Ponce City Market

Name of Building

Ponce City Market

Town or City, Country where the building was originally established

Atlanta, Georgia

Date the building was designed and/or first built

Original Built – 1926. Redevelopment – 2011–2014 (opening in 2014)

Name of Architect, Builder, or Primary Patron Responsible

Original Architect – Nimmons & Co. (Chicago-based industrial architects).

Redevelopment – Jamestown Properties with design input from S9 Architecture and Surber Barber Choate + Hertlein Architects
Builder - (Original): Sears, Roebuck & Co. construction division

Culturally Specific Time Period

Early 20th-Century American Industrial / Art Deco-Influenced

Geo-Location

33.77290204813369, -84.36563961892244

Materials

Red brick, Concrete, and Steel.

Size and/or Scale of Building

Overall length (from east to west): approximately 720 feet. Varies from 4–8 stories depending on section

Architectural Type

Public

Formal Style

Industrial Warehouse Architecture

Building Description

Ponce City Market is a vast early-20th-century industrial complex that merges the architectural language of American warehouse construction with subtle Art Deco flourishes, most prominently displayed in its central clock tower. Built in 1926 as a Sears distribution hub, the complex features long expanses of red-brick masonry, steel factory windows, and a powerful horizontal massing punctuated by functional rail-side loading areas. The structure’s original materiality brick, concrete, and steel remains central to its identity.
Inside, the redevelopment preserved the building’s monumental warehouse volumes: large open floors supported by repetitive concrete columns, exposed mechanical systems, and raw industrial textures. The 2014 transformation carved this structure into a mixed-use urban center anchored by the Central Food Hall, where new wood, steel, and glass interventions respect and highlight the original factory character. Offices and residential lofts occupy the upper floors, while the building’s rooftop has become a civic attraction featuring leisure amenities and panoramic views of Atlanta.
Over time, Ponce City Market has transitioned from a bustling Sears logistics hub to a nearly abandoned industrial shell to one of the most ambitious adaptive-reuse projects in the United States. Its restoration reactivated historic windows, repaired brickwork, reintroduced daylight, and created a multimodal connection to the Atlanta BeltLine, all while preserving the site’s architectural integrity. Today, Ponce City Market stands as a model for revitalizing industrial heritage into vibrant contemporary urban life.

Names(s) and location(s) of the museum holding the object(s)

Originally use for Sears, Roebuck & Co. warehouse, regional office, and retail store (1926 – ~1979). Now revised for Mixed-use: food hall, retail shops, offices, loft apartments, public rooftop / communal spaces

Image source

Source 1
https://poncecitymarket.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/photo_1-1728x972.jpg
Source 2
https://poncecitymarket.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Citizen-Supply-at-Ponce-City-Market_Courtesy-of-Jamestown.jpg
Source 3
https://cdn2.atlantamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2012/07/0812_Feature_PonceCityMarket.jpg
Source 4
https://www.jamestownlp.com/uploads/images/_2250x1266_crop_center_75_none/PCM-04.jpg

Creative Commons or other copyright information

Images 1 - 6: Creative Commons

Student First and Last Name

Justin Forster

Bibliographic references for the item

- Ponce City Market, 2025. History [online]. Available at: https://poncecitymarket.com/history/
[Accessed 8 December 2025].
Source
- Jamestown LP (no date). https://www.jamestownlp.com/properties/ponce-city-market.
Source
- Burns, R. (2016) Ponce City Market - Atlanta Magazine. https://www.atlantamagazine.com/2012/ponce-city-market/.
Source
- Clark, T. (2017) Ponce City Market - The Georgia Trust. https://www.georgiatrust.org/preservation-awards/ponce-city-market/.