Project Category: Restoration + Rehabilitation

Savannah City Hall

Arcollab, in partnership with Ethos Preservation, led the restoration of Savannah City Hall’s most significant public interiors as part of a once-in-a-generation effort to preserve one of Georgia’s most iconic civil landmarks.

Completed in 1906 and continuously occupied since its opening, Savannah City Hall remains the center of municipal government, housing the offices of the Mayor, City Council, Clerk of Council, City Attorney, and city Manager. The building also contains the Municipal Archives, which preserves and exhibits many of Savannah’s most important historical documents and artifacts.

Designed by Savannah architect Hyman Witcover, the monumental Beaux-Arts building commands a prominent position overlooking the historic waterfront. Its richly detailed interiors feature extensive marble, mosaic tile, stained oak, mahogany millwork, and ornamental plasterwork. The generous use of electric lighting throughout the public spaces reflected Savannah’s aspirations as a progressive twentieth-century city.

The restoration balanced the stewardship of these historic interiors with the functional requirements of a modern municipal building. Work included the restoration of the entry lobby, four-story rotunda, City Council Chamber, grand stair hall, and the Municipal Archives offices and History Room, all while integrating necessary building systems improvements.

Serving as the Architect of Record, Arcollab led the design team in developing restoration strategies, master planning, HVAC modernization, structural repairs, and interior design. In the Municipal Archives History Room, originally the Treasurer’s public office, Arcollab directed the removal of modern finishes and restoration of original details beneath which had been damaged or stripped through years of changing usage. Led both by documentation of the room’s original features and modern need for museum-level exhibits and presentation space, Arcollab designed custom millwork which replicated the original Treasurer’s teller counter while also providing ample room for artifact display and storage.The thoughtfully-detailed and carefully crafted rehabilitation of City Hall ensured that the building’s historic character was preserved while supporting its continued use asSavannah’s governmental civic center.

August 7, 2026
Bell Hotel

Originally designed by prominent Atlanta architect P. Thornton Marye, the building that now houses the Bell Hotel was constructed in 1916 by theSouthern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company as Athens’ first purpose-built telephone exchange. Arcollab’s research located the building’s original construction drawings, which became an important resource in documenting existing conditions and developing the rehabilitation scope.

Selective exploratory demolition exposed earlier construction concealed by accumulated non-historic finishes and allowed the team to determine the extent of surviving historic interior fabric. Forensic investigation of the building’s brick masonry and glazed terra cotta also informed the development of appropriate repair treatments.

Arcollab performed an in-depth building code, life-safety, and accessibility analysis to establish a strategy for accommodating the proposed new uses while making effective use of the existing building and its infrastructure. The design team coordinated closely with the local fire marshal, zoning staff, and building officials to address unusual existing conditions and establish acceptable approaches to code compliance associated with the change of use.

The completed rehabilitation converted the second and third floors to residential use and introduced a rooftop terrace. The first floor contains lobby and common spaces whose design draws from fragmentary historic interiors uncovered during investigation.

Exterior work included gentle cleaning and repair of the masonry and glazed terra cotta, along with reconditioning of the building’s century old wood and steel windows for continued use. The original front entrance, removed in the1960s, was reconstructed using the original construction drawings as a guide.

The Bell Building is a contributing resource in the Athens Downtown National Register Historic District and is located within the Athens Downtown Local Historic District. The rehabilitation received a 2025 Historic Athens Outstanding Rehabilitation Award.

August 7, 2026
Grist & Flour Mill

The historic Enterprise Flour & Grist Mill is located at the most visible and important crossroads in downtown Braselton, at the intersection of GA Hwy 53 and Frances Street. The mill was constructed c. 1900 by the Braselton Brothers as part of a larger complex of businesses started around the turn of the 20th Century in the downtown section of the town they founded.

The mill was once considered one of the more modern operations for converting grain into flour and is considered to be the first full roller process flour mill in Northeast Georgia. It was capable of producing flour and meal at a higher rate than had been seen in the region up until this time. The mill operated through the mid 1960s before closing its doors. The three story, wood-framed building survived a tornado that hit the town in 1920. In 2010, the town stabilized and weatherized the building, preserving the structure and all the original equipment. To this day the equipment remains completely intact.

Although this work saved the historic building, the Town struggled with how to use this historic resource located at the town’s center. In 2019, Arcollab was hired to perform a feasibility study and develop options for the best ways to showcase the historic building while also adapting it for current and future use. Several options were studied, and it was determined that incorporating a compatible addition would be the best approach. The design minimizes modification of the existing building to less than 1,200 square feet which will provide office space for the Visitors Bureau Authority (VBA). The addition was designed to be leasable office space that will deliver an income stream for the VBA. This will allow the historic mill to remain on display as a museum that celebrates Braselton’s history.

The addition is articulated with a one-story glass lobby to create a hyphen between the historic mill and the new addition. This minimizes visual and physical alterations to the existing mill. The new lobby provides a new primary public entrance to receive visitors entering from the town’s center. This new entry axis between the mill and the addition is strengthened by a raised boardwalk that forms a bridge from the town’s public sidewalk to the front door and allows the existing topography and stormwater management to be unaffected. The addition’s entry sequence is expressed with an exposed steel frame that reinterprets the historic character of the mill. The addition’s new offices, along with the public functions of the Visitors Bureau Authority, are the perfect marriage of uses, and the buildings’ architecture work in tandem to celebrate the past and future.

This project earned a Merit Award for Civic & Government Buildings at the AIA Atlanta 2025 Awards for Architectural Distinction.

July 2, 2026
Alpha Phi Sorority
Arcollab led the rehabilitation and adaptive-reuse of a 7,000 sq. ft. historic landmark home built in the 1860s in the Milledge Avenue Historic District. With the addition of 10,000 sq. ft. of new construction, the historically single-family home was repurposed as a 54-bed dormitory with assembly meeting space for the Alpha Phi Sorority at the University of Georgia. The Athens Historic Preservation Commission unanimously approved our design of the proposed addition. Construction was completed in August 2019.

The Alpha Phi Sorority House at UGA has won several design awards, including:

2019 AIA Atlanta Residential Design Award for Renovations/Adaptive Reuse over 5,000 square feet

2020 Historic Athens Award for Outstanding New Construction
August 7, 2026
Madison Central of Georgia Depot

The rehabilitation of the Central of Georgia Railway Depot in Madison began with the rediscovery of the building in 2008. After forty-five years of neglect, the building was acquired from the Norfolk-Southern Railway by the Madison Downtown Development Authority and moved to an adjacent city-owned lot. After undertaking significant historical research on the building, including finding original construction drawings of the 1901 building, the Depot is currently undergoing exterior rehabilitation. This work has included reconstruction of the front waiting room and porch, and rehabilitation of the remainder of the historic depot. Our planning work also includes the interior rehabilitation of the building, to convert it into a public events space and small conference center.

October 14, 2026
Costa Building

Constructed in 1910, the Costa Building was built by the Costa family, who operated a beloved ice cream factory and parlor at this location for nearly 40years. The three-story concrete frame structure with brick exterior and full basement has long been a recognizable part of downtown Athens’ commercial fabric.

Arcollab was engaged by Athens-Clarke County to design a comprehensive rehabilitation that extends the life and civic usefulness of this historic building while honoring its architectural integrity. The project includes interior space reconfiguration, full ADA accessibility, upgrades to mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and data systems, and the installation of a fire sprinkler system — all carefully integrated within the constraints of the existing structure.

Arcollab collaborated with SPLOST staff and a County-appointed User Group to evaluate future uses and determine a code-compliant strategy for vertical circulation and life safety. The unanimously approved solution by the Mayor and Commission locates stacked restrooms, an elevator, and one of two required fire stairs within a sensitively scaled rear addition. The second stair utilizes existing shaft space. This approach preserves the historic building fabric, provides proper code separation, increases usable program space within the original footprint, and introduces new north-facing entrances and a lobby that support independent access to upper-floor tenants.

Accessibility was addressed holistically. Working in coordination with theAthens Downtown Development Authority and their landscape architect, the design integrates an accessible ramp into the adjacent Washington Street park improvements. This solution provides dignified and seamless access to the first floor, which sits approximately five feet above surrounding grade.

Beyond preservation, the Costa Building project demonstrates how historic rehabilitation can serve as a model for sustainable innovation. The project received Gold-level EarthCraft Sustainable Preservation certification through the Southface Institute.

Arcollab’s role extended beyond design. The firm facilitated collaboration among county leadership, user groups, preservation advocates, sustainability consultants, and downtown stakeholders to create a unified and forward-thinking vision for this community-centered landmark.

July 16, 2026
Madison City Hall

As his legacy project after 33 years with the City of Madison, City Manager (retired) David Nunn, an ardent preservation advocate, wanted to see the 1938 City Hall building put back in good working order. The City of Madison selected Arcollab to spearhead this effort.

The building has been continuously occupied by city employees since its opening eighty-four years ago, though the police and fire departments have since relocated as the needs of the city administration staff required more space. Alterations to the building made in the 1980s subdivided a former Recorder’s Courtroom with frame walls and dropped ceilings, and most ceilings and original finishes were obscured.

Arcollab led the rehabilitation team, performing a detailed assessment of historic building conditions prior to commencing design work. The resulting rehabilitation has restored the integrity of the building’s interior spaces while upgrading the facility with modern mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems.

Madison City Hall will continue to serve its original function for future decades and will set an example to other preservation-minded towns and cities of the benefits of retaining their historic public buildings for continued use.

The Madison Historic Preservation Commission awarded the Madison City Hall rehabilitation a Preservation Excellence Award in 2023.

July 16, 2026
Fairview School
This is an ongoing effort to preserve the historic Fairview School campus in Cave Spring, Georgia. Operating from 1925 until 1954, the Fairview campus grew from a single building in 1925 to four buildings by 1949. For twenty five years, African-American students, from first through 11th grades, were educated at the school. After decades of neglect and piecemeal demolition of the campus, the one remaining classroom building is undergoing stabilization for future rehabilitation. We have spearheaded these efforts since 2010, including the creation of a Historic Preservation Plan for the campus, and the rehabilitation design of the First Grade Classroom Building.

The Fairview School project has won multiple awards, including:

2020 AIA Georgia Design Award for Renovation/Restoration

2020 Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation Excellence in Restoration Award
August 7, 2026
Milledgeville Library Annex

The Mary Vinson Memorial Library Annex project involves the adaptive reuse of the historic former Fowler Motors building to become new activity, meeting, and office space for the Mary Vinson Memorial Library as well as providing “incubator” office and workspace for the City of Milledgeville to use in attracting new entrepreneurial ventures to the area.

The building is located within the same block as the main library building, but can only be accessed by crossing several parking lots without a clearly-defined path. Later-phase planning for this project includes reconfiguring the parking lots and creating a safe travel zone between the main library and its new annex. Critical to this endeavor was the creation of a new entrance at the rear of the annex building.

The 1919 building was a first generation main street car dealership, and much of the original tin ceiling finishes and wall configurations of that period remain intact in the building. This historic legacy, though obscured by later conversion to city offices, has been restored and inspired the reconfiguration of the building to its new mixed use. All mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire suppression systems in the building were reconfigured and/or replaced as part of the work. Historic windows and interior finishes were reconditioned and restored, and long-overdue brick maintenance and roofing work was completed as well. The new library annex features 14-foot high historic tin ceilings at the East Hancock side of the building. These were the former showrooms for the car dealership. At the rear of the building, where the service bays were located, the character of the space is now more industrial, with exposed historic wood trusses at the roof and raw brick walls on three sides. New architectural interventions within these varied historic interiors are modern in character and create a visually-appealing juxtaposition of the current and historic uses of the building.

July 2, 2026
Braselton Brewing Company

The Braselton Cotton Gin was constructed c.1920 by the Braselton Brothers as part of a larger complex of cotton-related structures in the downtown section of the city they founded. Historically, the gin was associated with brick cotton warehouses, a seed storage building, and a general store, all owned and operated by the Braseltons. A Georgia DOT road construction project in 2014 changed traffic flow through the town, and Davis Street became a primary east-west thoroughfare.

The Gin, formerly tucked behind the Braseltons’ cotton warehouses, now fronts onto Braselton’s “main” street. This new prominence made the Gin building a prime candidate for adaptive reuse. In this case, a local restaurateur hired Arcollab to design a brewery and eatery housed within the Gin building.

The rehabilitation design of the project incorporates a modern, industrial feel, using steel and glass, to create new uses within the shell of the historic Gin building. While the historic steel frame and corrugated steel skin were retained on the front and sides of the building, the back wall was modified with large openings to allow greater flow to a rear patio. A kitchen addition on the back supports the restaurant. About one-third of the space within the Gin building is dedicated to the new brewery. The vaulted interior space remains open, and we carefully planned modifications to the outside walls to allow for wall insulation, but without affecting the visual character of the interior.

The Gin building meets the expectations for function and comfort of a modern building, while preserving the historic fabric and unique qualities of a hundred-year-old industrial building.

July 2, 2026