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Reprint "ATIANTA" From the April 1969 Issue of Forum Magazine Reproduced for the Directors of Central Atlanta Progress, Inc. �ATLANTA Almost everything that catches your eye in the aerial photo at right is less than ten years old. The freeway network; the bigleague sports stadium (1); the auditorium-convention center (lower right-hand corner); the 41story First National Ba.nk Building (2)-highest in the city, but not for long )-and the six-building complex known as Peachtree Center (3)-tbese are only the most conspicuous landmarks of a $1.5-billion downtown building boom that, in less than one short decade, has transformed Atlanta from a slow-paced Southern town to what its boosters like to call a "national city." What they mean by that term is that Atlanta now exerts powerful economic force beyond its region. The spectacular boom didn't just happen by itself. It is mostly the result of a vigorous promotion campaign called "Forward Atlanta" which was launched in 1961 by government and business leaders. The campaign bas been so successful that more than 130 cities have sent delegations to Atlanta, hoping to learn the secret of its success. They would be well advised to start by getting a mayor like Atlanta's Ivan Allen Jr., who took office in 1962. As president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1961, Allen was instrumental in getting the Forward Atlanta program started. After that, as mayor, Allen saw to it that the city participated fully in the public-private effort. Virtually all of Forward Atlanta's advertising campaign ("Atlanta: a new kind of city" ) bas been concentrated in the North. "They're the cats with the bread," explains Opie L. Shelton, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce. So far, downtown Atlanta's spectacular boom has been mostly a matter of quantity, not quality. The towering new office buildings are impressive more for their size than for their design, and they have been plunked down with 42 little regard for the environment (the handsome Equitable Building ( 4) is the first to have a landscaped plaza at its base, for whatever that may be worth) . Public projects have fared no better. For all its closeness to downtown, the stadium might as well be miles away, since it is cut off from the core by a massive freeway interchange. And the auditorium-convention center is inconvenient to the hotels which generate most of its use-and are, in turn, supported hy it. A third civic project, the multipurpose Memorial Arts Center completed last year, would have been a natural for downtown, but it was built in a residential neighborhood. Possibly, a new kind of city Atlanta's civic and business leaders are now waking up to the fact that "bigger" and "bette1·" are not always synonymous, and they have begun laying plans to assure that the future growth of downtown embodies both. Their plans-and hopes- are centered on six key developments that could serve as catalysts for making downtown Atlanta the "new kind of city" its boosters now claim it to be. One is Architect-Developer John Portman's Peachtree Center, which is already Atlanta's biggest and best downtown development, and promises to become much more so. Three others are large air-rights developments flanking the core of downtown: Developer Raymond D. Nasher's Park Place project (5 ), the Georgia State College campus (6), and Developer Thomas G. Cousins' project (7) . The fifth and sixth elements are a proposed . metropolitan rapid transit system converging at the center of downtown, and a small-scale pedestrian movement system looping the downtown area. These sL'l: developments, and what they could mean to downto,yn Atlanta, are discussed on the following eight pag es. ���( ., Portman's Peachtree Center is the first major step toward Atlanta's goal of "a new kind of city" Durmg the '60s, while the rest of downtown Atlanta was booming chaotically, J ohn Portman was creating, step by step, the city's only cohesive complex of integrated buildings and spaces. Peachtree Center stands r ather aloofly apart from the clutter at the downtown core and has, in fact, become a little downtown all of its own. The visitor to Atlanta could easily have all of his needs at tended to within the six buildings that currently compose the complex. Both Peachtree Center and John Portman's remarkable career as an entrepreneur-architect got off the ground in 1961 with the 22-story Merchandise Mart ( 1 on plan). Before he designed and built the Mart, Portman-with his partner, H . Griffith Edwards- had been practicing ar chitecture in the conventional way, and beco ming increasingly frustrated. Portman wanted to design large-scale urban developments, but no such commissions were coming his way. So he decided : "If I co me up with an idea and promote and develop it myself, there won't be any question about who is going to be the architect." The first idea Six buildings now compose Peachtree Center: (1) the Merchandise Mart; (2) the Peachtree Center office building; (3) a Trailways bus termi nal topped by a four-level parking garage; (4) the Regency Hyatt House Hotel with a revolving resta urant above its roof; (5) t he Gas Light- office t ower; and (6) the Twin Tower. A 200-room circular addit ion to the Regency is now under construction (7); and a 70-story officeapartment tower is scheduled to get under way this year (8). Another structure, as yet undisclosed, will rise on a block adjacent t o the center (9). FORUM-APRIL-1969 In 1957, after P ortman had promoted a successfu l furniture exhibition in a r emod eled downt own building, he came up with the idea that Atlanta could support a big, new merchandise mart, and that he could promote and design it. Portman formed a development corporation and secured an $8-mi llion loan from Metropolita n Life Insurance Co ., plus additional backing from Atlanta Realtor Ben lVIassell and Dallas Developer Trammel Crow. With Portman in complete control of its design and financing, Peachtree Center was on its way. In 1965, three years after the Mart opened, Portman added th e Peachtree Center Building, a 30story office tower (2). Then, in r apid succession, he built the Trailways Bus Terminal topped by a fo.ir-deck parking structure (3); t.he 21-story, 800-room Regency Hyatt House Hotel (4) ; the 25-story Gas Light Tower (5); and its mirror-image Twin Tower (6). He also douuled the size of the original Mart to 2 million sq. ft. in 1968, making it the second largest in the world ( after Chicago's). Now under construction is a circular, 200-roorn addition to the Regency ( 7). And later this year, on a site behind the twin towers (8 ), construction will start on Peachtree Center's (and the city's) tallest building: a 70story tower containing 57 floors of offices topped by 13 flo ors of "corporate apartments." The apartments will be leased by ro mpanies for housing and entertaining visiting executives and important guests. A harmon ious whole With one notable exception-the soaring interior of its hotel (see page 47)-Peachtree Center is not a showcase of exciting ar chitecture. But the co mplex adds up to more than the sum of its parts. The individual buildings, if not distinguish ed in design, are at least harmonious in their r elationships. And Portn1an has added pla zns, landscaping, outdoor seulplure, and other tou ches that ti e the co mpl ex together at ground level. J\ t night, P eachtree Center r emains bustling with activity long after th e r est of downtown has closed up. The hotel, of course, is the major nighttime nttraction, but Portman has placed a number of r estaurants in and among th e other buildings to assure afterhours activi ty throughout th e center. Two of the restaurants are located ben ea th the plaza that separates the twin towers, and two others are in the Martone on the ground floor and another on the roof. Portman has also linked the buildings with a series of en closed p edestrian bridges, and cla ims th at "you can go anywhere in Peachtree Center without going outside." The claim is true, as far as it goes . But if, for example, you want to get from the hotel to the lobby of the Peachtree Center Building without goi ng outside, ~-ou ham to cross a bridge leading from the hotel lohh)· ( 4) to the base of the G'as Light Tower (5 ); take an elevator to the 23rd floor ; cross a bridge spanning Peachtree Street to the roof of the Mart(l); cross another bridge connecting th e Mart with the 23rd floor of th e P eachtree Center Building (2); and, finally, take another elevator down to the lobby. Nevertheless, the bridges are a convenience for th ose people who work in th e three office buildings. f>romotion vs. design Some architects take a dim view of Portman's dual career, claiming that his ro le as a developer compromises his integrity as an architect. Portman denies that there is any conflict of interest, and he cites his design of the Regency Hotel as a case in point. Portman asserts th at the Regency, with its spectacular interior courtyard rising the full height of the building, would not ha ve been built if he had designed it for a hotel client. (It was sold to the Hyatt House chain after construction was nearly completed.) One arch itect in a large New York firm agrees. "We tried to get one of our hotel clients to accept an interior courty ard, and got nowhere," he said. " Th e clien t's firs t a nd last r eaction was 'Look at all that wasted space !' " The present Peachtree Center, says Portman, is only th e nucleus of wh at will eventually beco me a "city within a city," conta ining apa rtments, shops, theaters, and a wide variety of other functions. Portman is continually acquiring parcels of land in the area, the lates t being a lease on an adjacent state-owned site (9) occupied by an old hotel, which will be demo lished. One of Portman's future plans involves th e city's proposed rap id tr ansit system. If it gets built, one of its routes will probably burrow underneath Peachtree Street, wh ich bisects Portman's complex . At the same time, an underground roadway could be built, a nd th e street could be turned into a pedestrian mall (see page 50). A pedestrian mall closing off Peachtree Street would not only enhance P eachtree Center, it would provide a vital conn ecting link between the center and th e rest of downtown At lanta. 45 �.. Left: two of the four enclosed pedestrian bridges that connect the buildings of Peachtree Center. The one at top spans Peachtree Street from the 2 3rd floor of the Gas Light Tower to the roof of the Merchandise Maf1, where a restaurant is located . The bridge in the photo at left connects the Mart with a parking garage. Right: the skylit interior courtyard of the Regency Hyatt House Hotel. The space 1s 223 ft . high and 140 It. across, enclosed on all four sides by ca ntilevered balconies which serve as corridors f9r the 800 guest rooms. Th e g la ssed -i n e l ev a tor cars rise along t he outside of a rectangular core at one side of the courtyard . ���' The Cousins, Nasher and Georgia State projects could be the start of a vast "platform city" FORUM- APRIL- 1969 W ,. a little luck and a lot of coordinated p lanning, the three projects pictured on these pages could be the spr ingboard for making downtown Atlanta a multile,·el "platform city," in which all the t ransportation and pedestr ian activities would be sorted out and meshed in a series of interrelated levels. • The flat-topped parking structure pictured on the opposite page is the first phase of what wi ll probably be the largest of the three projects. It will be built on air rights over a downtown railroad yard. Its developer, Tho111as G. Cousins of Atlanta, has not released details of his plan, but it has been reported that the development will represent an investment of some $500 million and will contain office buildings, apartments, hotels, stores, and possibly a sports arena. Architects for the develop111ent are Toombs, Amisano & ·wPils of Atlanta. • On a pie-shaped site adjacent to Atlanta's state-county-city govern111ent center, Dallas De,·eloper Raymond D. Nasher will build Park Place, an 18-acrc, $200-million complex that will also rise above railroad tracks. Ifs first building, a 22-story office stru cture, is now being designed, a nd plans call for construction of a hotel, additional office buildings, apartments, and a shopping concourse beneath a landscaped plaza. Architects are Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (New York) and Finch, Alexander, Barnes, Rothschild & Paschal of Atlanta. • The third development, the Georgia State College campus, is already under way in a 40-acre area lying adjacent to the Park Place site. When it is completed in 1975, the campus will rest on a pedestrian platform built over existing streets. The focal point of the campus will be a 500,000sq.-ft. Urban Life Center (model photo) designed by Finch, Alexander, Barnes, Rothschild & Paschal. It will draw upon all the school's departments to carry out co111prehensive studies of the nrban ecology. Georgia State's master plan was prepared by Robert & Co. of Atlanta. The al111ost simultaneous emergence of the three multilevel de- �I_ velopments flanking the center of downtown has suddenly made , the possibility of creating a "platform city" more than just a dream. "The potential is fantastic," says Planner Robert W. Bivens. "This thing is absolutely loaded. Bivens is executive director of Central Atlanta Progress Inc. (CAP), a unique public-private planning organization set up by -the city's civic and business leaders to coordinate and guide the future development of down-town. Working with funds provided by the business commun~ty, the city, and the federal government, CAP is now conducting planning studies that eventually will lead to a comprehensive set of guidelines for creating the "platform city." In addition to the three big air-right projects, CAP has these three major elements to work with: • A proposed rapid-transitsystern ( dotted lines on conceptual diagram at right) converging at a downtown Transit Center located between the three new platform developments. Its underground mezzanine would tie in with the three developments to form a continuous pedestr ian concourse. (A referendum to construct a 44mile metropolitan transit system was defeated at the polls last November, but its advocates consider the turndown only a temporary setback. The plan is now being restudied by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, and a revised proposal will be presented to the voters at a later date. ) • A small-scale movement system ( dotted lines) serving pedestrians in the downtown area. Atlanta-along with Dallas, Denver, and Seattle-was selected last month by the Department of Transportation to participate in a $1.5-million "action program" leading to the development of cent ral transportation systems that will blend with the human environment." • " Railroad Gulch," a vast area of downtown railroad yards crisscrossed overhead by a network of elevated street viaducts. The gulch and its viaducts p rovide a built-in f ramework for development of the "platform 50 . city." The _ .1er and Cousins projects, both of which use air rights over sections of the gnlch, are the first to take advantage of this framework, and Georgia State's platform over existing, grade-level streets will tie in with it. CA.P's plan will establish guidelines for incorporating future projects into the framework. (There are likely to be many opportunities to do so, since the size of downtown is expected to double by 1983, and the gulch will be the most desirable area for the growth ·to take place.) Multilevel network If CAP is able to coordinate and guide all of these converging elements, the result could be a downtown something like the model pictured on the opposite page. It was prepared by Houshang Fahadi, a member of CA.P's staff, to stimulate community discussion leading to the development of a master plan. At the upper right-hand corner of the model photo are the Georgia State campus, the Nasher development, and the government center (note the dome of the State Capitol); at the lower lefthand corner is the Cousins project; and between them is the circular Transit Center. From this nucleus, a network of traffic-free pedestrian platforms spreads out in all directions to tie in with the existing downtown and with new developments in the railroad gulch. Beneath the platforms are separated levels for cars and transit, plus a mezzanine-level pedestrian concourse lined with shops. Atlanta's "platform city" is a long way from fruition, but the city's decision-makers, both public and private, have already demonstrated that they consider it more than just a vague possibility. As the first year's publicprivate effort, they have jointly provided some $300,000 to finance studies by CAP and the city's planning staff. "This represents a new dimension," says Planner Donald G. Ingram, CA.P 's associate director, who is coordinating the effort. " With both the city and the business community committed to it, we think we can make it happen ." The conceptual diagram above and the model pictured on the opposite page are the initial steps in down• town Atlanta's plan for becoming the nation's first "platform city. The plan centers on four large existing or proposed downtown developments: (1) the Georgia State College campus; (2) Park Place; (3) a third large air-rights development; and (4) Peachtree Cen· ter. Incorporated In the plan are a proposed rapid-transit system (dotted lines) converging at a Transit Center in the downtown core, and a "minisystem" (dashed lines) for transporting pedestrians througt,out the downtown area. The result would be a multilevel network separating cars, t ransit, and people in a series of interrelated levels. PHOTOGRAPHS: Page 43, Wray Studio; pages 44 and 48 (top); William A. Barnes. FORUM- APRIL-1 969 ��• • CENTRAL ATLANTA PLANNING PROffiAM Joint Study by Central Atlanta Progress, Inco and the Ci ty of Atlanta Planning Department �