ATLANTA – Another building will be imploded on Sunday morning in metro Atlanta, this one in downtown.
The old Georgia archives building, also known as the “white ice cube,” will be imploded at 7 am.
On Saturday morning, the Hammond Exchange Building near Dunwoody was imploded using 500 pounds of explosives. The 11-story, 250,698-square-foot building, built in 1980, was officially vacated in late 2016.
Atlanta police say several roads will be closed for the state archives building demolition, including:
- Capitol Avenue, SE between Memorial Drive and Fulton Street
- Terry Street, SE between Woodward Avenue and Memorial Drive
- Martin Street, SE between Woodward Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr Drive
- razer Street, SE between Rawson Street and Memorial Drive
- Woodward Avenue, SE between Frazer Street and Martin Street
- Memorial Drive, SE between Capitol Avenue and King Street
The Georgia Archives initially lived in a balcony of the Georgia State Capitol from the time it was established in 1918 until 1930 when furniture titan Amos Rhodes bequeathed his mansion, Rhodes Hall, to the Archives.
The Georgia Archives was moved into Rhodes Hall in the upper part of Midtown Atlanta near the corner of Peachtree and West Peachtree streets at that point where it lived until the 14-story tall "White Ice Cube" building near the Georgia State Capitol was dedicated in 1965. At the time, the Georgia Archives was called the most modern archival facility in the nation.
By the late 1990s, engineers determined that repairs to the building due to ground water issues and nearby freeway construction would be inordinately expensive, forcing officials to seek a new location for an Archives home.
In 2003, the new Georgia Archives facilities opened in Morrow near Clayton State University. By 2004, the adjacent Southeast Regional Branch of the National Archives opened to the public.
The building has remained empty since that point. Officials said after the current structure is demolished, a new state courts building will be constructed, providing a new home for the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court.
