Urban planning commentator gives photo tour of downtown Atlanta, and boy do we look like crap! (Lenox: gated, move)

[arjay57]

There are lots of well designed parking decks out there. This is one of my favorites -- the green wall makes it blend right into the landscape and look like part of the hillside.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/...6e9da4f1_b.jpg

More here:

Parking Decks - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/50962413@N07/sets/72157624277476144/detail/ - broken link)

Cars may go away someday but for the foreseeable future we're stuck with millions of them. We should focus on making their facilities less of an eyesore.

[johnatl]

Originally Posted by arjay57

There are lots of well designed parking decks out there. This is one of my favorites -- the green wall makes it blend right into the landscape and look like part of the hillside.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/...6e9da4f1_b.jpg

More here:

Parking Decks - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/50962413@N07/sets/72157624277476144/detail/ - broken link)

Cars may go away someday but for the foreseeable future we're stuck with millions of them. We should focus on making their facilities less of an eyesore.

Believe it or not arjay57, that is not a hillside - but the deck itself. It's in Miami Beach, of all places! We need thousands more just like it, imo.

[jurban8]

Here's one of downtown's gems, the replacement for the Kimball House Hotel...
What Atlanta does with its amazing historic architecture. on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyurban/4295982858/ - broken link)

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by arjay57

There are lots of well designed parking decks out there. This is one of my favorites -- the green wall makes it blend right into the landscape and look like part of the hillside.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/...6e9da4f1_b.jpg

More here:

Parking Decks - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/50962413@N07/sets/72157624277476144/detail/ - broken link)

Cars may go away someday but for the foreseeable future we're stuck with millions of them. We should focus on making their facilities less of an eyesore.

Now THAT is more like it. It's hard to tell that some of those are even parking decks!

[BringBackCobain]

Originally Posted by jurban8

Here's one of downtown's gems, the replacement for the Kimball House Hotel...
What Atlanta does with its amazing historic architecture. on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyurban/4295982858/ - broken link)

Although the street-level retail is more than a lot of other parking garages have downtown, its canceled out by how ugly and run down this building is. The good news is that GSU is planning on tearing down this parking garage and replacing it with student dorms.

Mainstreet Master Plan

This will also finally give Georgia State a building that officially lies within Five Points. Hopefully the students that move into these dorms can initiate/spur a clean up and redevelopment of Five Points.

[waronxmas]

Since there has been a lot of discussion from certain people that Downtown has never been worse in terms of it's build up environment, there is no better way to show the progress that has been made in the last 20 years than in big ol' pictures:

Downtown Atlanta in the late 1970s to mid 1980s aka when "urban renewal" reached it's peak:
Flickr Photo Download: Aerial view of Atlanta , late 1970s (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25453827@N06/2547788489/sizes/o/ - broken link)





Downtown Atlanta late 2000s:

Flickr Photo Download: Atlanta (http://www.flickr.com/photos/brothergrimm/3040122472/sizes/l/ - broken link)




Downtown may not be exactly where it needs to be yet, but it sure is far better than it used to be...in my own lifetime no less.

[jurban8]

Wow great pictures - thanks Waron! I think a great slogan would be: "Downtown, it's getting there!"
As for the GSU housing, that would be such a boost for the area. GSU (my school) is the best bet for redevelopment downtown, and thank God they are putting up buildings now that are of the city, rather than apart. I would love to be in attendance when they demo this bad boy!

[reet4587]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Since there has been a lot of discussion from certain people that Downtown has never been worse in terms of it's build up environment, there is no better way to show the progress that has been made in the last 20 years than in big ol' pictures:

Awesome collection of photos. Thanks for posting these. You're right -- downtown has made a lot of progress in the last 30 years. I can lose sight of that fact, especially when I compare our downtown to those of other cities that have never gone through the grim phase of parking-lot craziness that Atlanta went through, as pictured here.

It looks like the late 1970s-early 80s was the low point for the area when it comes to the amount of land area given over to surface parking. Pretty amazing to see what once existed.

There's still a long way to go before downtown reaches its full potential as a vibrant, walkable urban area for both visitors and locals. But these photos show that the area is headed in the right direction slowly but surely.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by jurban8

Wow great pictures - thanks Waron! I think a great slogan would be: "Downtown, it's getting there!"
As for the GSU housing, that would be such a boost for the area. GSU (my school) is the best bet for redevelopment downtown, and thank God they are putting up buildings now that are of the city, rather than apart. I would love to be in attendance when they demo this bad boy!

I totally agree it will be a boost for Downtown. Words cannot express the positive effect the school has had on Fairlie-Poplar and the Woodruff Park areas. In the future I foresee Downtown East becoming the true center of GSU. One great thing they could do, is help fund or go into partnership with developers to build separate faculty housing in the area. Imagine maybe 8 to 10 blocks of townhouses and retail for professors to live in year round. It would attract other like minded educated people the area and have a cascading effect on the vibrancy of the area.

As for other areas around Downtown:

1. The whole cloverleaf area north of Allen Plaza needs to be torn up (its not really ever that busy or useful) and redeveloped with residential and commercial towers.

2. Focus redeveloping the Railroad district. There are some great buildings down there that are going to waste and the parking lots are hardly ever filled even during the week. That to me say there is a parking lot company just trying to take advantage of a situation, not something that exists out of necessity.

3. Close the Peachtree-Pine shelter. BUT The city should work with non-profits and perhaps Emory and the Red Cross to open a hospital to provide care to the homeless men and women truly in need in a more quiet part of town. As much as we wont to throw stones at the lazy crack heads and winos, there are far too many people with mental and physical disorders lost in the streets (and viaducts) of Downtown that just simply cant afford to get help. As a city and society, we owe it to ourselves to provide those people help. The same thing goes for the myriad of abused women and children that are among Downtown's homeless. For shiftless bums: If they are addicted to a substance, offer help and rehabilitation once. Then we should offer them the boot.

[arjay57]

I'd like to see comparison views of downtown today and 20 years ago (from the same angle).

I'd also love to see a single shot of the city's entire urban core from Buckhead to Five Points.