From the outside, it looks like something out of Buck Rogersa 70-story silo of glass that is at once Atlanta's tallest building and the world's tallest hotel. Inside, guests enter a seven-story-high lobby big enough to hold a triple-level lounge, a forest of Ficus trees and a half-acre lagoon fed by fountains and a 100-ft.-wide waterfall. All the while, glass-enclosed elevators whiz like space capsules past the 1,100 guest rooms to a revolving rooftop restaurant.
The $55 million Peachtree Center Plaza Hotel, which opened last week, is the latest extravaganza in the career...