MODA (Museum of Design Atlanta)

This guide to MODA, the Museum of Design Atlanta, starts with an ordinary 1985 office building and its bare concrete parking ramp, and the odd claim that engineers later ranked it among the greenest buildings in the Northern Hemisphere. It follows the architecture firm Perkins and Will, who took on the renovation determined to prove a throwaway structure could be rebuilt without toxic materials, tearing out curb cuts and carving open public space from the old parking deck. You'll hear how the museum itself started elsewhere in 1989 as a broader art venue and only became a design museum, in this exact building, years later. Look at the walls around you and think about what used to idle there.