Opening Shot is a column that peeks inside new hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops with dreamy interiors.
FORTH ATLANTA
Location: Atlanta.
Designer: Morris Adjmi Architects, Method Studios, and Stokes Architecture + Design.
On Offer: Atlanta’s history-laden Old Fourth Ward, famously home to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, has been undergoing a gradual yet dramatic revitalization since the 1980s. Galvanized in part by the adaptive reuse of a former Sears distribution center into the shopping mall Ponce City Market and the conversion of a disused rail line into the eastern portion of the bustling BeltLine pedestrian trail, the neighborhood’s energy has never been higher. With the recent arrival of the handsome Forth Atlanta, it now sports a world-class boutique hotel that melds a moody nocturnal ambience with hallmarks of Southern hospitality.
Morris Adjmi Architects contained the 16-floor structure in an exposed concrete diagrid (not unlike Manhattan’s Hearst Tower) that casts artfully oblique silhouettes in the 157 guest rooms and 39 apartment-style suites. The Gotham-esque architecture gives way to warm, cinematic interiors evocative of European and Americana design traditions thanks to abundant handmade wooden furniture, taxidermied foxes, wood-burning fireplaces, and bucolic art by Jack Spencer and Becca Barnet set against dark-stained walnut panels. For the nature-averse, floor-to-ceiling windows frame views of Atlanta’s skyline and the lush Historic Fourth Ward Park’s verdant glow, bringing the outdoors in.