Box 4, Folder 15, Document 66

Box 4, Folder 15, Document 66



ATLANTA

42



Almost everything that catches
your eye in the aerial photo at
right is less than ten years old.

The freeway network; the big-
league sports stadium (1); the au-
ditorium-convention center (low-
er right-hand corner); the 41-
story First National Bank Build-
ing (2)—highest in the city, but
not for long)—and the six-build-
ing complex known as Peach-
tree Center (3)—these are only
the most conspicuous landmarks
of a $1.5-billion downtown build-
ing boom that, in less than one
short decade, has transformed At-
lanta from a slow-paced South-
ern town to what its boosters like
to call a “national city.” What
they mean by that term is that
Atlanta now exerts powerful eco-
nomie force beyond its region.

The spectacular boom didn’t
just happen by itself. It is
mostly the result of a vigor-
ous promotion campaign called
“Forward Atlanta” which was
launched in 1961 by government
and business leaders. The cam-
paign has 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 At-
lanta’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 At-
lanta’s advertising campaign
(“Atlanta: a new kind of city’’)
has been concentrated in the
North. “They’re the cats with the
bread,” explains Opie L. Shelton,
executive director of the Cham-
ber 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 thev
have been plunked down with



little regard for the environment
(the handsome Equitable Build-
ing (4) is the first to have a
landscaped plaza at its base, for
whatever that may be worth).

Publie projects have fared no
better. For all its closeness to
downtown, the stadium might as
well be miles away, since it is
eut off from the core by a mas-
sive freeway interchange. And
the auditorium-convention center
is inconvenient to the hotels
which generate most of its use—
and are, in turn, supported by
it. A third civie project, the mul-
tipurpose 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 civie and business
leaders are now waking up to the
fact that “bigger” and “better”
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 mak-
ing downtown Atlanta the “new
kind of city” its boosters now
claim it to be.

One is Architeet-Developer
John Portman’s Peachtree Cen-
ter, which is already Atlanta’s
biggest and best downtown de-
velopment, and promises to be-
come 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 pro-
posed metropolitan rapid transit
system converging at the center
of downtown, and a small-scale
pedestrian movement system loop-
ing the downtown area.

These six developments, and
what they could mean to down-
town Atlanta, are discussed on
the following eight pages.




a











Portman’s Peachtree Center
is the first major step
toward Atlanta's goal of

“a new kind of city"

Six buildings now compose Peachtree
Center: (1) the Merchandise Mart; (2)
the Peachtree Center office building;
(3) a Trailways bus terminal topped
by a four-level parking garage; (4) the
Regency Hyatt House Hotel with a re-
volving restaurant above its roof; (5)
the Gas Light: office tower; and (6) the
Twin Tower. A 200-room circular addi-
tion to the Regency is now under con-
struction (7); and a 70-story office-
apartment tower is scheduled to get
under way this year (8). Another
structure, as yet undisclosed, will rise
on a block adjacent to the center (9).

FORUM-—APRIL-1969



Durmg the '60s, while the rest
of downtown Atlanta was boom-
ing ehaotieally, John Portman
was ereating, step by step, the
city’s only cohesive complex of
integrated buildings and spaces.

Peachtree Center stands rather
aloofly apart from the clutter at
the downtown core and has, in
fact, become a little downtown
all of its own. The visitor to At-
lanta could easily have all of his
needs attended to within the six
buildings that currently eompose
the complex.

Both Peachtree Center and
John Portman'’s remarkable ea-
reer as an entrepreneur-archi-
tect got off the ground in 1961
with the 22-story Merchandise
Mart (1 on plan). Before he de-
signed and built the Mart, Port-
man—with his partner, H. Grif-
fith Edwards—had heen practic-
ing architecture in the conven-
tional way, and becoming increas-
ingly frustrated. Portman want-
ed to design large-scale urhan
developments, but no such com-
missions were coming his way.
So he decided: “If I come 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

Tn 1957, after Portman had
promoted a successful furniture
exhibition in a remodeled down-
town building, he came up with
the idea that Atlanta could sup-
port a big, new merchandise mart,
and that he could promote and
design it. Portman formed a de-
velopment corporation and se-
eured an $8-million loan from
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.,
plus additional backing from At-
lanta Realtor Ben Massell and
Dallas Developer Trammel Crow.

With Portman in complete con-
trol of its design and financing,
Peachtree Center was on its way.
In 1965, three years after the
Mart opened, Portman added the
Peachtree Center Building, a 30-
story office tower (2). Then, in
rapid succession, he built the
Trailways Bus Terminal topped
by a foar-deck parking structure
(3); the 21-story, 800-room Re-
gency Hyatt House Hotel (4);
the 25-story Gas Light Tower
(5); and its mirror-image Twin



Tower (6). He also dounled 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-room 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 70-
story tower containing 57 floors
of offices topped by 13 floors of
“corporate apartments.” The
apartments will be leased by
companies for housing and enter-
taining visiting executives and
important guests.

A harmonious whole

With one notable exception—the

soaring interior of its hotel (see
page 47)—Peachtree Center is
not a showease of exciting archi-
tecture. But the complex adds up
to more than the sum of its
parts. The individual buildings,
if not distinguished in design, are
at least harmonious in their re-
lationships. And Portman has
added plazas, landscaping, out-
door sculpture, and other touches
that tie the complex together at
ground level,

At night, Peachtree Center re-
mains bustling with activity long
after the rest of downtown has
closed up. The hotel, of course, is
the inajor nighttime attraction,
but Portman has placed a number
of restaurants in and among the
other buildings to assure after-
hours activity throughout the
center. Two of the restaurants
are located beneath the plaza
that separates the twin towers,
and two others are in the Mart—
one on the ground floor and
another on the roof,

Portman has also linked the
buildings with a series of en-
closed pedestrian bridges, and
claims that “you can go any-
where in Peachtree Center with-
out going outside.” The elaim 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 going outside, you have
to cross a bridge leading from
the hotel lohhy (4) to the hase of
the Gas Light Tower (5); take
an elevator to the 23rd floor; eross



a bridge spanning Peachtree
Street to the roof of the Mart(1);
eross another bridge connecting
the Mart with the 23rd floor of
the Peachtree Center Building
(2) ; and, finally, take another ele-
vator down to the lobby. Never-
theless, the bridges are a conven-
ience for those people who work
in the three office buildings.

Promotion vs. design

Some architects take a dim view
of Portman’s dual career, claim-
ing that his role 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
Regeney Hotel as a ease in point.
Portman asserts that the Regen-
ey, with its spectacular interior
courtyard rising the full height
of the building, would not have
been built if he had designed it
for a hotel client. (It was sold to
the Hyatt House chain after
construction was nearly com-
pleted.) One architect in a large
New York firm agrees. “We
tried to get one of our hotel
clients te aecept an interior
courtyard, and got nowhere,” he
said. “The client's first and last
reaction was ‘Look at all that
wasted space!’”’

The present Peachtree Center,
savs Portman, is only the nucleus
of what will eventually become a
“city within a city,’ containing
apartments, shops, theaters, and
a wide variety of other functions.
Portman is continually aequiring
parcels of land in the area, the
latest being a lease on an adja-
cent state-owned site (9) oeeu-
pied by an old hotel, which will
he demolished.

One of Portman’s future plans
involves the eity's proposed
rapid transit system, If it gets
built, one of its routes will prob-
ably burrow underneath Peach-
tree Street, which bisects Port-
man's complex, At the same time,
an underground roadway could
he built, and the street could be
turned into a pedestrian mall
(see page 50).

A pedestrian mall closing off
Penchtree Street would not only
enhance Peachtree Center, it
would provide a vital connecting
link between the center and the
rest of downtown Atlanta.

45


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Left: two of the four enclosed pedes-
trian bridges that connect the build-

ings of Peachtree Center. The one at
top spans Peachtree Street from the
23rd floor of the Gas Light Tower to
: the roof of the Merchandise Mart,
j 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 is 223 ft. high and 140 ft.
across, enclosed on all four sides by
cantilevered balconies which serve as
corridors for the 800 guest rooms.
The glassed-in elevator cars rise
along the outside of a rectangular
ore at one side of the courtyard.







The parking structure pictured above
is the first phase of a $500-million,
multilevel air-rights project planned by
Developer Thomas G. Cousins. It will

contain office buildings, hotels, shops,
and possibly a sports arena.

Dallas Developer Raymond D. Nasher’s
$200-million development will lie be-
tween the government center (note
State Capitol on model photo below)
and the Georgia State College campus
(opposite). The buildings will rise
above a multilevel platform (right).

i


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 planning, the three
projects pictured on these pages
eould be the springboard for
making downtown Atlanta a
multilevel “platform city,’ in
which all the transportation and
pedestrian activities would be
sorted out and meshed in a series
of interrelated levels.
® The flat-topped parking strue-
ture pictured on the opposite
page is the first phase of what
will probably be the largest of
the three projects. It will be built
on air rights over a downtown
railroad yard. Its developer,
Thomas G. Cousins of Atlanta,
has not released details of his
plan, but it has been reported
that the development will repre-
sent an investment of some $500
million and will contain office
buildings, apartments, hotels,
stores, and possibly a_ sports
arena. Arehitects for the devel-
opment are Toombs, Amisano &
Wells of Atlanta.
© On a pie-shaped site adjacent
to Atlanta’s state-county-city
rovernment center, Dallas Devel-
oper Raymond D. Nasher will
build Park Place, an 18-acre,
$200-million complex that will
also rise above railroad tracks.
Tis first building, a 22-story office
strueture, is now being designed,
and plans eall for construction
of a hotel, additional office build-
ings, 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 500,000-
sq.-ft. Urban Life Center (model
photo) designed by Finch, Alex-
ander, Barnes, Rothschild & Pas-
chal. It will draw upon all the
school’s departments to carry out
comprehensive studies of the
urban ecology. Georgia State’s
master plan was prepared by
Robert & Co, of Atlanta.

The almost simultaneous emer-
gence of the three multilevel de-











Georgia State College is being devel-

oped on a 40-acre downtown site,
much of it on platforms above street
level (plan below). The campus will in-
clude an Urban Life Center (above), in
which students and’ practitioners from
many fields will explore the social, po-
litical, economic, and physical aspects
alee un Nis ,

URBAN LIFE CENTER

A .

a | a a




velopments flanking the center
of downtown has suddenly made
.| the possibility of creating a “‘plat-
form city” more than just a
dream. “The potential is fantas-
tie,” says Planner Robert W.
Bivens, “This thing is absolutely
loaded.”

Bivens is executive director of
Central Atlanta Progress Ine.
(CAP), a unique public-private
planning organization set up by
the city’s civie and _ business
leaders to coordinate and guide
the future development of down-
town. Working with funds pro-
| vided by the business community,
| the city, and the federal govern-
ment, 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 ele-
ments to work with:
© A proposed rapid-transitsystem
(dotted lines on conceptual dia-
gram 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 con-
tinuous pedestrian concourse. (A
referendum to construct a 44-
mile metropolitan transit system
was defeated at the polls last
November, but its advocates con-
sider the turndown only a tempo-
rary setback. The plan is now
being restudied by the Metropoli-
tan Atlanta Rapid Transit Au-
thority, and a revised proposal
will be presented to the voters
at a later date.)
® A small-scale movement sys-
tem (dotted lines) serving pedes-
trians in the downtown area.
Atlanta—along with Dallas, Den-
ver, 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
eentral transportation systems
that will “blend with the human
environment.”

@ “Railroad Gulch,” a vast area
of downtown railroad yards
erisserossed overhead by a net-
work of elevated street viaducts.
The gulch and its viaducts pro-
vide a built-in framework for
development of the “platform

50



city.” The . «er and Cousins
projects, both of which use air
rights over sections of the gulch,
are the first to take advantage of
this framework, and Georgia
State’s platform over existing,
grade-level streets will tie in with
it. CAP’s plan will establish
guidelines for incorporating fu-
ture projects into the framework.
(There are likely to be many op-
portunities to do so, since the
size of downtown is expected to
double by 1983, and the guleh
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 Hou-
shang Fahadi, a member of
CAP’s staff, to stimulate commu-
nity discussion leading to the
development of a master plan.

At the upper right-hand corner
of the modei photo are the Geor-
gia State campus, the Nasher
development, and the government
center (note the dome of the
State Capitol) ; at the lower left-
hand corner is the Cousins proj-
ect; and between them is the
circular Transit Center. From
this nucleus, a network of traf-
fie-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 ears and transit, plus a mez-
zanine-level pedestrian concourse
lined with shops.

Atlanta’s “platform city” is a
long way from fruition, but the
city’s decision-makers, both pub-
lic and private, have already
demonstrated that they consider
it more than just a vague possi-
bility. As the first year’s public-
private effort, they have jointly
provided some $300,000 to fi-
nance studies by CAP and the
city’s planning staff. “This repre-
sents a new dimension,” says
Planner Donald G. Ingram,
CAP’s associate director, who is
coordinating the effort. “With
both the city and the business
eommunity committed to it, we
think we ean make it happen.”



















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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 pro-
posed 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 “mini-
system” (dashed lines) for transport-
ing pedestrians throughout the down-
town area. The result would be a
multilevel network separating cars,
transit, and people in a series of in-
terrelated levels.

PHOTOGRAPHS: Page 43, Wray Stu-
dio; pages 44 and 48 (top); William
A. Barnes.

FORUM-APRIL-1969

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