Comments on: Atlantic Station, what exactly are you doing?

By: Remy

Remy — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:45:37 +0000

Atlantic Station was a great idea for Atlanta especially as it relates to the Live and Work (Quality Growth Development) created throughout the country. The concept is fine, however the issue of Atlanta’s identity remains questionable since I moved here from Chicago. We have culture, bridges and arcs that compliment the city, rather than asking the question of “what the hell is that?” when people look at the architecture. That’s exactly the question my boyfriend asked when he noticed the Arc de Triomphe. There is a little thing called Urban Planning that appears to be lacking to make sense of all this growth. You just can’t build a development in most cities unless it makes sense to the overall theme.

Once Atlanta decides to choose its theme as a growing city where they are not youthful, but not New York, fake but not LA, traffic ridden but not DC, new, but not Las Vegas, things will be better for us all. It’s a basic marketing question, “what is the scope”? It has yet to be defined, which is why we have architecture elements that fail to compliment one another. Spanish Colonial, Lofts and Georgian homes just seemed confused on one street.

By: gurn blanston

gurn blanston — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:36:25 +0000

this guy is the biggest [edited] to come out of atlanta since john fitzgerald page. http://johnfitzgeraldpage.com/default.aspx

what a pathetic display of look-at-me under the transparent film of philanthorpy and “supporting” the arts. it’s a shame. $15MM could have really been used to do something significant.

good work [edited].

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:53:09 +0000

What a dissappointment Atlantic Station is. Gosh, it is so ugly…who in the world would want to live there? I don’t get it. Though I always ask myself who would want to live in a development on the side of a highway. You think after a while the freeway starts to take on that comforting hum…kind of like the ocean?

By: rydog

rydog — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:42:35 +0000

I like the arch. It’s interesting — great conversation piece, and brings some character to that area. They’ve constructed it to last (it’s stone, not EIFS). While the surrounding condos aren’t great, the arch will look good with the completed Atlantic tower. Most monuments are not well received by the masses when first built, but become appreciated over time. I think that will be the case here. The cheap condos on either side of it are temporary, 20-year apartment construction. When you build a monument, you are thinking longer term than that. The arch will be there long after the condos are gone and replaced by something better. Would you feel differently if they’d built the arch in downtown Decatur? I think we have another (smaller) arch in Atlanta, if I recall. On Peachtree near the Suntrust tower.

By: Robbie C

Robbie C — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:12:14 +0000

Great reference to Country Club plaza Scott. I used to call it home and always appreciated the great detail in the structures. Even though the stores are largely the same as AS (or any other generic mall), spending time on the plaza always somehow seemed like an improvement over the typical shopping expereince.
As for the arch de shopping, I’ve been scratching my head about that as well. I can’t say I like it, certainly don’t understand it, but I suppose that anything different or slightly out of place will attract derision from the peanut gallery (myself included).