Location: Hapeville, GA

Client: City of Hapeville

Size: 2,700 SF

Completed: 2023

Contractor: Paryani Construction

Photographer: Fredrik Brauer

This abandoned and largely dilapidated mid-century Amoco service station was teeming with potential yet overrun with challenges when SOURCE began to reimagine it as the new home for the Atlanta Printmakers Studio (APS). The City of Hapeville, GA, a historic small town in the Atlanta Metro and a neighbor to the Atlanta International Airport, tasked our team with reimagining this long-vacant former gas station and brownfield site into a cornerstone project of the Hapeville Arts District. We began our work by determining what original elements of the 1950s structure could be saved and restored to their former glory. Led by a hunch and some faint clues in the building, we verified that the visible façade was not original to the 1950s Amoco station. Our team then researched what the original Amoco station might have looked like, and determined that the original 1950s façade was in fact still in place, hiding underneath the visible 1970s renovation. Working closely with our contractor, we restored the original concrete stucco façade to allow its streamlined curves to shine.

To give APS the room they needed, an addition was designed with thoughtful, historically appropriate brick detailing and windows that help it blend with the surrounding historic district. The once asphalt parking lot and gas-pump area was transformed into a public plaza featuring a dynamic mix of concrete hardscape, planting areas, and Corten container gardens to soften the edges. To pay homage to the original service station, our team went to great lengths to salvage and reuse much of the abandoned automotive equipment, tools and memorabilia, refurbishing the original site lighting, reimagining vehicle lifts into plaza benches, refinishing the original shop shelving and signage, and more.

This labor of love is a landmark redevelopment project for the City of Hapeville, signaling the realization of the community’s vision of Hapeville as a home for the arts and a cultural destination with small-town charm.