East Decatur Station

 

East Decatur Station is a mixed-use adaptive rehabilitation of the former BioLab Inc. buildings located at 627 East Decatur Road, Decatur GA. Several of the buildings that make up East Decatur Station came to life in the early 1900’s as small repair shops or warehouses facing the railroad tracks. These were joined together, added onto and combined with newer buildings in the mid-1900’s to become BioLab's headquarters and research facility. In 2002, the current ownership purchased the site and began the architectural transformation that rediscovered the original buildings. Teamed with RMCA they broke apart the generic corporate envelope, selectively demolished structures and returned the site to a community of small buildings linked with pleasant pedestrian walks and courtyards.

 

Rehabilitations included shell modifications required to improve the leaseability of the buildings for multiple commercial, residential and retail tenants, new exterior entrances, public spaces, canopies, walkways, handicapped ramps, courtyards, trellises and a variety of tenant amenities. The design has been a resounding commercial success for the owners and has established this former seedy industrial area of Decatur as a new center of live/work vitality and as the seed for further redevelopment of the surrounding area.

 

Subsequently the owner has added photovoltaic panels to the south facing entry canopies and exposed bar joists in the new courtyard further enhancing the sustainable concepts behind the adaptive rehabilitation of outmoded industrial buildings.