Building has new life, and new address, too
I’ve been meaning to post a story I produced about the old Macy’s building in downtown Atlanta since last week. And a story in yesterday’s AJC reminded me to get going.
My piece was for WABE 90.1, and focused on one aspect of this building’s renewal: it now has two addresses. The upper floors of the building will remain 180 Peachtree Street, but the lower three floors, which are being converted to event and conference space, have been “re-addressed” to 200 Peachtree because the owners think that has more cachet.
You can find my piece here, and the AJC piece here. The AJC piece is very interesting, and goes into much more detail about the history of the building.
Addresses can be an interesting thing for companies. There are companies off of Powers Ferry Road in COBB COUNTY that have an Atlanta mailing address. I always find that one funny because the companies didn’t see fit to locate in Atlanta, but they know that around the country and around the world, no one knows Marietta but everyone knows Atlanta.
I hope the investors succeed in turning 200 Peachtree into a grand space. As I told one of the investors, even if I have a natural skepticism about any real estate development now and especially in downtown Atlanta, I am at the same time naturally excited by the idea of restoring a grand old building like the Macy’s building.
Baltimore Row — hidden gem in downtown Atlanta
Baltimore Row is a block of century-old rowhomes that’s virtually hidden in downtown Atlanta.
Why do I say hidden? Well here’s a photo of one thing that’s obstructing the row of homes:
Oh look it’s our friend (frenemy?) Ugly Surface Parking! And on the other side of the block is the highway (you know, the thing that’s probably done more to ruin our city than anything else, outside of our own stupidity).
There’s a historical marker there that says there were more homes just like this on the spot, but that they were torn down over the years.
Hundreds and thousands of stately brick homes like these adorn other cities around the nation (namely Baltimore, Charleston, New York, Savannah, Boston, Philadelphia, etc.) Here we’re lucky to have a dozen or so of the homes left.
Well at least we have the weather. Get out there and enjoy it this weekend!
One day downtown
One day recently I wandered around downtown Atlanta. Here’s what caught my eye.
A shot from the wildly popular pho place in the Fairlie-Poplar district. In some ways, it’s a great compliment that filmmakers sometimes shoot in this area when they want to affect a New York streetscape but don’t want the hassle and cost of an actual NYC streetscape. And yet sometimes it feels like the rest of Atlanta doesn’t even know this neighborhood exists.
To hear tell, you’d think we didn’t get successful businessmen like this guy walking around downtown. But there he is, having some international business conference call after a wolfing down the best falafel in town.
Nowadays downtown, with all the Georgia State students, you really see every type of person. Not every type of homeless person but every type of industrious, going-somewhere, doing-something kind of person.
And there’s some really great streetscaping and some cool buildings. Some awful streetscaping and awful buildings, too, but I didn’t photograph that. On this one day, I was just enjoying what cool stuff we do have.
It’s more than enough for us to build on.
Last downtown pedestrian bridge
I read this story about downtown Atlanta’s last pedestrian bridge in the AJC, and I just thought, why even build the last one?
(The story is meant to alert readers of a street closure because of the construction, and I have no quarrel with the story).
The bridge will connect several downtown hotels, and a Hyatt spokeswoman notes it will likely be the last pedestrian bridge built downtown because an ordinance is now in effect that bans construction of such streetscape-killing pieces of infrastructure.
The spokeswoman says connecting the hotels will boost economic development. Perhaps it’s intended for when there’s a conference in one hotel but some attendees are staying in another spot.
But this ain’t Minneapolis! Despite the weird Global Cooling Atlanta is seeing, surely hotel guests can descend to the street and walk across to reach the other hotel — n’est-ce pas?
The perfect city building? I think so.
I love this building at Peachtree and Fifth.
It adheres to the classic city architecture form that includes retail on the ground floor and residential on the upper floors.
It’s stately, and given the controversy over building plans at 10th and Monroe, it’s really not too tall. I mean, does this building offend or worry anyone?
I think it would be pretty cool to walk downstairs and slip into a chic bistro (Eno) for dinner or just a drink.
Look at the afternoon sunlight streaming in the windows!
And when you’re returning home from errands, you can pat yourself on the back that you live in a building that adds to the richness of the neighborhood, instead of detracting.
So what am I getting at?
Well if you have something that works — and I don’t think this building has gone into foreclosure and I looked at property records for residents and I don’t see a lot of foreclosure notices — why not replicate it?
To be sure, there are other buildings of a similar size in the city. This one, for example, which houses Utrecht art supply on the ground floor:
But, well, how about some more?
Gosh I see empty lots all over Atlanta and I wonder if people are thinking a little too big. On the other hand, I like that the folks who built this building understood this is a city; one and two-story buildings need not apply. At the same time, it’s not so large that neighborhood groups begin to agitate when the developers make the proposal.
The perfect city building, no?
Boulevard crosswalk: the finale (for now)
You may recall I was trying to use the power of citizen activism to make my neighborhood more pedestrian-friendly.
I often walk up Boulevard from Grant Park to Cabbagetown or Oakland Cemetery, crossing over Interstate 20 (I even see people jogging through this area).
Unfortunately, while there are crosswalks as you walk over the on and off ramps for I-20, the ‘walk/don’t walk’ lights were not working great and I thought it would be helpful to walkers if there could be a short interval in which cars were prohibited from entering the crosswalk.
And so I enlisted Councilwoman Carla Smith, who represents my district on City Council, to see if the DOT couldn’t see its way to helping us out (since the crosswalks are part of interstate on/off ramps, they fall under the DOT’s jurisdiction).
You can find my last post about it here. Carla managed to find a sympathetic ear at the DOT, which conducted a study of the crosswalk, but as she told me recently, we can’t get what we want.
The DOT has agreed to refresh the crosswalks, and I’ve noticed the ‘walk/don’t walk’ signs are working better, specifically by giving walkers a longer period of time to cross the street before flashing the orange ‘don’t walk’ symbol.
But it’s really not enough because cars can still enter the crosswalk even if the ‘walk’ light is on, as you can see in the photo above.
If you look at the photo, you’ll see the white, solid ‘walk’ symbol.
And yet there is a car moving through the intersection.
So can I really safely cross the intersection on foot? Uh not really.
Carla said all is not lost — she’s ever the optimist — and thinks we may be able to revisit the issue again with the DOT.
But for now, watch it when you walk up Boulevard. It may be called Boulevard but there are many spots where you are not meant to stroll.
Doors of Inman Park
I did my own personal photo hunt one day in Inman Park, and here’s a glimpse of what I came up with.
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Keep walking — in Boston, that is
Happy New Year friends!
From Jeanne’s “broken record” file, I offer a link to a great story in the New York Times on a Boston neighborhood that has been revitalized in part by the burying of one of the city’s main highways, which previously cut through the neighborhood like a gash, separating areas that should have been joined and making walking unpleasant, if not treacherous.
My favorite line? “Keep walking” — the author, Sara Rimer, uses the phrase twice as she describes fantastic itineraries that take visitors and residents alike through the city’s North End and along HarborWalk, which is a 34-mile path along the water.
Yes, yes broken record. But I’m not talking about New York, and I’m not talking about a city that was born perfect.
I’m talking about a city that 30 years ago began re-planning areas so people could enjoy city life where it’s meant to be enjoyed — out in the streets (some of the best things I saw last night on New Year’s Eve were out in the street — including a bride dashing along Crescent Avenue after midnight).
You know, as in,
When I’m out in the street,
I walk the way I wanna to walk
When I’m out in the street, girl
Well, I never feel alone
When I’m out in the street, girl
In the crowd I feel at home
(Thanks Bruce!)
Enjoy the story here!
Scaffolding down at Ponce and P’tree — finally
An old beauty has finally been allowed to show her face, and what a face it is.
This building at the corner of Ponce and Peachtree in Midtown has had scaffolding in front of it for, shoot, I don’t know — a year? Two years? And now finally the scaffolding is down and we can see just how gorgeous is it.
I’m sure you know this building because its iconic curved facade was the reason one of Atlanta’s old trolley lines cut an arc when it turned onto Ponce from Peachtree Street (you can see the arc in this small photo).
I think I’ve mentioned before that this little historical marker across from the Fox Theater just makes me sad because it says, “Look at your past progress, Atlanta. Now all you have is a plaque to mark the spot where you used to have something productive.”
Anyway, let’s not get away from the main purpose here, which is to admire one of Midtown’s best buildings. In fact, I’m going to take a page from Architectural Tourist’s book and note some of the great features of this building.
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Tour of Ctown’s Stacks — urban living with a twist
Over the weekend, the Stacks at Fulton Cotton Mill in Cabbagetown held their annual loft and artists’ studio tours.
The highlight of the tour is probably the loft that includes what I will call the bell tower, the highest point of the mill’s main building and perhaps its most distinctive feature, which can be seen from various points around the city. The home has 65-foot ceilings!
But it’s also interesting to peer through the windows of one loft to gain a view of another part of the complex — a little bit like living in the apartment complex in Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” without the wife killing. The industrial shape of the exterior of the complex and the common courtyard space were as intriguing as the interior of the lofts, as funky as they are.
To have reclaimed the space and then converted it to residential living enriches that part of Atlanta immeasurably.
Terry at the Architectural Tourist blog took some fantastic photos of the event. See his slide show here, and make a mental note to check out the tour next year.
Our new website!
