ATL Urbanist
Recent Posts
An Empty Public Space at Atlantic Station, Atlanta
| | No Comments
An empty public space at Atlantic Station, Atlanta.
Build it and they will come? Only if the overall urban design is done well. That’s the lesson that can be learned from this empty plaza.
Taking a Mother’s Day shopping trip to the Atlantic Station Target, I looked out the window to see a fairly nice looking public plaza, filled with inviting seating and greenery. So, where are the people? It’s a lovely day to be outside.
A few details from the surroundings provide clues to solve the mystery of the missing people. The Target sits on top of a large supply of free parking, with the entrance to the store being easily accessible from the parking lot. Why walk? Just drive in, walk into the store, back to the car and drive out. Easy peasy.
Also, the plaza is surrounded by what I call the “butt ends” of buildings. Blank, windowless walls, utilities and a parking garage entrance are all across the street.
The retail portion of Atlantic Station does provide a mixed-use, open-air experience (offices and apartments are all around), but the design of the place still contains elements of the traditional enclosed malls of the previous retail era – namely, lots of exterior blank walls and a lack of integration with the surrounding urban neighborhoods. It’s an island; a very clever one that is an improvement over enclosed malls, but it still needs to be more of a seamless piece with the mainland in the long run.
I don’t mean to be dismissive of whole of Atlantic Station and its significance to the city. When it was developed on the site of the abandoned Atlantic Steel Mill, it provided a model for brownfield recovery and mixed uses – and it did so in a city not widely known for either. But there’s much room for improvement, particularly with other Atlanta smart-growth projects now poised to outpace it in terms of urban design, transit access and bike-ability.
How a Look at the Past Can Inform Atlanta’s Conversation About Transit
| | No Comments
Joe Hurley at the Georgia State University library recently pointed me to a cool project that some of his students put together. It’s an online tool called “Tracing a History of Atlanta’s Public Transit” – it uses archived data and documents to map the various transit routes planned throughout the history of Atlanta.Joe writes this in a GSU blog post:Since MARTA’s 1960s inception it was planned to be a far-reaching, regional transit system. In each decade since MARTA’s beginnings, the agency proposed routes that would have made MARTA a truly expansive system. A number of these proposed MARTA routes can now be visualized in Tracing a History of Atlanta’s Public TransitThe finished piece is fascinating – the image above, of 1928 streetcar routes, is a glimpse into a time when transportation planners were focused on moving Atlantans by way of a comprehensive street-rail system. I wondered about the process behind this project and what it revealed to the creators of it. Much like the experience of walking on the Atlanta BeltLine for the first time and seeing historic city neighborhoods from a different perspective, I assumed (correctly, it turns out) that the journey these researchers took to assemble this data had been a revealing one.Let’s take a deep dive into that process and some of the thoughts gleaned from it; here are comments from three of the students who created this tool and also a final word from Joe.Nicole Ryerson, student:Nicole notes that the transit plans from Atlanta’s history tended to focus too heavily on bringing outsiders into the city, and doing so at the expense of serving the transit needs of intowners better.“I was just surprised at the lack of concern or planning for transit within the city limits. Although I acknowledge that our metro area was expanding, these planners wanted people to come into the city. Yet, I did not find one document that referenced a want or need to try and create a vibrant transit system for city residents.” On the importance of these plans to today’s conversation about transit, Nicole writes this: “If people could see how connected the city was by the original streetcar, they would want to strive for that again (I know I was angry and frustrated when I saw how efficient our city could have been if we kept those lines). If people could see what the city could be, I think they would be more apt to endorse future projects.”Rumman Shakib Ahmed, student:Shakib came away wondering about the missed opportunities to expand Atlanta’s heavy rail further into the outer reaches of the region.“I think the first tab, 1960s, is the most interesting to me. These were the first public plans released and you can compare it to what we have now. These maps, along with the other ones, make you think. Why were some expansions never put into place? There were so many routes going through northwest Atlanta towards Marietta, even from 1960, but as we all know nothing exists there now or even for the near future.”Alexandra Orrego, student:It seems Alexandro had the same reaction that I did when I first saw Atlanta’s old streetcar maps – what an amazing reach those systems had! And what a contrast thwy are to the relatively limited reach of MARTA rail lines."I think what was most shocking when putting this project together was how extensive the old Atlanta Streetcar system was. It was both far reaching to greater Atlanta areas and considerably intricate in downtown Atlanta. When comparing the 1928 map with today’s existing MARTA rail line, It’s hard to believe how after about 50 years the MARTA rail system has not even been able to reach its original goals.”Joe Hurley, GSU:According to Joe, it’s particularly important for people in the Atlanta region to understand the transit-planning challenges of the past and to bring them into a modern day conversation about the region’s needs:“Opinions on public transit seem to be changing as more people across the region look favorably to transit. We wanted to bring this data to the public so that the region’s citizens and leaders could clearly see that MARTA has always been planned to serve the metro Atlanta area. We hope that this project contributes to a better understanding of MARTA’s long and continuing struggle to serve the region. And as more people begin to support the idea of a true regional transportation system, being able to view these old transit proposals might bring them back on the planning table.”
A Creative Resurgence in Atlanta’s Historic Center
| | No Comments
SOUTH DOWNTOWN: a creative resurgence in Atlanta’s historic centerThe area of Downtown Atlanta south of Marietta Street, seen in the above photos, is notorious for being home to an oversupply of parking lots where city blocks once stood and monolithic government buildings that are empty on nights and weekends. But it’s also home to a some residential buildings, a walkable street grid, empty old structures full of potential and, more recently, a group of newcomers hoping to change the neighborhood for the better.There’s a good article this week in the National Journal about Atlanta’s long-troubled South Downtown district and the way that some local organizations have successfully made a home there in recent years – while also becoming invested in its revival. Read it here:Historic Atlanta Is Dead. Can These Young Creatives Revive It? : They’re bringing performance art and lofty urban planning to a forgotten part of the city—and it might revitalize the old downtown.One of the neighborhood organizations mentioned in the piece is Center for Civic Innovation housed in the M Rich Building. Here’s a quote:“CCI tries to make the public sector more efficient and increase civic engagement by partnering with nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, and government agencies that are working on similar issues. Organizing a plan to revitalize the very neighborhood where the organization is headquartered only makes sense.”I was part of a Code for Atlanta event earlier this year at CCI where I contributed to the new SouthDowntown.org website. It’s very exciting to take part in an effort to rethink and rebuild a place in the core of the city that’s been neglected for years. South Downtown was, in the 1990s, where I first became truly connected to the city by way of cool performance & art venues that opened up inside old buildings that sit within the blight and desolation of parking lots (for a view of what used to exist here and what became of it, see this post). I’m constantly impressed by the creative things Atlantans can do with difficult settings. One arts org that’s still around, and has returned to the neighborhood after several years in other locations, is Eyedrum, which is currently renovating a 1920s building as a multi-faceted arts space. The photo above at bottom right is of a recent Condesa Coffee pop-up event inside Eyedrum. On bottom left is a photo of a Sever mural on Broad Street being repainted. Top left shows a HENSE mural also on Broad Street (both murals sit on mostly or completely empty buildings – though this block also contains the wonderful Mammal Gallery and Miller’s Rexall). The top right one is a view of Peachtree Street facing north from MLK.
Yet More MARTA Transit-Oriented Development News
| | No Comments
Yet more MARTA transit-oriented development news: yay! Nothing has broken ground yet: boo!The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that MARTA will soon request proposals for residential & retail construction on 6 acres (!) around the Arts Center Station in Midtown; the rendering above shows what a proposal might look like. News about another transit-oriented development for Oakland City Station will come later this summer, according to the Chronicle.While I’m very happy about these transit-oriented development plans for Atlanta, I’m growing impatient about seeing one of them actually break ground. Over two years ago there was a report that the King Memorial Station TOD was expected to break ground in 2013. Nothing has happened. In fact, several MARTA stations have been slated for TOD remakes in the past few years, though none have broken ground yet. I’m going to be as patient as possible, though, because I firmly believe that these plans to grow new density near transit stations – instead of near highway exits and arterial roads that have no station nearby – are the most important urban development in Atlanta’s future. When they do finally come to fruition, the projects will be part of a sea change that takes rail transit stations in Atlanta out of the realm of largely park-and-ride usage and into a world of good urbanism (caveat: as long as they are designed well). In addition to the TOD plans, there are also MARTA stations experiencing adjacent development that’s simply market driven, which is equally exciting. The most prominent is the redevelopment of the GM plant site at Doraville Station, though Midtown Station is also getting a lot of new construction nearby – and that’s already happening! No wait necessary.
Atlanta’s Street-Renaming Fever Rises Again
| | No Comments
This is a photo of a map in a MARTA station. Look at those short, simple, classic street names in the center of Downtown: Spring, Cone, Fairlie, Walton, Forsyth. These names are easy to remember and have been a constant part of Atlanta street maps for well over a century.Now a city councilman is sponsoring a push by some prominent, powerful Atlantans to have Spring renamed as “Ted Turner Drive.” Get ready to reprint all those maps and wayfinding signage! Creative Loafing has a full report, which also explores Atlanta’s chronic problem with honorary street renaming. Word on the street (ha!) is that the business owners on Spring are on board with the renaming. Which is meaningless since there are so few businesses there – it’s mostly a desolate stretch of parking facilities and loading docks on the butt ends of towers. With the absence of thriving street-level businesses and offices and residents on Spring, Atlanta is able to once again erase a bit of its history, relatively unchallenged. Meanwhile, everyone has to change their maps and directions in a section of town that already confuses people.
This business of powerful, moneyed people lobbying for renaming of streets on behalf of friends – it’s concerning. An honor like street renaming should be something that is embraced by the entire community. When it comes solely from the rich and powerful, while other members of the neighborhood are having their voices ignored (the Downtown neighborhood association opposes the move), that’s an uneven system.Atlanta leaders need to find a better way to honor people. Turner is certainly deserving of an honor, but not this way. If it turns out that the renaming is inevitable, can we at least work out a deal that improves the area around Ted Turner’s condo (it sits above the Ted’s Montanan Grill at the corner of Spring and Luckie)? I’d like to see Turner sell his massive surface parking lot for redevelopment, since it’s taking up space beside the streetcar route that could be put to much more appropriate use. Pretty please?
Happy Earth Day!
| | No Comments
Happy Earth Day!As I’ve stated before: there’s an eco-urbanist ideal that lies at the heart of what
makes me a proponent of livable, compact cities: “if you love nature, live apart from it.” Compact urban growth leaves more room for unbuilt land (a.k.a. “nature”) to exist elsewhere – something that’s particularly important in a growing population that uses an increasing amount of resources. A post at Better Institutions says it well:We move from the city to the suburb or the rural town to be
closer to nature, and to make it habitable (for us) we clear-cut it for
new development, pave it over and turn woods and grasslands into
manicured lawns, pollute it with our vehicles, etc. In our efforts to
possess a small slice of “nature,” we change the meaning of the word,
leaving us with something beautiful, perhaps, but far from natural.And yes, we should have trees and parks in our urban places. Just don’t confuse those
small, disconnected bits of green as being significant natural environments. Because, though it’s important to be as “green” as possible within our built environments, good habitats for true biodiversity exist
beyond the reach of constant asphalt and rooftops. Photo: Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area
When Smart Growth Gets Dumbed Down by Parking
| | No Comments
A few years ago, a prominent urban writer called Atlanta’s Glenwood Park “one of the most environmentally sustainable” smart-growth projects in the US. He pointed out specifically that “residents’ rates of driving and carbon emissions from transportation will be much lower than metro Atlanta’s regional average.” Read the full article, from 2009, here. How odd it is that this showcase for smart growth in Atlanta will get a massive parking lot for a neighbor along with all the car traffic that will bring. Curbed Atlanta has the report on a new mixed-use development next to Glenwood Park that will feature an enormous Kroger grocery store (2.5 times the size of the average Atlanta store) fronted by a surface parking lot. To make matters worse, alongside the new development is the route for a planned segment of the Atlanta BeltLine – a project that is also a local smart-growth success story, one that connects city neighborhoods together with pedestrian and cycling paths and green spaces instead of just car routes. The cars that enter and exit this new parking lot will create traffic that hinders the growth of pedestrian and cycling activity on surrounding streets, something that could disrupt the ‘get people out of their cars and into active transportation’ goal of the BeltLine. Also, the surface lot (along with the other smooth surfaces of the rooftops of these massive structures) will contribute to the urban heat island – already a serious problem for Atlanta – while also dispensing polluted rainwater runoff to the ground. What a strange neighbor this will be for two of Atlanta’s finest examples of urban sustainability. I hope this project ends up being an anomaly and that other new retail developments around the BeltLine and smart-growth nodes end up encouraging bike/ped traffic and safety much more so than car traffic.
MARTA Expansion Is a Popular Idea in Some Atlanta Suburbs
| | No Comments
I took the photo above while riding the MARTA train home. It shows the traffic headed in the general direction of the northern suburbs of Atlanta. I thought about this view when I read the quote below from this week’s Are Georgia Republicans Learning to Love the MARTA Train? in NextCity:“I was maybe the first Republican to say it out loud, but many of us have been thinking it for a while. Roads and cars, in and of themselves, cannot move the enormous number of people who have to be moved.”– Rusty Paul, mayor of Sandy SpringsThat this quote comes from the Republican mayor of a city in the northern suburbs of Atlanta is significant. Long unpopular with the largely red areas in the outer parts of the Atlanta region, MARTA rail has suddenly become interesting to both leaders and commuters in the traffic-choked, sprawling ‘burbs.Things are looking up for an expansion of the Red Line it to the north parts of Fulton County, with public meetings happening and an environmental review in the works. And there are plans for rail expansion into Clayton County to the south of the City of Atlanta. Clayton recently became the third county, after Fulton and Dekalb, to join MARTA, paying for it with an approved sales tax. The agency is currently putting together a study of what use rail would get in the county.And in a fairly surprising news item this week, a recent survey shows that voters in Gwinnett County (northeast of the City of Atlanta) want MARTA extended into the county and they are willing to pay for it. Gwinnett is a particularly hard sell for transit, being very spread out and pretty lacking in walkable urban centers. These developments promise to put a fascinating spin on the long story of transit in metro Atlanta. The original plan was for MARTA to connect the five core counties of the region. But in 1971, voters in Clayton joined those in Gwinnett County in rejecting support for MARTA. Cobb County had already rejected it a few years earlier. That left only the remaining two, Fulton and Dekalb, as the service areas for the system.What will the system’s service area look like 20 or 30 years from now? It seems like serious growth is in the future for transit. But I wonder if the region’s built environment is ready for it. Specifically in Gwinnett, I think that a plan for the growth of walkable density is needed before MARTA could seriously consider trying to serve that area.
Improvements Versus Innovation on an Atlanta Street
| | No Comments
It’s nice to see what’s happening to Ponce de Leon Avenue in Midtown Atlanta (we usually just call it “Ponce” around here). Slowly, it’s getting transformed into a street that interacts with its surroundings in an inviting way for pedestrians and cyclists. Which is a much-needed change considering that it passes under the BeltLine Eastside trail. For decades, Ponce was – and still is in some spots – a six-lane nightmare of car-centric street making that was a pretty foul place to ride a bike or even walk. Here’s what it looked like in 2013, where is goes past the BeltLine; it’s actually seven lanes wide at this point:And here’s that same stretch of road now. Notice that a car lane has been removed on each side and converted to bike lanes. This treatment only last for a few blocks (after which the bike lanes unceremoniously disappear), but it’s a good start:My family lived in this area for a couple of years and I remember how awful it was to walk along and to cross Ponce de Leon as a pedestrian. It was very unwelcoming and it felt like a dangerous place to be when you were outside of a car. We’ve walked here recently and it’s much improved, though still not great.An upcoming streetscaping project could improve things further. According to the Atlanta BeltLine website, work on the project (funded by a Livable Centers Initiative grant) could begin in 2017 and will include “sidewalks improvements,
planting strips, increased lighting, buffered bike lanes, and vertical
connections to the Eastside [BeltLine] Trail.“Here’s an image of the streetscape plan:An urbanist colleague of mine, Matt Garbett, noted that the street plan will consist of 51 feet of road, 10 feet of bike lanes, and 10-14 feet of sidewalk. Looking at those numbers, I wondered if there’s room for even more improvement here. This is a major street, after all, that is intersecting with a trail that’s often considered to be one of the most significant urban improvement projects in the US. Something I saw during my recent trip to NYC but wasn’t able to get a good photo of was a long section of Allen Street, in the Lower East Side, that contained what basically looked like a multi-use path running down the center. That’s what I call an innovative street plan. And I can’t help but wonder if Atlanta is aiming too low with what is merely an improved street here. Surely something as bold at the BeltLine is deserving of innovation in its surroundings. We want people to be able to connect with it, after all, in a safe way on foot and on bike. And we also need safe lanes for cyclists to use outside of the BeltLine.
Transpo Troubles Rise From Choices About How and Where We Build
| | No Comments
Transpo troubles rise from choices about how and where we buildThis comes from a larger infographic about sustainable transportation – see the full image (from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) at the bottom of this page. The gist of it: the further we have to drive to jobs, the more money we spend on transportation costs. Putting jobs and homes closer together – or at least connected them with alternatives like public transportation and cycling – is better for the economy overall.As I wrote recently, the hidden costs of transportation in Atlanta’s car-centric sprawl are
considerable. The region draws people to its suburbs by way of home prices
that are relatively affordable. But when you factor in transportation
costs, the Atlanta region is one of the least
affordable places in the US for moderate-income households.We need to make good choices about both how and where we build. It’s obvious that doing the right thing continues to be a struggle for the Atlanta region – even projects that appear to have components of urbanism on the surface can be troublesome when you look at the big picture. Consider the new Mercedes-Benz headquarters coming to Sandy Springs (just north of the City of Atlanta). According to this news piece, it will be part of a mixed-use development that has some good features in itself:The Sandy Springs development will include more than 1,000 housing units, 30 acres of greenspace and the future headquarters for Mercedes-Benz.Density of housing, mixed uses, greenspace – it all sounds like good urbanism expect for one crucial factor…how do people get there? Michael Hadden of New Urban Roswell points out the failure of the project to be truly sustainable: Hadden says his biggest critique of the new project in Sandy Springs is that it’s not close to public transit.I guess it’s not entirely surprising that a car company would end up locating in a spot that embraces drive-to urbanism. But it’s also indicative of the poor choices we make about where we build. Though a mixed-use project like this will probably result in fewer car trips overall, if it is reachable only by car then it is, 1.) not doing all it should to be truly sustainable; 2.) not part of an equitable built environment – people who can’t afford to own cars aren’t invited to this party.
A New Plaza in Place of a Broad Street Block
| | No Comments
A new plaza in place of a Broad Street block, Downtown Atlanta
In Downtown, the northernmost block of Broad Street is now closed to car traffic. The planters went up just this evening. It’s like Streets Alive every day! But just for one block. It will certainly make it easier to cross here as a pedestrian.
I have to wonder if that “Do Not Enter” sign is needed, given the planters. The sign kinda gacks up an otherwise nice urban vista here. Broad Street is the prettiest street in the city in my highly biased opinion.
The city plans to eventually turn this block into a plaza. I have mixed feelings — we have a *lot* of plazas nearby already and they aren’t all being used well. But it will be very interesting to see how this new car-free public space gets used. GSU student hangout? Office worker lunch zone? An extension of the Woodruff Park plaza that’s largely used by people experiencing homelessness? All of the above? I know that I for one will have my street hockey league sign-up sheet posted soon.
BTW, those dumpsters in the background are for the renovation work happening at the Flatiron Building. Very excited about that project. My neighborhood is changing before my eyes! Streetcar; Renovated old buildings; Beautiful new GSU law school; New plaza. What next?
Atlanta Streetcar Service to Remain Free Through End of 2015
| | No Comments
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced at the Central Atlanta Progress meeting this week that rides on the Atlanta Streetcar will remain free through the end of 2015. The original plan was for pay service to start in April.This is a smart move. The streetcar is experiencing, from what I’ve seen, high ridership on weekends as it shuttles people between the King Historic District, Sweet Auburn Curb Market and Centennial Olympic Park. I think it’s good for the city to keep up that ridership for now, particularly in the face of challenges around the route — and challenges for streetcars in general.Foggy future for streetcar-expansion fundingThis recent NY Times piece echoes something that’s been explored in several other recent news articles: the streetcar revival in US cities of recent years is taking a hit, mostly due to the expense of building the lines. Here’s a quote:Even the most ardent streetcar supporters acknowledge that the challenges are daunting, though they argue that the rewards far outweigh the costs in terms of the economic development and quality of life that make cities more livable and attractive.The completion of Atlanta’s streetcar is a stroke of luck for us. It may have just squeaked through during the tail end of a trend that saw significant political support for the economic benefits of these rail lines to cities. The thing I’m wondering: will be be able to get money for expanding our little 2.7 mile loop? Can we stretch this streetcar to the Beltline and beyond?With future funding prospects potentially diminished, thanks to the end of this trend of support, it’s increasingly important for city leaders to ensure that the economic impact of Atlanta’s streetcar is solid, far-reaching and apparent to all. The expense of expanding our short line will require incredible political will to undertake — meaning that a quantifiable return on that major investment is going to be essential. And it has to be *everywhere* on the route, not just in spots.Facing up to challenges on the Atlanta Streetcar routeOne of the major tests for Atlanta’s line is whether or not it can revive long-troubled Auburn Avenue. Doing so would fulfill the streetcar’s stated goals from the application for federal TIGER grant money — which funded half of the build out.As I’ve noted before, there is a lot of blight still on Auburn Avenue. At three of the stops on Auburn you can see plenty of empty spaces going unused except as occasional parking lots, abandoned buildings boarded up waiting for either use or demolition, and empty lots that are doing little but holding up billboards. And yet if you ask the city, you’ll hear that all is well — that the streetcar has produced hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. From the City of Atlanta website:"If you want to get a look at revitalization in the making, hop on the new Atlanta Street Car. At every stop along the 2.7 mile route, you
will see how over $300 million in development has infused new life in
Atlanta’s historic neighborhoods." If the first step in solving a problem is admitting that one exists, the city is having trouble taking that first step. There may be $300 million in investment that’s gone into places elsewhere on the route — perhaps in the way of office tower upgrades or new GSU construction or events facilities — but seeing that money in action on Auburn Avenue, in the blocks just west of Martin Luther King Jr.’s final resting place and birth home, will mean true success. At least we’ll have free rides for now, and maybe some of those riders will help nudge property owners into a better land use that fills in Auburn Avenue blight with uses that are more appropriate for accompanying new street rail.