Peachtree Center -- Atlanta GA
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member Benchmark Blasterz
N 33° 45.625 W 084° 23.234
16S E 741991 N 3738659
Peachtree Center in Atlanta -- an attempt at downtown revitalization that had the opposite effect
Waymark Code: WMWN5T
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 09/20/2017
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member pmaupin
Views: 4

Peachtree Center is located on NE Peachtree Street at Andrew Young International Blvd NE in downtown Atlanta. It's basically a big mall surrounded by convention hotels. It was intended to be a new and spiffy downtown for Atlanta -- but it didn't work out too well.

People in Atlanta should not feel bad: we made the same mistakes in Dallas, with our pedestrian subway connecting buildings underground. Even though we closed and blocked our underground passageways in Dallas, to push life back on the streets, it has taken DECADES to recover vibrancy in downtown Dallas.

From Wikipedia: (visit link)

"Peachtree Center is a district located in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the structures that make up the district were designed by Atlanta architect John C. Portman, Jr.. A defining feature of the Peachtree Center is a network of enclosed pedestrian sky bridges suspended above the street-level, which have garnered criticism for discouraging pedestrian street life. The district is served by the Peachtree Center MARTA station, providing access to rapid transit.

History

Intended to be the new downtown for Atlanta, Peachtree Center emerged as a distinct district in the early 1970s as a networked realm of convention hotels, shopping galleries, and office buildings a quarter-mile north of Five Points. Peachtree Center is notable for its uniform embodiment of the modern architectural style popular at the time. Yet the defining feature of Peachtree Center is its insular orientation, which allows patrons and workers to avoid interacting with the street level by traversing the area through sky bridges. By the mid-1980s, Peachtree Center had become the core of a dedicated hotel-convention district that lay at the heart of the Downtown economy, even as the remainder of Downtown Atlanta deteriorated markedly.

While at the time Peachtree Center was considered the salvation of a decaying downtown Atlanta, contemporary city planning is highly critical of such insular environments that "turn their back" on the city streets. Thus, as intown Atlanta began its post-1990 resurgence, Peachtree Center was increasingly criticized as an area that epitomized contemporary Atlanta's generic urbanity and sense of placelessness. Other critics claim that Peachtree Center is disorienting, killed downtown street-life, and disregarded the existing urban context.

Architecture
[table]

Economy

The U.S. Census Bureau has its Atlanta Regional Census Center in Suite 1000 in the Marquis Two Tower. Several additional U.S. Government agencies have their southeast regional offices located in the Harris Tower, including the Department of Transportation, Department of Labor, Small Business Administration, and Internal Revenue Service.

The Consulate-General of Argentina is located in Suite 2101 in the Marquis One Tower. The Consulate-General of Germany is located in Suite 901 of the Marquis Two Tower. The Consulate-General of South Korea is located in Suite 500 in the International Tower."
Wikipedia Url: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
To post a visit log to this waymark you need to visit and write about the actual physical location. Any pictures you take at the location would be great, as well.
Search for...
Geocaching.com Google Map
Google Maps
MapQuest
Bing Maps
Nearest Waymarks
Nearest Wikipedia Entries
Nearest Geocaches
Create a scavenger hunt using this waymark as the center point
Recent Visits/Logs:
Date Logged Log User Rating  
seal13 visited Peachtree Center -- Atlanta GA 09/13/2022 seal13 visited it
Benchmark Blasterz visited Peachtree Center -- Atlanta GA 07/30/2017 Benchmark Blasterz visited it
WayBetterFinder visited Peachtree Center -- Atlanta GA 10/17/2016 WayBetterFinder visited it

View all visits/logs