Peachtree Arcade
I have seen the story in the city discussions page on the old Burlington strip mall that was converted into a vendor friendly primarily Latino mall in the metro area along with the discussion of dead/dying malls.
I was searching around on Wikipedia reading about what is happening to the old Shannon Mall and ran across the article on the Peachtree Arcade. My father said he remembers it fondly and it was before my mother moved to Atlanta. Perhaps from a square footage perspective its not what a developer would want to do but particularly in Midtown, someone should recreate the arcade. This seems like the perfect enclosed environment that has a urban relation to the street, particularly if it was created using neo-classical architecture. I've visited the arcades in London and Glasgow and they are areas that get a lot of visitors, especially for higher end businesses. |
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imagine what atlanta would have looked like if we had kept all of these historic structures and only used up empty lots to build new buildings...
as much as MARTA has done well for the city, the construction of the five points station along with the remodel of underground atlanta totally messed up that area. it is really going to have to be rebuilt from the ground up. if you're interested, asheville has a similar sort of arcade, only the bottom floor is retail however. really wish i could have seen this in person! |
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I honestly think Fuqua would be good here. Although I'm not a fan of many of his developments, he obviously can get things done and I don't think he would take on a project where it wouldn't be successful. Despite how much we hate some of his developments, the majority, from what I can tell, have all been successful. He clearly also has the connections with big box retailers and could maybe lure one into downtown, with an urban friendly design, to provide a much needed presence (especially on the grocer side) to the students and residents. I think downtown's more stringent building codes would also keep his preferred suburban style development in check.
While normally I lament the loss of our historic buildings, especially seeing pictures of scenes like the above, I think the Underground needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. I don't see any forced "use", like an artist haven or whatever, succeeding there, nor do I see any kitchy mall type development working. I think a vibrant, livable downtown would be better than trying to make Underground work. |
What is left of Old Atlanta remains in Underground, to tear that down would be tantmount to leveling what quality buildings remain downtown from the 19th century.
I'm all for tearing out the modernization of UA but don't level it. I would fight that tooth and nail. |
Something has to change for that area though. Even if it's sealing it off and making it a museum while building something new ontop. The costs to do that are probably prohibitive I'd guess. But as a downtown resident for almost 7 years and downtown employee for 10 something has to happen with Underground. It is a disgrace and an embarassment to the entire city that it exists at that location.
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Its a disgrace because the city government let it get to that point.
Its akin to the decline of downtown in general and Atlanta needs a mayor has the guts to go into the downtown area and clean it up (read: the Times Square transformation. Downtown may not be Times Square but the problems are similar to what NYC had in the late 80s and early 90s). Do NOT tear down Underground Atlanta. Its the people that hang out down there, its the poor stores and the terrible 80s mall redo that was done to it 30 years ago. It can be fixed but it requires leadership. |
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The undoing of Underground started with the Rodney King riots, and Mayor Bill Campbell's refusal to even attempt to control the situation on that horrible day. I worked Downtown then, and remember it vividly. Now it's leased to someone that is obviously beyond clueless, and the City's priorities have changed. The nasty vendors that used to surround the MARTA station have been gone for quite some time. Quote:
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^^^^ I agree. :tup: Underground should not be torn down.
Maybe the groundlevel (Underground) of Downtown can be re-energized with the completion of the new Atlanta Falcons stadium which is proposed to be situated on the groundlevel streets. The groundlevel streets are mainly used for parking and tailgating now. The proposed MMPT also utilizes the groundlevel streets and may even help re-energize the Underground area. Atlanta should make a concerted effort to save as much historical structures as possible especially in that part of town. Underground is some of the most interesting history of Atlanta. Atlanta's railroad and transportation past should be celebrated more. Using hindsight, either the demolished Union Station and Terminal Station could have served as railroad museums. It's numbing to me that the Terminal Station was demolished for boxy dull RBR Federal Building (was there no other place to put that building other than where Terminal Station stood). I would hate to see something similar happen to Underground. |
I go downtown often...I have close friends who work at Georgia State. And iMHO downtown, at least in the Five Points area is dangerous and dumpy. I hear about GSU reinvesting in the area but there are too many sketchy characters just hanging out in 5 Points.
Plus I went to UA back in the 80s...it sucked. It was a mall, a terrible 80s mall. Those who did go to the UA in the 70s say they killed all the character at UA. And finally I don't know why I'm not qualified to offer an opinion. I'm a native Atlantan...I grew up in Atlanta. . |
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Underground in the late 80's after the Rouse redevelopment was incredibly busy, and very popular. It was most certainly not a terrible 80's mall, by any stretch of the imagination. Those that saw and experienced Underground in the 70's have a faded and romanticized memory of an area that had fabulous character and was an extremely popular destination, but is was sketchy as hell on the fringes and not safe until you were actually inside its confines. It was Atlanta's de facto French Quarter back then. Due to surrounding crime, it rapidly declined and mostly sat empty for years rotting away, and was even further damaged by MARTA construction. The City and Rouse changed that in a big way in the late 80's. I don't doubt that you are a native of the area, but living and growing up in Cherokee County almost 40 miles + from the actual City is hardly the same as being from 'Atlanta.' You have never really posted much of anything even remotely accurate about Downtown, and your posting history confirms it. I apologize for coming across harshly. However, the last thing we need is people no longer from here that claim to be current on the situation Downtown, while spouting off second-hand stories and personal opinion as fact. I'm not buying any of it. Going by your statements, I can't even imagine you living in NOLA if you consider Five Points dangerous. |
I'm not sure if any of you were here during the 90's...The demise of Underground despite of what some of these papers say wasn't after the Rodney King riots. Business was booming up until maybe a month or two after the 1996 Olympics. IMHO, Downtown was much better then, than it is now. There was more life Downtown...especially in the Five Points area.
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I agree that business was booming but even further into the late 1990s to 2000 even. The loss of bank employees (NationsBank, Wachovia, etc) due to mergers and Norfolk Southern employees (to Midtown) had an effect on businesses too - especially during the day. I worked in the area throughout the late 1990s - during and well after the Olympics. The choice of restaurants was much different than now. They were many more sitdown waited-on restaurants (Mick's, Dante's, Ruby Tuesday, Lombardi's and even others in Kenny's Alley). Underground Atlanta was often a choice when making a lunch decision with a client or our Hump Day afterhour, etc. I was down in the area rather recently for business meeting and the life of the area is much different than what I remember when I worked there in the late 1990s. :tup: I agree wholeheartedly with you there was more life in the southern part of Downtown and at Underground back then than my recent visit. |
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