Piedmont Park: The Expansion
Decatur Metro | April 25, 2011
I must say, I quite enjoyed reading Jonathan Lerner’s review of Piedmont Park’s recent expansion on ArtsCriticATL.com, partly because he explained that “the expansion also adds a kind of environment — and a sense of escape into nature — that’s been missing until now.” However, I also enjoyed it also he used his review to readdress the whole Piedmont Park parking deck debate. Here’s a quote…
…the parking deck is a fait accompli. If you are still steamed about it, a visit to the new extension — which makes the park big enough, meandering enough and woodsy enough to let you imagine getting safely and therapeutically lost — should go a long way toward calming you down. The expansion is a work in progress and will remain one for some time to come. But it’s already obvious that it’s a wonderful thing. This intown citizen’s opinion? Yes in Our Back Yard.
But I was left wanting more hi-res photos. Fortunately, great Atlanta photographer Josh D. Weiss took a stroll through the expansion over the weekend and came back with a photo series that made all my fleeting online wishes come true!
Photo above used with permission
Anyone who still has a problem with that parking deck is just searching for a problem. That deck is so out of the way and can’t be seen from anywhere in the park. It is awesome that it is there.
I was very adamantly and vocally opposed to the deck. My opposition was based as much as what I saw as the stupidity of putting a parking deck into a PARK, and because of the undemocratic process used to ram it though. It seemed as ridiculous as the earlier (and defeated) proposal to put a sewerage treatment plant in the park at Monroe Drive. Well the years pass, I do feel better. The park is looking good and doing well. What a fabulous resource for Atlanta region.
I hadn’t been to Piedmont in quite a while, but have biked around it twice in the last week or so and am amazed at what it’s become. It really feels like Central Park to me now (although, of course, it’s only a fraction of Central Park in terms of acreage). As in CP, there are all these distinctly different parts to it, many of them breathtakingly beautiful. Like CP, it’s a place where you want to stay all day, sampling what it’s like to hang out in these different areas. And like CP, it’s filled with people, but somehow accommodates them all in a way that feels delightful.
I’m so impressed by what they’ve done, and the parking deck, besides being badly needed, and besides making all these improvements possible, is actually — dare I say it? — rather attractive. If nothing else, it’s tucked in so artfully that it’s almost impossible to object to.
All in all, one of the sweetest developments in Atlanta in years. And it looks like Old 4th Ward Park is going to be wonderful too. Can’t wait to see what it looks like when all the green spaces have opened up.
Enthusiastically seconded!
Thanks for highlighting the parking deck comment. People may forget just what an incredibly emotional issue that was for Atlantans around the park. It really evolved into power struggle between the NPU system and Mayor Franklin. Thankfully that’s over with, and from what I can tell the deck has had no negative impact on the park or its visitors.
I love that deck, it does not detract from the park and it makes going to the park or the botanical garden so much easier.