John Portman’s 1985 downtown hotel, built around one of the tallest hotel atriums in the world: a hollow tower of balconies, glass lifts and a drop that feels almost outdoor. The Marriott Marquis sits on Peachtree Center Avenue in downtown Atlanta. From outside it has the famous “pregnant” bulge.
Inside, the atrium runs the height of the building: two vertical chambers split by elevator shafts and skybridges, rooms stacked like a cliff of windows around a void. When it opened, the atrium was billed as the world’s tallest. Looking down from an upper deck, the lobby becomes a distant floor plan. Looking up, the space keeps going until the roof. Scenes from The Hunger Games films were shot here, and it remains a busy convention hotel; but during off-peak hours the seemingly endless, identical floors and spiralling walkways give a sense of uncanny.
Key features include:
- Seemingly endless atrium that feels like the middle of a portal
- Glass elevators and skybridges
- Stacked balcony rooms around a void
- Strong “futuristic render” atmosphere when quiet
Photo credits: “Marriott Marquis” by Jeff Hitchcock, CC BY 4.0 , “Marriott Marquis Atlanta, John Portman, 1985” by Timothy Brown, CC BY 2.0 , “img_2076.jpg” by Mike Linksvayer, Public Domain Dedication (CC0) , “Marriott Marquis Tower 1 Lobby Staircase” by Sparr Risher, CC BY-SA 2.0 , Tripadvisor
