Ideas on how to break up the Buckhead Superblock?

[jero23]

Originally Posted by cqholt

The perimeter is not very walkable. Yes, there are sidewalks, but they only connect to strip malls surrounded by parking lots. Not very ped friendly.

I never said that is walkable, I said "pedestrian-friendly" which is a difference in terminology. The Perimeter Center Development is quite pedestrian friendly development for it to be a large mixed used development in the suburbs.

Originally Posted by JoeP

It's a horrible mess.

Quantify this? I mean there are portions of Buckhead that are typical suburban retail, but when compared to regional centers in the Metro Atlanta and the aformentioned Tysons district in Metro DC of similar caliber, it is far from being a "horrible mess". The area referenced in this map is a strong start of something that can be see more measure to increase density with time. Anyways, I can take you to other Southern major metros with similar districts that are the epitome of "horrible messes".

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Well, there's this from a couple of years ago:

Buckhead Pedestrian Connectivity Study.

Also, the updated SPI-12 legislation from last year is designed to break up superblocks.

If I'm not mistaken, GDOT specifically designed Lenox Road as a state highway (SR 141) when they rammed GA400 through the middle of Buckhead.

Supposedly, however, things like the PATH 400 trail and the gateway project will mitigate that somewhat. The new MARTA pedestrian bridge is also scheduled to open this spring.




via Flickr

i definitely like that.

i had an idea that, while it's very much in the tradition of atlanta, it would be expensive and would require a lot of funding from the city or federal government, but could potentially be a solution to the problem.

a lot of the area is depressed below the peachtree street/lenox road level. most of the buildings (excluding terminus) do not have active use or windowed spaces on the bottom floors. in addition, there are a lot of parking decks here and there that are not integrated well together.

my idea would be to demolish all of the existing parking decks and raise the de-facto "ground level" of the building by one or two floors, and building an atlantic station style parking deck that would wrap around all of the buildings below it. you could have a tunnel under GA 400 connecting the two parking decks along where the new marta pedestrian walkway is.

more later

[Ant131531]

I don't know...it would require a complete re-development...way too much development atm in that super block. It's amazing Buckhead has gotten so much development with such a terrible street grid that can easily lock up and create massive traffic jams. Incredible.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

a lot of the area is depressed below the peachtree street/lenox road level. most of the buildings (excluding terminus) do not have active use or windowed spaces on the bottom floors.

Beginning in the mid-90s all new buildings were required to have active uses at street level. Offhand I can't really think of any that don't. The recent SPI update has even more specific rules about fenestration, doors opening to the sidewalk, and the like.

Of course the city isn't going to spend money on streetscapes so this sort of stuff has to be done by private developers, the CIDs and GDOT. It's my understanding that several older buildings from the 70s and 80s are being updated to a more pedestrian friendly presence.

[UrbanConquistador]

Originally Posted by jero23

Buckhead is a very well put together pedestrian-friendly, regional center in the metro area.

Speech Aladeen - YouTube

[JoeP]

Quantify this? I mean there are portions of Buckhead that are typical suburban retail, but when compared to regional centers in the Metro Atlanta and the aformentioned Tysons district in Metro DC of similar caliber, it is far from being a "horrible mess".

It's not an urban core, it's the running away of downtown and setting up shop in an area not designed to be a downtown. Yes, it's a massive, mess. While it's great to have effort in this regard, the pockets here and there don't make the area that much less of a mess.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by JoeP

It's not an urban core, it's the running away of downtown and setting up shop in an area not designed to be a downtown.

But what are you gonna do?

Downtown businesses started moving to Midtown and Buckhead (and beyond) half a century ago. It was a pattern all over the country, and many considered it the wave of the future. Some cities decentralized even more than we did.

On the upside, many of the power players in Midtown and Buckhead are the same folks who hold the cards in downtown. Look over the roster of the downtown CID and you'll find that the majority are still camped out in the city limits. They are committed to downtown and have been working hard to make sure it stays viable.

That's not true everywhere. We're fortunate in that our business community has always been very supportive of downtown.