Atlantic Station
I’m probably simple, but I am fascinated by Atlantic Station. I think it is a great use of land and would like to see other sections of Atlanta embrace this type of planned development. While the stores and restaurants are great (and many are actually pretty good), I am also amazed by the warren-like parking garage structure that supports the whole development. It’s nice now, but I don’t see how it won’t become home to many of Atlanta’s homeless in the next few years.
The reason it won’t become home to the homeless is because they spent billions of dollars on it. People that spend billions don’t just forget about it and let it become a refuge for the needy. Even if it doesn’t become as popular as they envisioned, the investors will never let Atlantic Station “become home to many of Atlanta’s homeless”.
Yeah its too bad when people with no homes come near you yuppies.. let’s keep poverty as far out of my sight as possible! Selfish snobs like you make me want to puke.
Should I expect much with such well written lines as “While the stores and restaurants are great (and many are actually pretty good)”…great! good! neat!
Many French cities reworked central roads after the destruction of WWII by widening them into central boulevards with open grass in the middle and multiple levels of parking decks underground in the middle with entrances/exits that merge into and out of the center lane
Just think of Peachtree with 3 decks of parking that you can enter/exit at 25 mph from downtown to buckhead.
i’m fascinated by atlantic station, as well! fascinated means, like, repelled by, right?
well as much as i am appalled by chain stores and YET another moe’s, i do appreciate that with atlantic station they at least tried not to make yet another eyesore on the skyline of the city. i really have very little reason to ever venture over there tho’.
i am more amused by people who preach ‘compassion’ and ‘tolerance’ while at the same time calling anyone who disagrees with them a bunch of names and spewing profanity.
way to go, buddy, you really convinced a lot of people with that screed.
“let’s keep poverty as far out of my sight as possible!”
I couldn’t agree more. That’s why I work my ass off and provide for my family.
There is plenty of opportunity for everyone in this city. If you choose to make it. It all depends on the choices that you make.
I find Atlantic Station to be gaudy, ludicrously fake (“The Art Lofts”? Please, you’re selling to MBAs), overpriced, terribly managed (I’ve had two friends move in and move out again because of ridiculous building policies), and full of shitty chain stores and franchise eateries that I would never patronize (except, I admit, for Ikea and Publix).
I also think they did a terrible zoning job, putting the majority of the housing across a busy six-lane highway from the actual stores. Let’s not get started on the landscaping horror that is the “park” (more of a median strip in the middle of 17th).
HOWEVER, I think mixed-use developments like Atlantic are a much better alternative to Atlanta’s relentless outward sprawl. Throw in the fact that most developers (including Atlantic) must make a percentage of their units be affordable housing for Section 8, as well as the fact that they at least made an effort to accomodate non-auto transit (bike and bus lanes), and I’m cautiously optimistic for the future of such developments. Perhaps, if a market is created for such places, a developer will eventually get it “right”.
Interestingly, I just got back from another horrendously smoggy urban sprawl: Jakarta, Indonesia. I counted at least three developments exactly like Atlantic Station, up to the same Western standards of luxury, right down to the condos and the underground parking. The difference is, the Jakarta versions were popping up in the middle of the slums, where people without sewage or running water bathed and brushed their teeth in the filthy ditches outside the security fence.
Two things to keep in mind about Atlantic Station: first, it is at least 5 years away from completion. Give it time to fill out (one hopes with some places which are not chains) and to get some age. Second, compare Atlantic Station with what would have been built on that site if the project had begun 15 years earlier. It would have been a single use (mall, office park, or suburban-style apartments), and it would have been difficult to walk anywhere.
For a better executed example of this kind of development, visit Glenwood Park (and remember it isn’t finished either).