Mitchell Square: America's Other Times Square (Atlanta: lease, how much, hotel)

[bryantm3]

okay, seeing as how the 'atlanta: america's only 24 hour city' got so much attention due to its ridiculous title and presumptuous nature, i decided to pull a bit of a bait-and-switch here to get your attention. but bear with me, because i've got a point.

remember the "times square south" development over on marietta street, with the big billboards and whatnot? why in the world don't we do something like that along peachtree at mitchell square?

the photo i posted above is of the square in 1961— there's a lot of neon, advertisements, whatnot. it's very bustling and it shows how much downtown really was the 'center of it all'.

here's the same spot today:




my question is, this is probably the most 'big city' urban spot in all of atlanta, from the intersection of baker street down to mitchell square. why don't we really make it something special? we've got tons of blank space, especially along the americasmart building, the westin peachtree plaza, the library, and the residence inn. the city should allow (and promote) the property owners along that corridor to lease out advertising space. if they did this in the 50s and 60s, why can't we do it now?

in the past few years, they've made a little bit of progress, but only on the parking deck 'fire of brazil' is located in. there's now a big LED sign and a billboard on the side of the building, as you can see in this photo:



why don't we go all the way?

[cwkimbro]

Marketing.

The thing that makes Time square so special, and so valuable to advertisers, has less to do with the local population and more to do with the extreme amounts of tourism. Advertisers are paying to access millions of uniquely different eyes over time.

The similarity Centennial park and the areas around it share is the high turnover of unique eyes, tourists. With the trade mart, GWCC, and the museums there is a constant flow of new people and they tend to hover around that area for awhile...not just walk through.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see the old school character come back, but for anything to happen that is what will drive market demand, which is currently located somewhere else. This is also why the Time Square South proposal happened where it did.

[bryantm3]

my question would be, are there any zoning laws prohibiting this sort of advertisement?

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

my question would be, are there any zoning laws prohibiting this sort of advertisement?

I'm not sure, but my guess would be....

LED video boards probably.

The large signs, lights, and 3D pieces attached to the buildings beneath them.... probably not. There are large ads on small billboards and attached to buildings throughout town, especially going north into midtown. Now there are probably some ordinaces from protecting some properties having their views completely blocked by an adjacent property just putting up a large sign or a billboard. This would discourage some owners from doing this, but doesn't prohibit large signs themselves.

There is a pretty heavy incentive not to cover windows, unless it really makes a good deal of money for the building. That hotel benefits from those north facing windows for example.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I'm not sure, but my guess would be....

LED video boards probably.

The large signs, lights, and 3D pieces attached to the buildings beneath them.... probably not. There are large ads on small billboards and attached to buildings throughout town, especially going north into midtown. Now there are probably some ordinaces from protecting some properties having their views completely blocked by an adjacent property just putting up a large sign or a billboard. This would discourage some owners from doing this, but doesn't prohibit large signs themselves.

There is a pretty heavy incentive not to cover windows, unless it really makes a good deal of money for the building. That hotel benefits from those north facing windows for example.

it wouldn't be necessary to cover windows. the residence inn has a good 30 feet of space between windows that could be used for something.

[scobby]

Good point !!!

[testa50]

Atlanta does have some form of prohibition on offsite advertising. I remember it being an issue with that King of Pops mural in Poncey Highland, which they had to paint over.

[ElleKaye]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

My first question was where the heck was this picture taken, but I see you say it is from 61. I think downtown is going to make a comeback pretty soon here.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by ElleKaye

My first question was where the heck was this picture taken, but I see you say it is from 61. I think downtown is going to make a comeback pretty soon here.

I think that's the confluence of Peachtree and Baker Streets. The Candler Building is behind the Coca-Cola sign.

[coolieandre]

I think all things are possible, and I have always been one to say we need to use what we naturally have to grow as a city and fill in and stop copying. This definetly beats the "time square of the south" idea, because we naturally have a setup here. I just wonder if the city will invest money into that part of town since it's so close to underground and there is so much cleaning up to do in that area... Btw what happend to all the cable cars?