Urban planning commentator gives photo tour of downtown Atlanta, and boy do we look like crap! (Decatur: to rent, homes)

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by AcidSnake

I say that those building offered a fortress of solitude away from that nasty inconvenience of street-level interaction. I also say that it doesn't hurt that a certain Georgia highway was being conceived AND built in the same time period, that allowed a certain group of people fleeing from those diverse elements to come back & work in the city without having to deal with too much of interaction with that diversity.

You can't discount the fact that two of the highway's strongest proponents were Andrew Young and Michael Lomax. Without them it almost surely would never have been built.

That being said, there's no doubt that freeways have inflicted a lot of damage on Atlanta and their burden has often fallen disproportionately on the poor and on people of color. It's also obvious that freeways facilitated white flight and were in part fueled by it.

However, the story is considerably more complex. It's quite conceivable that urban architects of the 60s believed that shielding their office tenants from what they considered "undesirable" elements was a good idea. I think you raise a good point about that.

But a LOT of buildings -- and certainly not just Portman's, and not just in downtown Atlanta -- were built with the concept of creating separation from the street. An awful lot of buidlings, if not most of them, are still built that way. Indeed, problaby the vast majoirty of office buildings in metro Atlanta are not pedestrian or transit friendly. That's true in most other cities as well.

To me, Peachtree Center is hardly the worst offender. Granted, the service entrances and the gloomy overhangs and slabs of the Mart buildings do not exactly encourage a cafe culture. The entrance to the Peachtree Plaza is awful as well. On the other hand, I've always sort of liked what the other buildings do on Peachtree. When they opened they provided Atlanta's first taste of big city sizzle. They could be improved, but, hey, they're 40 years old.

[JPD]

Peachtree Center might be getting a bad rap here. It has a pretty good amount of street level restaurants and shops, and a nice, large courtyard with the most seating anywhere in downtown that I know of. Off the top of my head, here are some street level places that are connected to Peachtree Center complex:

Hard Rock Cafe
Suntrust Bank
Durango Steakhouse
Ray's in the City
Gibney's Pub
Benihana
T Mobile store (or Verizon, or something)
Azio Italian Restaurant
The spot formerly occupied by Pennington clothing store.
Mama Ninfa's Mexican Restaurant
Gold's Gym
Velvet Underground Live Music Venue (this is technically part of the Hard Rock, but I think it deserves a separate mention)

[arjay57]

I bet Kunstler is following this very thread. And laughing like crazy about how riled up he got people in Atlanta.

Howdy, Jim!

[arjay57]

Say, someone sent me a private message about 10 minutes ago and I inadvertently deleted it before replying. Would you mind resending it?

Sorry to be such a klutz!

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

The Minneapolis Skyway system is also well known: Minneapolis Maps + Guides: Maps & Guides of Minneapolis: Skyways

Minneapolis has temperature issues in the winter that Atlanta does not.

[koko339]

Here's some snippets of an AJC article that might give some insight into his thought process:
John Portman retrospective: "I'm not a look-back guy" *| accessAtlanta

On how his newer buildings fare against his old ones, when erected side-by-side, as with the
Hyatt Regency and Peachtree Center:

What I try to do is think in terms of timelessness. If you go to the hill towns of Italy, you go to some of these old cities and look at them, they're still vibrant, they're still wonderful. ... How do we capture that in the modern era? I've discovered that [as in] Haussman's plan for Paris, it was a commonality of materials, a commonality of scale, a consideration of open space and a consideration of how people will actually use it.

On the atrium hotel design:

As we began to build, our society has increased its level of anxiety. The anxiety curve is going like this. I wanted to do something that was completely the opposite of the urban hotel. ... I wanted to blow all that up and create a sense of space and get a relief from anxiety, so you come out of this traffic and you come into this -- oh, my God -- and it's filled with nature and light and space. And it was a release from anxiety.

On the criticism that his designs are fortresses, walled off from the street traffic:

You have to think in terms of your city in America and the kind of lifestyle that we have. ... Yes, I’ve been accused of building these interior things and I plead guilty. ... But back in the old days, in New York, they all lived in the street; the street was the living room. ... Right now we have a society where you can’t walk anywhere.

[toll_booth]

OMG, the term "gerbil chute" is going to turn into a universal substitute for "elevated pedestrian walkway," and it's going to be all our fault.

[bikefrontier]

quoted post and related response removed by moderator as off topic.


But in regards to the original post: I work in Peachtree Center, and know the area fairly well. Someone already said this, but the guy did manage to take pictures of some of the worst places down here. In his defense, though, downtown is fugly.

But who cares? I feel like he makes a big point about this simply because the area is called 'downtown'. Typically, the 'downtown' area of a city is a city's focal point. In Atlanta, I don't think thats the case. Sure, there is a large Corporate America presence in downtown, but thats it.

Atlanta has very attractive portions of 'the city' that really should be the focal point. I think the obvious candidate is Midtown. Midtown is a nice looking part of town, IMO.

And everyone on this board who actually lives in or around Atlanta knows its probably one of the most attractive cities in America. What other city has neighborhoods like Virginia Highlands, Peachtree Hills, etc, that are so incredible close to the business districts yet so lush and neighborhood-like.

We have some gorgeous architecture here, you just don't go 'downtown' for it.

[atlantagreg30127]

Folks, the topic is not about race relations, blacks vs whites, discrimination or theories. Read the FIRST post and link, and stay on that topic please.

Thank you.

[liamnwk]

Originally Posted by mjtinmemphis

Lol!!! That was awfull. Unfortunately. The pictures is what I remember of my last visit to Atlanta.

Rolling into the city from the west on i20 and you see the massive freeways and this huge modern skyline would excite any 1st time visitor or new resident. The moment one exits off the freeway the excitement goes to disappointment.

I don't think that this should be interpreted as a bash Atlanta post or thread. After all Atlanta is what it is. IMO its a good southern suburban oriented metro and shouldn't be compaired to large urban cities of the world.

I visited atlanta a month ago and had the EXACT same reaction. In fact I was so disappointed when I found out Atlantic Station isn't really a train station! Downtown seems like one large urban sprawl except for by centenial park and fox theatre. We took the segway tour and the highlight was a status of jimmy carter and some greasy dinner?!?! Otherwise the wife and I had this perplexed look of "this is it?". Flip side is dunwoody is a nice area but VERY car centric.