Hastings Seed Lofts

Hastings Seed Lofts Building fronts Marietta Street and abuts the Western and Atlantic railroad tracks in an industrial section northwest of Atlanta. The Hastings Seed Lofts building was constructed in 1913 by the Mackle & Crawford Construction Company for F.J. Cooledge and Sons, as an industrial building which has housed glass, paint, and seed companies.

The Westside / Marietta Street Artery of Atlanta is experiencing a thriving redevelopment. The Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca Cola along with Centennial Park are within a few hundred yards of the front of Hastings Seed Lofts. Within walking distance to the south are the Georgia Dome and Phillips arena along with a newly established restaurant row. Just to the north is Georgia Tech and the new M Street mixed-use development. The Westside is also home to Atlantic Station, the largest planned mixed-use development in the Southeast. The restaurant scene on the Westside has been home to the last several restaurants of the year in Atlanta and includes Miller Union, the Optimist, Bacchanalia, JCT Kitchen, Bocado, 5 Seasons Brewery as well as more casual fare like Yeah Burger, Six Feet Under, Taqueria del Sol, Flip Burger, and numerous others. It is a truly exciting area of town with new elements popping up all the time. It has become a popular scene for movie shoots, and the Hastings Seed Lofts were the site for a scene in the movie Sweet Home Alabama.

Hastings Seed Lofts is a four-story, brick building with a basement of load-bearing masonry construction and a poured concrete structural system. The Hastings Seed Lofts building is functional in design with little stylistic influence or ornamentation.

Hastings Seed Lofts Exterior features include the original brick, both painted and unpainted, painted stucco, and the steel frame factory windows. There are four vertical rows of windows on the front façade with the first and fourth row windows being alike and having brick window surrounds. The two center rows' windows are larger with just a brick sill and no surround. There are also large display windows on the entrance level. The main entrance is recessed with angled-glass window walls on either side of the glass front door. The painted stucco is on the entrance level front facade. There are three rows of decorative brick between the first and second story.

Hastings Seed Lofts interior is generally open with the first, third, and fourth floors each having one original transverse partition . The first floor also has the original display rooms and offices. The interior features include exposed concrete ceilings and floors, first floor tongue-and-groove floors, steel fire doors, and the concrete columns. There are also exposed mechanical systems throughout the building. The most distinguishing features on the interior of the basement, second, third, and fourth floors are the circular concrete columns with flared capitals and vertical band marks which are evidence of the wood frame molds which formed them. These columns are also known as mushroom columns. The first-floor columns are smoothly finished mushroom columns. The original freight elevators have been converted to regular elevators for access to the upper floors.

A certified rehabilitation was completed on Hastings Seed Lofts in 1994 for use as loft apartments and gallery space. A later one-story building abutting the main building to the south was dilapidated and torn down; however, a portion of the front facade was utilized in building a wall around the secured parking lot.