Commuters around the country — and especially those living in Atlanta — are all too aware of traffic congestion issues. With this in mind, BellSouth Corporation decided to develop the Atlanta Metro Plan — a plan designed to construct three large business centers near mass transit rail lines to replace or consolidate 23 BellSouth locations around Atlanta. The business centers will total over 3 million square feet and will be located along the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) rail lines at the Lenox, Lindbergh and North Avenue stations. A total of six buildings will be constructed and an additional three buildings have been purchased.

"We're also building parking facilities at four remote MARTA stations — North Springs, Doraville, Indian Creek and College Park — to accommodate about 3,000 of our employee vehicles," says Richard Gilbert, project director for the Atlanta Metro Plan. "The purpose is to encourage our employees to leave their cars at the perimeter and ride MARTA into the business center."

A Need for Change

BellSouth began shaping the Atlanta Metro Plan in January of 1999, according to Joe Chandler, director of media relations for BellSouth, who says that "traffic was certainly an issue then, and our planners had the foresight to see that it wasn't getting better. In fact, 2 years later, it is not better — it's much worse."

"From 1990 to 2000, the Atlanta Metro Area grew 39 percent," notes Gilbert. "Growth is a real issue here in Atlanta and it doesn't appear to have abated. We're trying to position ourselves for the day that traffic congestion forces alternative transportation modes in the minds of our employees. In time, their length of commute will become such an irritant that they will look for other ways to get to work. That's why mass transit is important."

Right now 30 percent of the employees at the company's BellSouth Center on 675 West Peachtree Street use MARTA. "We expect that number will increase dramatically as we get the Metro Plan executed and deployed," says Gilbert.

Make it Convenient and They Will Ride

When deciding where to build its new facilities, BellSouth researched a number of factors, including employee demographics, transportation issues and accessibility to other BellSouth buildings in Atlanta. "We studied more than 50 sites all over town and the geographic center of the employee population happened to be close to mass transit," says Gilbert. He adds that BellSouth wanted to be near mass transit lines to encourage those who need to collaborate or who have meetings at other locations to use mass transit rather than their cars. "Through locating these new business centers near mass transit," he says, "we are helping to do our part to reduce congestion in Atlanta."

To encourage this use of mass transit, BellSouth is offering incentives for employees who use MARTA. One way the company is doing this is through building its own remote parking decks at four MARTA stations. The parking facilities will be free and offer secure, limited access parking for those who opt to use MARTA. In addition, employees will get a subsidy from BellSouth for riding MARTA. "The net cost to each employee who stops at a remote station and rides MARTA to one of our business centers will be about $12 a month," says Gilbert. "So those who find MARTA convenient will be economically encouraged to ride it."

Mini-business/conference centers will also be constructed at each parking deck to provide alternative workspace for commuters. "We're even considering offering other amenities such as a small store where employees can buy staples such as a loaf of bread or a laundromat where they can drop off and pick up their laundry," says Gilbert.

For those employees who opt to drive to work, do not find MARTA accessible or need to have a car to do their work, there is also a contingency plan. For these employees, there will be a limited number of parking spaces available at each site for a fee of $60 per month. Because parking will be limited, Gilbert says the company plans to implement a lottery system to determine which employees get the spaces.

BellSouth is currently hoping to have the remote parking facilities completed before the first quarter of 2003. Gilbert says that this will be the point at which employees will begin to overwhelm the parking at the business centers.

A Whole New Look

Atlanta-based Carter & Associates has been retained as the master developer of the three Atlanta Metro Plan sites. The first building completed in the Plan is 2180 Lake Boulevard at Lenox Park, a 360,000-square-foot mid-rise. Lenox A was fully occupied and completed by the end of May and occupancy began in October. The site is located on 26 acres in Buckhead and is part of a mixed-use development that currently includes three office buildings, a hotel, apartments and single-family homes. BellSouth is constructing these two new office buildings to add to the site, and they will be connected by a series of covered walkways that circulate throughout the park.

Midtown Center Building #1 will be constructed just north of BellSouth Center in Midtown and will begin occupancy in January 2002. Building #2 will begin occupancy around March or April 2003. Lindbergh's East Tower will be occupied by August 2002 and the West Tower by January or February 2003.

Each building in the Atlanta Metro Plan will be filled with employee-focused amenities such as collaborative spaces with laptop connections designed to access natural light, meditation rooms, an area on each floor with space for employees to take breaks and enjoy free hot beverages and a health club. Each floor also has workstations along the building's exterior and offices on the interior core.

"Through several surveys, we asked our employees about the amenities that were important to them," says Gilbert. "By and large, I think we have done a good job in satisfying those requests."

Chandler notes that unlike most office buildings with windowed offices along the periphery of the building, the new BellSouth offices are located at the core of the building. "This means there aren't window offices blocking out the light to the interior of the building," he says. "Our workspace cubicle arrangements fan out from the core of the building to the windows so they are all subject to natural lighting, which gives the floors a very open and unique layout and allows outside light to permeate the building."

"I won't say this has been the most popular arrangement with those who have had private offices with windows before, but it has been very popular with our employees who appreciate natural lighting," says Gilbert. "This is a twist from the environment we have had in the past, and our employees have responded quite favorably to it."

Another feature in the Atlanta Metro Plan will be the use of destination-based elevators. With a destination-based elevator, each person tells the elevator the floor they are going to before they get in. In order to do this, there are digital keypads located throughout the lobby areas where each employee can enter his/her destination floor and then, in turn, will receive a letter designating the elevator cab they are to ride in. When the elevator arrives, the floors it is going to will be lit up, and when the doors close, there will be no buttons. "You won't get on one of these elevators to find every button pushed. This is the express, as opposed to the local bus," says Gilbert.

Other features in each business center include telecommuting stations with plug-ins for laptops in the collaborative areas as well as small collaborative rooms, larger conference rooms and video conference rooms. "We're using much more video conferencing in the Atlanta Metro Plan than in an ordinary building because we believe video conferencing is going to be a way of doing work in the future — it will make businesses much more productive," says Gilbert. He also notes this technology is IP-based. "It has open architecture, it's expandable and it can be tied to other businesses with open architecture. That's the way of the future."

All three Atlanta Metro Plan sites will use the same technology to make each a "plug and play environment." "We have technology in place that allows us to have voice, data and video over the same backbone," says Gilbert. "All three of the sites are protected by a synchronous network ring which allows us to be fairly robust from the service reliability standpoint."

Even though BellSouth is building six buildings on three different sites, Gilbert says that every floor plate is identical. "This allows us to use the same electrical and mechanical distribution systems and the same elevator systems. It also allows us to leverage our procurement," says Gilbert. He says the company has leveraged close to $20 million of benefit to the corporation with the purchasing economies of this plan. He also says that identical floor arrangements will help when employees travel from one location to the next for meetings so that they will feel comfortable and will know where things like the elevators and restrooms are as well as where to go to get a cup of coffee. The company has also taken an interest in the interior design of each floor, and plans to feature themed fabrics developed exclusively for the company. "It really is going to be an eye-popper," says Gilbert. "The amenity package is beyond what our employees have experienced before, and we're pleased with it."

"It is unlike anything that we have ever constructed," adds Chandler. And when asked if he hopes the Atlanta Metro Plan will become a model for other companies, he says, "With this plan, we're doing what is best for BellSouth, what we believe is best for the city, and most importantly, what is best for our employees. And if that is a model that someone else wants to look at, that's great."

©2001 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.