Pride in city sure to last
Millennium Gate will be fitting tribute
By Bob Barr
For the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/03/07
I have been proud to call Atlanta my home for nearly three decades. Pride in my hometown is born of the vibrancy, vision and vitality of this great, but still young, city.
The natural beauty of Atlanta's rolling, still-heavily treed terrain combines with a population that is both demographically and culturally diverse to create an allure that is more than skin-deep. The city's status as a financial, transportation, technology and banking nexus helps significantly to keep the metropolitan area from stagnating. The beauty of Atlanta's residential neighborhoods compares favorably to that of any other American city. Its magnificent office buildings attract businesses large and small from across the country and around the globe.
Is the city perfect? Of course not. Traffic is a recurrent migraine. Crime rates, while below those of a generation ago and still far better than many other major U.S. cities, remain unacceptably high. And the humidity's a real bummer.
Still and all in all, there are few things in which Atlanta is wanting. But there is one thing Atlanta lacks, and we cannot blame it all on the deplorable antics of one William Tecumseh Sherman, the Yankee general who decided to burn this fair city to the ground some 142 years ago. Atlanta is sorely and obviously lacking in monuments of substance and beauty. Yes, we have beautiful, modern skyscrapers and low-rise office, entertainment, hotel and convention complexes. And Centennial Olympic Park graces the heart of downtown.
But where are the memorials —- the statues of substance that grace city squares, churches, even government buildings in other great cities of the world? Where are those monuments at which visitors and residents alike can gaze over and over again in awe of their intrinsic beauty as well as for the visions of history and ages past they conjure in our minds?
Sadly, they just aren't here. The "City Too Busy to Hate" has been a city too busy to memorialize. Thankfully, because of the efforts of a small but dedicated group of Atlantans, that void is about to be filled.
This past Saturday, in that large patch of green grass that remains part of the revitalized Atlantic Station, ground was broken for an awesomely beautiful monument: The Millennium Gate.
When finished by the end of 2008, The Millennium Gate —- with its six-story monument gate rivaling in beauty the great Roman triumphal arches found in great European cities, and adorned with bronze sculptures by world-renowned sculptors —- will bring to Atlanta beauty on par with that of any other city, anywhere.
The Millennium Gate project, as envisioned and planned by Rodney M. Cook Jr., president of the tax-exempt parent organization National Monuments Foundation Inc., is much more than a beautiful monument with attendant lawn, terrace and colonnade. Its underground structure will house a series of galleries incorporating exhibits and museum-class artifacts with a theme unique to Atlanta and other cities.
The Philanthropy Gallery, for example, will exhibit the central role that philanthropy has played in the history and the development of Atlanta and of the United States.
State-of-the-art technology will enable the visitor to "build" Atlanta by viewing and then adding or eliminating those structures and institutions —- of which there are many more than the average resident of Atlanta realizes —- that were created and supported by philanthropy.
Other galleries planned at The Millennium Gate will focus on the history of the site where the project sits. Traveling through its galleries, one will learn of the history of the Atlantic Steel Co. and its notable president and Atlanta mover and shaker from the first half of the 20th century —- Thomas K. Glenn —- and then how this former industrial site has been transformed into a nationally recognized example of new urban renewal.
The visitor will then learn how the history of this site fits with the history of Atlanta itself, and how our great city is an integral part of the fabric of America.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who addressed those gathered for the Dec. 30 groundbreaking, spoke eloquently of the importance of monuments such as The Millennium Gate to cities such as Atlanta. Even more than the former speaker's considerable verbal eloquence, however, will be the majesty of this structure, which truly will echo for generations as the new Atlanta Sound.
One can also hope that its beauty will help us forget the "ATL, every day is an opening day" slogan for which the city's leadership recently spent considerable taxpayer dollars.
> Former congressman and U.S. Attorney Bob Barr practices law in Atlanta. Web site:
www.bobbarr.org
mail@bobbarr.org
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but I think Barr's ccomments earlier in his speech make it very clear that he thinks this "monument" somehow links us to a glorious European tradition. Although it will apparently contain stuff relating to Atlanta (oh, good) there is nothing "organic" (can't think of a better word) about its form or siting. Tell me, how does a big-ass Roman triumphal arch speak to "Atlanta." 
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