Downtown Atlanta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Downtown Atlanta refers to the largest financial district in the city of Atlanta. Downtown Atlanta is full of historic buildings, elegant skyscrapers, sporting venues, many office buildings for various-sized corporations as well as county and state offices. Downtown is also the central tourist attraction of the city.
As defined by the Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) organization, the area measures approximately four square miles, and had 23,300 residents as of 2006.[1] This area is bound by North Avenue to the north, Boulevard to the east, Interstate 20 to the south, and Northside Drive to the west. This definition of Downtown Atlanta including central areas like Five Points and Fairlie-Poplar and outlying inner-city neighborhoods such as SoNo, and Castleberry Hill.
The Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (ADID) organization, though, defines a much smaller downtown area measuring just one and two tenths square miles. This area is roughly bound by North Avenue to the north, Piedmont Avenue and then Downtown Connector to the east, Martin Luther King Junior Drive, Courtland Street, and Edgewood Avenue to the south, and the railroad tracks to the west. This area only includes the core central business district neighborhoods of Fairlie-Poplar, Five Points, Centennial Hills, and as of May 2007, the Railroad District.
Downtown Atlanta, like other central business districts in the U.S., is undergoing a transformation that includes building condos and lofts, uninhabited buildings being renovated and/or demolished, and the influx of people and businesses coming to the area.
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[edit] History
Downtown Atlanta is the historic core of the city. The beginnings of what is currently Downtown Atlanta began in 1826 with Wilson Lumpkin and Hamilton Fulton surveying a possible railroad route between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Milledgeville, the state capitol at the time.[2] In 1833, Lumpkin, now governor, requests that the state legislature charter three railroad lines. By 1836, the state-financed Western and Atlantic Railroad, linking the middle Georgia to the northern U.S., was founded by the legislature and signed by Lumpkin. As a result, the town named Terminus is founded in 1837, which is named for the end of the railroad line.
Terminus recieved a name change in 1842 when the town's 30 inhabitants voted to change the town's name to Marthasville, in honor of Governor Lumpkin's daughter, Martha. By this time, Marthasville was a growing town, with seven streets- Marietta Street, Decatur Street, Peachtree Street, Whitehall Street, Pryor Street, Alabama Street, and Loyd Street (now Central Avenue- each of these seven streets exist today in Downtown.) Residents in 1844 turned down the town commissioners proposal to build more streets and were satisfied with the town's seven original streets.
By 1845, John Thomson, chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested that Marthasville's name be changed. The first suggestion was "Atlantica-Pacifica" but was quickly shortened to "Atlanta." Atlanta was derived as a supposedly feminine form of "Atlantic."[3]The name "Atlanta" becomes popular and town's name changes. In 1847, Atlanta is incorporated with its new name, with the town limits a one mile radius away from the mile marker at the railroad depot (which was roughly located at the current intersection of Pryor and Alabama Streets.) After the incorporation of Atlanta, a movement began to move the state capital from Milledgeville to Atlanta.
[edit] Overview
[edit] Buildings
The area of downtown contains among the tallest buildings in Atlanta. The tallest building in Atlanta, the Bank of America Plaza building, is situated between Midtown Atlanta and Downtown Atlanta. Rising at 1,023 feet[4], Bank of America Plaza is also the tallest building in any of the U.S. state capitals, and the tallest building in the U.S. outside of New York City and Chicago.
Downtown Atlanta is the heart and the largest of the three business districts of the city. This area contains striking architecture dating as far back as the 1800s. Some of the most famous and/or tallest buildings in Downtown include:
- Westin Peachtree Plaza
- Georgia-Pacific Tower
- Marriott Marquis
- Flatiron Building
- SunTrust Plaza
- 191 Peachtree Tower
- Bank of America Plaza
- Centennial Tower (or known as 101 Marietta)
- Equitable Building
- Peachtree Center
- State of Georgia Building
Downtown Atlanta contains over 22,000,000 square feet (2,000,000 m²) of office space; together with Midtown as the central business district they make up over 38 million[5] sq ft, more than the CBDs of Dallas[6] and Miami[7].
[edit] Subdistricts
Downtown Atlanta is divided into various subdistricts. Those subdistricts are as follows:
[edit] Tourism and Attractions
The most important business facilities in Atlanta are located in Downtown. Among the sports venues, Philips Arena and the Georgia Dome are located around Centennial Olympic Park with Turner Field located a within a mile of the Georgia State Capitol. The Atlanta Falcons, the city's football team, plays at the Georgia Dome, while the Atlanta Thrashers, the city's hockey team, plays at Phillips Arena and the Atlanta Braves, the city's baseball team, plays at Turner Field. When the Summer Olympic Games came to the city in 1996, Centennial Olympic Park was constructed. Today, it has been rebuilt to be a 21 acre public park in Downtown Atlanta. Centennial Olympic Park is bounded by Baker Street NW to the north, Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW to the east (formerly Techwood Drive NW), Marietta Street NW to the south, and Foundry Street NW and Luckie Street NW to the northwest.Woodruff Park is another public park located in the area bounded by Peachtree Street NW to the west, Edgewood Avenue SE to the south, Park Place NE to the east, and Auburn Avenue NE to the north.
Many other attractions were established around the Downtown area. Before the park was built, a popular place in the city was Underground Atlanta. This section of the city acts as a shopping and entertainment district for Atlanta citizens, built in a unique area- under the city's viaducts. The Georgia Aquarium is a newly built aquarium complex, being the largest in the world, located in the Centennial Hill section of Downtown. Not far away, the new, expanded version of the World of Coca-Cola opened in May 2007, which moved from its previous location near Underground Atlanta. The CNN Center is located not too far away, across from the southern entrance of Centennial Olympic Park on the 150 block of Marietta Street NW and perpendicular Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW. Other attractions include The Tabernacle, which is located at 152 Luckie Street, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Site, located at 450 Auburn Avenue, NE, and the Imagine It! The Children's Museum of Atlanta, located at 275 Centennial Olympic Park NW.
The Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta City Hall, Fulton County Courthouse and the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Building are some of the many government buildings in downtown, along with other local and federal facilities. The area that is south of the railroad gulch is generally where many of the local and federal facilites are located. Some exceptions to this is the State of Georgia Building, located at 2 Peachtree Street NW and the U.S. District Court of Appeals which is located in the Fairlie-Poplar District at the corner of Forsyth and Walton Streets. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which is currently located in Midtown at 1000 Peachtree Street NE, was previously located at 104 Marietta Street NW, which is now currently occupied by the State Bar of Georgia. The State of Georgia operates the Georgia World Congress Center, which provides the general services of a convention center for the city.
[edit] Tornado
On March 14, 2008, at approximately 9:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time, a category EF2 tornado hit downtown with winds up to 135 miles per hour. This tornado caused damage to Philips Arena, the Georgia Dome, Centennial Olympic Park, the CNN Center and the Georgia World Congress Center. This is the first time a tornado touched ground in downtown Atlanta since weather records keeping began in the 1880s. While there were dozens on injuries, there was only one fatality.[8]
[edit] Gallery
 AT&T Tower |
 Candler Building: An example of old architecture in Atlanta |
 Atlanta Public Library |
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 A small Downtown Plaza |
 An Atlanta Tourism information booth |
 An old Department Store |
 Peachtree Street |
 Residential High-rise Construction |
 Downtown MARTA Station at Peachtree Center |
.jpg/90px-191_Peachtree_Tower(1).jpg)
[edit] See also
- Peachtree Street
- Midtown Atlanta (Northern financial and residential district of Atlanta)
- Buckhead (Northern-most financial and residential district of Atlanta)
- List of skyscrapers
- 2008 Atlanta tornado outbreak
[edit] References
- ^ Downtown Atlanta Living Report 2006, accessed July 5, 2007
- ^ ATLANTA HISTORY, 1782-1859, accessed June 8, 2008
- ^ CAP/ADID Having Fun - Atlanta History, accessed June 8, 2008
- ^ http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=bankofamericaplaza-atlanta-ga-usa Bank of America Plaza, Atlanta/Emporis.com
- ^ Office Market Report Template.indd
- ^ http://www.colliersmn.com/prod/ccgrd.nsf/publish/D6404E72A4A79962862572A2007748AA/$File/Q4+2006+DFW+Office+Market+Report.pdf
- ^ Colliers Setup SPREADS
- ^ Tornado Claims One in Polk County by Tim Eberly and Paul Shea for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, March 15, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2008.
[edit] External links
- Official Website for the City of Atlanta
- Central Atlanta Progress, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District
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