I’m thrilled to hear that this building, a block away from both the buildings I’ve worked at for the past 4 years, is going to be re-opened. It will house the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. I’ve always thought it was a beautiful building from the outside and I hope I can get a peek inside once it re-opens.
As pointed out by ATL Urbanist, there are a lot of exciting developments around these blocks of downtown: new GSU graduate schools, GSU dorms, and the streetcar. However, this building is also surrounded by a sea of parking lots and concrete parking garages, which do not make for an inviting streetscape. At the corner of Peachtree Center and Ellis, there are two surface lots and two garages (GP across Ellis and the slightly more aesthetic 191 across Peachtree Center). Further down the block are 3 more surface lots and another garage.
While the garages are there to stay it would seem, it would be wonderful to see the surface lots redeveloped some day. As a regular at the GP garage, I know that there are several open floors at the top every day that could easily accommodate the cars from those surface lots. At the moment, the price of parking is minimal at those surface lots, so I would be curious to know how much they really produce in revenue relative to other opportunities. With all the announced moves into downtown (Coca-Cola, GSU expansions), I wonder how long the downtown parking glut will last and if we will see parking prices rise.
Urban Resurgens 