Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has announced plans for a new parking center and ‘mobility facility’ in the city’s Grant Park neighborhood. The $48 million project, titled Grant Park Gateway, will sit on what is currently an eight-acre surface parking lot that serves Zoo Atlanta.

The new deck will be partially underground and will provide approximately 1,000 parking spaces, more than double the current lot’s capacity. A rooftop park and other vegetation on the structure are intended to help manage storm water run-off and to help the project reach LEED-certified status. A multidisciplinary design-build team led by Atlanta-based Winter Johnson Group and Smith Dalia Architects will helm the project.

“The Grant Park Gateway will be the first facility of its kind in the City of Atlanta, and earned its name because it provides an entirely new way of looking at the entrance to a community,” said Mayor Reed in a press release. “The design benefits the Grant Park neighborhood and respects its history as Atlanta’s oldest park, while addressing parking demands, reducing traffic congestion, and improving the overall safety in the area.”

The parking garage itself will utilize an intelligent parking system that will be able to tell visitors where to find empty spots and help manage some of the traffic jams that have plagued the area. As if the rooftop park was not enough to make the area a destination, a new restaurant, which the Mayor said will highlight local cuisine, will also be placed on the deck’s rooftop for visitors to enjoy.

The Department of Parks and Recreation will host several meetings with the community in the coming months to engage local residents about the project, which is projected for completion in late 2018.

To learn more about the project, you can visit Smith Dalia Architects’ website here.