KENNESAW, Ga. | Oct 22, 2024

In the ever-changing mosaic of the Midtown Atlanta skyline, Southern Polytechnic State University graduate Rodney Bell played a major role in shaping one of the newest additions, the upscale office tower 1020 Spring Street.

The 25-story, 525,000-square-foot building is part of a development called Spring Quarter by Atlanta development firm Portman Holdings. It sits on the highest point in Midtown, overlooking the east side of the busy downtown connector.

“This was a unique opportunity for me, personally, to be able to design a building in both my home state and the city where I lived and studied during my undergraduate years,” said Bell, who during the project was senior associate principal for New York architectural firm KPF and senior designer on the project. “The project itself is an amenity-focused office tower located in the heart of Midtown at a nexus of commerce, research, academia, and infrastructure.”

Bell’s work also serves as an inspiration for current students in Kennesaw State University’s College of Architecture and Construction Management (CACM), which consolidated with SPSU in 2015, said Kathryn Bedette, associate dean in CACM.

“Rodney’s work on 1020 Spring Street is something our students can see and aspire to every time they drive through Midtown,” she said. "It’s a prominent reminder of the impact their work can make—not just on the Atlanta skyline—but also in our communities and in the interactions and experiences of everyone who lives, works, visits, or just strolls by a project they’ve designed. It’s wonderful inspiration for our students as they start their careers."

The project in Atlanta represented a shift for Bell, who earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from SPSU in 2011 and a master’s degree in architecture from Cornell University in 2013. For more than a decade prior to the 1020 Spring Street assignment, much of his work focused on a handful of projects in China, including the office-retail focused Greenland Bund Centre in Shanghai.

Bell grew up 7,800 miles from Shanghai in the rural southwest Georgia city of Cairo. His interest in building was inspired by his father’s passion for construction and his work as a tile mason.

“While working with him during summer breaks, I'd often bring home discarded drawings from job sites and eventually began trying to draw my own by hand with drafting tools that could be obtained from our local arts store,” Bell said. “As I got older, I read architecture magazines from our local library and started to gain a better understanding of the profession as a discipline and how rich the design process can be.”

After graduating from Cairo High School, Bell enrolled at SPSU.

“What I appreciate most about my time at SPSU is – first and foremost – the dedicated faculty, who have made a more lasting impact on so many of us than they probably realize,” he said. “The architecture program has a uniquely diverse faculty where many of us could find our niche of interests and connect to likeminded faculty who would mentor and foster our interests.”

In the architecture program, students are exposed the theoretical and the practical, which he said helped prepare him for his graduate studies at Cornell.

Fast forward to Oct. 1, and Bell flew into town from his office in New York for a final “punch list” walk through of 1020 Spring Street, a few miles down Interstate 75 from CACM. Thinking back on his studies and his work experience, he had some advice for current architecture students.

“Keep an open mind, embrace criticism, and engage with the faculty and your peers as much as possible,” he said. “This profession is inherently collaborative, and we grow through such interaction, cross-examination, and self-criticism.”

– Story by Gary Tanner

Photos by Matt Yung

A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its more than 47,000 students. Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia with 11 academic colleges. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 7 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.