room reservations for the grand opening next year. So, you can imagine what 2026 is going to bring once larger events come to the city,” explains Veronica.

This hotel is not only a huge opportunity for Atlanta, but for Hilton as well. “Their brand is going to be on the building, which you will see every time a game is aired at Mercedes-Benz,” explains Veronica.

Signia by Hilton’s location brings a level of amenities to this area of Atlanta that doesn’t currently exist.

“There's nothing like it in the area right now. There's no hotel or restaurants anywhere around this space. You have to travel several blocks down the street to get to various amenities. This hotel will make things a lot more convenient and walkable for anyone watching a soccer game at Mercedes-Benz stadium or a concert at State Farm Arena,” says Mark.