Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, GA

Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere, was the brainchild of Bernie Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot. His hope was to help revitalize Downtown Atlanta by bringing as many as 2.2 million visitors to the aquarium annually.

Syska Hennessy Group was selected to help design an environment that would break new ground and advance the state-of-the-art aquarium.

We provided MEP/fire protection for the 550,000-sf aquarium, capable of holding 5,000 guests, and comprising the 23,000-sf Oceans Ballroom space for 800 – 1,200 guests, a 4D theater, and more than 10 million gallons of water.

Syska’s aquatic life-support team designed systems for tens of thousands of aquatic animals, representing several hundred species. Because the 6.3 million-gallon open ocean exhibit houses so many remarkable species, Syska engineers designed two complete filtration systems in order to have a high level of water quality and clarity.