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atlantathecity · 1 day
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Building city developments at access points to the Beltline & MARTA & bike lanes is the future Atlanta needs. Building cities around access points to freeways is a problematic past that we need to undo.
It's hard to walk across this North Avenue bridge over I-75/85 without pondering these things. It offers a striking view of our mistakes.
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atlantathecity · 7 days
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Bell Building is being turned into a new GSU Student Success Center
Darin Givens | March 21, 2024
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Exterior work is well underway on an adaptive-reuse project that will convert the Bell Building into a new Student Success Center for GSU! This is exciting to see. You can find information on the successful effort to preserve this structure at the https://savethebell.org site.
This has been a nice victory for historic preservation and for the urbanism of Downtown Atlanta!
In 2015, Georgia State University announced it was going to raze historic Bell Building and replace it with surface parking lots. This struck me and other preservation-minded advocates as a horrible thing that needed to be fought -- especially since the demolition was going to be funded with a donation from the Woodruff Foundation, which also funds preservation work.
We went to work by creating the Save the Bell website & social media channels, by talking to media outlets, reaching out to GSU administration and the Board of Regents, and talking to local city leaders. We were even involved in co-writing a City Council resolution to establish this as a landmark structure, which would have protected it from demolition.
Luckily it worked! And within a year or two, GSU backed away from the demolition plan.
Then in 2021 the good news came: GSU would use a different Woodruff grant to help preserve the Bell and reuse it as a new student success building.
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For some background on the history of the Bell, check out this page on the Save the Bell website. It's actually two buildings fused together, both built as a telephone exchange by the Southern Bell company in two stages, in 1907 and 1922.
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I'm very grateful to have been part of this effort to prevent the demolition of a structure that was clearly a viable candidate for adaptive reuse. It's a shame that GSU leadership ever wanted to raze it, but I congratulate them on doing the right thing in the end.
And huge kudos to all the local preservation advocates who spoke up in 2015-16 about the need to save the Bell, and to all the local journalists who covered our cause. This will now stand as a reminder of a great group effort, and of the fact that minds can be changed when it comes to the way we treat our urban fabric.
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atlantathecity · 11 days
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I love watching the Atlanta United crowds hanging out at Wild Leap Brewing in South Downtown and walking across the Castleberry Hill ped bridge on game days.
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atlantathecity · 12 days
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For St Pat's Day, I looked through my archives for a photo with a lot of green in it and came up with this one from last summer at Piedmont Park.
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atlantathecity · 12 days
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West Peachtree at 10th Street: a new tower adds a few stories of screened parking over the sidewalk across the street from a parking deck. It looks bleak anywhere, but this is 600ft from Midtown MARTA Station so it's worse.
When people say "MARTA doesn't go anywhere" I think what they really mean is that we've built too many blocks of Nowheresville near MARTA, where pedestrians feel out of place -- like they've accidentally wandered into territory that's meant primarily for driving.
I know that calling on the city to lower parking maximums near train stations is an unpopular thing. I know it makes people very angry. But sometimes it's better to be right for the future instead of popular today.
Car-oriented density isn't the urban growth we need. Drive-to urbanism isn't the best we can do. Let's excel at what cities do best.
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atlantathecity · 15 days
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There's a lot of history in this view from the King Memorial MARTA Station's northbound platform.
On the far left is a symbol of Atlanta's industrial history: the Fulton Cotton Mill complex, which was transformed into lofts about 25 years ago. The mill was built in stages from the 1880s to 1907 and was surrounded by the mill village that we now know as the Cabbagetown neighborhood. It produced large cotton bags to hold seed & feed, for farms.
At the bottom is the east-west rail corridor that dates to the beginnings of Atlanta in the 1830s, when the state decided to build new rail lines east to Augusta and north to Chattanooga, which were designed to meet in the spot where the city was then formed.
And at top right you can see the beautiful Oakland Cemetery, the footprint of which grew in stages from 1850 to 1866. It started as a small local cemetery of six acres and transformed into the tree canopied, grand space we know today. Interesting historical tidbit: the reason it's fully enclosed on all sides is "bovine infestation." Meaning: cows were wandering in to graze.
The cemetery, the mill property (plus Cabbagetown), and the rail corridor have been coexisting since the 1880s. For over 140 years, people have looked out of train windows to see these elements of Atlanta's history. Take a look next time you're rolling by on MARTA and ponder the history.
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atlantathecity · 19 days
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We just made it into Harbor Coffee in Inman Park today before they closed at 3pm and I'm glad we did. My cortado was excellent and the interior design is really lovely!
It's at 331 Elizabeth St NE Atlanta, near the entrance to Eastside Beltline.
The caffeine helped to fuel our walk to Kroger, on the Beltline, to get a few bags of groceries which we then carried down to a bus stop on Ralph McGill. By coincidence, our son was already on that same bus, headed back home after lunch with a friend.
I haven't set foot in a car today but I made it to lunch at Krog Market, and coffee, and groceries. More people across the metro area should be able to do those things without a car. The urban design should support that.
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atlantathecity · 20 days
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Apologies to the restaurant for the less-than-ideal photo with no people in it -- but I think this seating in front of Jen Chan's (on Carroll Street) is lovely. What a nice scene!
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atlantathecity · 25 days
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Eventually the property on the right will be developed & the sidewalk will be fixed in the process.
But isn't there a way we can capture investment $ from developments around the city to pay for sidewalks elsewhere? So we don't have to wait for construction to improve each parcel's own sidewalk, resulting in these weird gaps?
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atlantathecity · 1 month
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I walked 1.5 miles home last night, from Carroll Street Cafe to Old Fourth Ward, and didn't pass a single other pedestrian.
Which was a bit sad, so I appreciated every happy thing I saw on the way: MARTA trains passing overhead on the elevated tracks; colorful paintings on the walls of Boulevard; a glimpse of an apartment window where people were having dinner inside...
But the best part was walking north on Boulevard and seeing the warm lights of Church on Edgewood up ahead. I had to stop and take a photo. It was a happy scene.
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atlantathecity · 1 month
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My MARTA bus happened to slow down on the Jackson Street Bridge today, just long enough to get a couple of pics.
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atlantathecity · 1 month
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Auburn Avenue from the streetcar window, February 2023
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The view from a trip on the Atlanta Streetcar this week, on Auburn Avenue, looking out of the north-facing window.
Honest question: was the streetcar built to serve this street, or to allow tourists to bypass it? ----
There are absolutely some great small businesses on Auburn Avenue worth visiting and I believe more are on the way. But when you look out the window of the streetcar, you see way too many empty spaces and parking lots and blighted buildings.
By which I mean: the overall environment is neither as inviting as it should be for a traveller to randomly explore it, by getting off at one of these streetcar stops, nor is it as supportive of success for these small businesses as it should be.
I can't tell you exactly what the city should have done to correct this issue, and I realize there are a LOT of complicated issues here in terms of who owns the parcels and who should benefit from outcomes.
But at the same time, we've seen Atlanta leaders accomplish big things for major sports events and corporate relocations -- can they not accomplish the same with the basic increments of urbanism, even amid the specific challenges here?
It's been 14 years since the federal government awarded us the $47mil grant for the streetcar, and planning began years before that. We've had a lot of time. How much more do we need?
It took less time than this for the construction of the Downtown Connector and its related interstate highways (mid 1950s-60s) to result in the demolition of part of Auburn Avenue and to screw up its walkability. Why is it taking longer to make this a great urban space and cultural center?
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atlantathecity · 1 month
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Supportive housing takes the place of a parking lot next to Garnett MARTA Station
I took a trip to Garnett MARTA Station so I could admire The Melody -- another impressive conversion of parking lots to housing in Atlanta, but this one serves people experiencing homelessness.
The Melody consists of 40 micro-units made from converted shipping containers. Each unit includes a bed, bathroom and kitchenette.
Partners for HOME partnered with the City of Atlanta on the project. This is not intended to be permanent housing for residents; it will be temporary, supportive housing with licensed staff onsite to provide tenants with services.
Read more about The Melody in this Atlanta Civic Circle article
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atlantathecity · 1 month
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I like seeing this Spiller Park Coffee sign going up! This is on Mitchell Street in South Downtown, on historic Hotel Row. I plan to visit often whenever this store opens. ☕
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atlantathecity · 1 month
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The Civic Center MARTA Station never stops being impressive to me, hovering over the interstate highway and wrapped around West Peachtree Street. It's quite a sight, especially at night.
It's a shame that we aren't building train stations here anymore. The last one built inside the city limits of Atlanta was Buckhead Station, which opened nearly 30 years ago.
With the expansion of heavy rail looking less and less viable every year, due to the rising costs (which is a national problem), I had hoped we could at least fund some infill stations along the existing lines using the special transit tax. But the proposals for infill stations were dropped from the More MARTA spending list.
Will the ones built in the 20th century remain the only heavy-rail stations Atlanta has? It's certainly possible. At least for our lifetimes. If so, making the best usage of them is paramount.
Rezone for sensible density and affordable homes around all stations. Decrease the maximums for parking allowed near stations (studies have found the availability of parking is associated with lower transit ridership). Push the state government for dedicated operations funding to improve service and maintenance. Make sure the streets around stations have excellent design for walking and biking to stations.
Basically, act like we're in a city. Support our precious transit assets with urbanism that promotes ridership and that shifts more trips out of cars.
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atlantathecity · 1 month
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I love the beautiful brickwork on this historic building on Wylie Street next to the BeltLine, in Reynoldstown.
In recent years, it has been the home of a recording studio. Gnarls Barkley and Belle & Sebastian have recorded here.
It has a wonderful history too:
In 1906, I.P. Reynolds, the son of former slaves, built this building and operated an all-purpose store in it.
In 1866, ex-slaves Madison and Sarah Reynolds moved from Covington, Georgia to settle between Atlanta and Decatur. Their son Isaiah Pearson Reynolds, who was born in Covington in 1862, graduated from Clark University in 1881. He became a major player in Reynoldstown's early development.
The community was said to be named in honor of the Reynolds family. In 1906, I.P. Reynolds became the first black person to build a two story brick building in the community, and from this location he operated an all-purpose store.
The building was known as the I.P. Reynolds Building and still stands. (Source: Reynoldstown 2000 master plan)
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atlantathecity · 2 months
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Eastbound MARTA trip on a rainy Saturday night. We went to Decatur for dinner on the train. When the weather's unpleasant, I miss my long walks but I enjoy the opportunity to be thankful for MARTA as an alternative.
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