1200 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta

Stability Engineering took part in this conversion of an historic 1950s church and adjacent school building into stunning new townhomes and condos. The existing church sanctuary space is used as a shell to house 3-story wood-framed townhomes over the original sanctuary floor slab. Supplementary steel framing and bracing were added in the basement below the sanctuary to accommodate increased gravity and lateral forces due to the new interior framing above. The school building attached to the sanctuary involved removal of the existing roof structure and the addition of a 3rd story for conversion of the building into single story condos. New steel framing and CMU shear walls were added where required to supplement the existing unreinforced masonry. There is also a new 2-story wood-framed addition to the building over slab-on-grade off the existing school that consists of 4 condo units.

Project challenges included the evaluation of the sanctuary and school building for increased seismic and wind loads due to added dead load of framing and 3^rd story addition, and design and detailing of supplementary steel framing required for new gravity loads and changes to the existing load path.