Atlanta Parks

[Chris Creech]

LOL - notice that of all the high minded talk of the role of parks in stress reduction, cleaning the air, building community, play areas for children, etc. That in Atlanta the push always seems to come when the people in all the highrise condos realize they need somewhere to walk their dog?

[micropundit]

[cybele]

Originally Posted by Chris Creech

LOL - notice that of all the high minded talk of the role of parks in stress reduction, cleaning the air, building community, play areas for children, etc. That in Atlanta the push always seems to come when the people in all the highrise condos realize they need somewhere to walk their dog?

Well a man's dog has got to get out, you can't keep him cooped up in some big condo all the time. A dog would just as soon lay down in a mud puddle as look at you. They won't let him on the bus or probably the beltline, so where is he supposed to go.

[pawelra]

Hey guys, I've found interesting proposal for downtown connector transformation.
I don't know if you seen/heard about this before but I post that anyway.
http://www.atlantadowntown.com/initi...nnector_Vision

And new trail along Georgia 400.
A new trail in Buckhead is going to wind through the woods along Georgia Highway 400 and tie into the BeltLine.
The north end of the trail will be near the Georgia 400 toll plaza.
The Buckhead C.I.D. has already completed a feasibility study of the trail, and is planning to pay for the design and part of the construction costs.
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/...GA-400-planned

It would be nice to see this in progress.

[ATLaffinity]

BTW, there's not a square inch of graffitti in O4W park despite the comments from the peanut gallery (ie Cummings).

There is this though.

[smArTaLlone]

The proposal to transform 16 acres of city-owned, mostly vacant land along Joseph E. Boone Boulevard into Historic Mims Park, a majestic $55 million greenspace celebrating Atlanta's role in civil rights — took a major step yesterday toward becoming a reality.

An Atlanta City Council committee today OK'ed consolidating parcels owned by the city and Invest Atlanta and executing a 50-year lease with the nonprofit organization that wants to build, operate, and maintain the park that would span three city blocks on the edge of Vine City. The proposal now awaits the approval of the full City Council and Mayor Kasim Reed.

The Park is the brainchild of Atlantan Rodney Mims Cook who helped create the Millennium Gate in Atlantic Station. The greenspace Cook's proposing is modeled after the original Olmstead designed Mims Park that once stood in the area but was razed in the 1950s to build a school.

• Video Link

Creative Loafing

[smArTaLlone]

Lovers of Piedmont Park and followers of the stalled Phase One expansion of Midtown’s favorite green space will be happy to know that park construction has resumed in the northern end of the park near Ansley Mall.

“Phase One expansion continues in Piedmont Park in keeping with a promise of adding an additional 53 acres,” Piedmont Park Conservancy (PPC) President & CEO Yvette Bowden recently told local volunteer leaders at the Neighborhood Planning Unit-E meeting.

Twenty-six acres of the planned expansion were previously activated including the Legacy Fountain and the Promenade, the wetlands, a re-naturalized Clear Creek, basketball courts, bocce courts, the new aquatic center, the Greystone event facility, an expanded dog park and new lawns.

http://midtown.patch.com/articles/ppc-expansion

[smArTaLlone]

http://www.travelandleisure.com/arti...-city-parks/13

The concert lineup here has included Sir Paul McCartney, the Eagles, and the Dave Matthews Band—and those are just the rock legends. Jazz takes over for the annual May festival, and music also plays a part in the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, which celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2011 with more than 70 sets (from a Native American flute performer to a Turkish folk dance group). Groundbreaking on a 53-acre extension started in 2008 and has already produced a bocce court, an aquatic center with lap lanes, and a children’s splashing area.

Coolest Time to Visit: Memorial Day Weekend is the high point of the annual Atlanta Jazz Festival, which has seen legends like Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie perform.

[smArTaLlone]

http://www.11alive.com/news/article/...inal-expansion

[shivtim]

Very thorough article on O4W park:
http://landscapeonline.com/research/article.php/17483

[shivtim]

Piedmont Park Northwoods expansion opening June 20.

[Tuckerman]

What is the current status on the Westside Reservoir Park? Anything happening?

[simms3_redux]

Originally Posted by shivtim

Piedmont Park Northwoods expansion opening June 20.

Can someone confirm if the direction of this rendering is S/SW with the grayed out rendering towards the top existing park (the last expansion)? This looks really good - Atlanta does do parks really well and they are extremely well funded. It appears the Clear Creek SC where Rusan's is is in the lower right corner and the Lighthouse storage facility is right by #3, the "school bus turnaround"? This will make a world of difference - I've jogged around there and literally thought I was lost in the woods, so some $$ and landscaping will really make a huge diff.

[clexmond]

Originally Posted by simms3_redux

Can someone confirm if the direction of this rendering is S/SW with the grayed out rendering towards the top existing park (the last expansion)? This looks really good - Atlanta does do parks really well and they are extremely well funded. It appears the Clear Creek SC where Rusan's is is in the lower right corner and the Lighthouse storage facility is right by #3, the "school bus turnaround"? This will make a world of difference - I've jogged around there and literally thought I was lost in the woods, so some $$ and landscaping will really make a huge diff.

Yes, this facing is approx. SW. The white squiggle crossing the beltline is the entrance from Monroe into the parking deck.

[shivtim]

Correct. North is to the right. This expansion basically fills out the remaining space at the Northernmost extent of the park.

Northwoods / Piedmont Commons area on this map:

[shivtim]

Updates from Creative Loafing:

New entrance on Dutch Valley Road:


New entrance on Piedmont Road:

[bryantm3]

i suspect that eventually there will be pressure to buy out the self-storage facility and extend the park to piedmont road. it certainly doesn't belong there.

[(four 0 four)]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

i suspect that eventually there will be pressure to buy out the self-storage facility and extend the park to piedmont road.

Now that would be a shame...it's such a lovely addition to that area of Midtown.
I'm anxious to see the latest expansion. The work done on the park on the last few years has made a huge difference....I should really donate some $$ to the Conservancy.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by (four 0 four)

Now that would be a shame...it's such a lovely addition to that area of Midtown.
I'm anxious to see the latest expansion. The work done on the park on the last few years has made a huge difference....I should really donate some $$ to the Conservancy.

i went out and walked it today. if y'all haven't seen the section they're calling 'the northwoods', you should definitely check it out. that part has technically been open for a few years, albeit with an unpaved path, so it wasn't really part of the new section. it's beautiful, absolutely stunning.

the rest of the new section... eh. it's a lot like the beltline park down at the south end of boulevard. it's like they took a weedy patch and put some sod in the middle of it and called it a park. of course, i'm exaggerating a bit, but there are zero shade trees, and the land outside of the grass they've planted, especially along clear creek, is essentially a giant weed patch. the same problem exists south of 'the northwoods' along the creek between the beltline and the new pathway in the park, it's just a total mess, no shade trees, completely covered in weeds.

another thing that bothered me is the high-voltage power lines running through the park— i'm referring to the steel poles that run hundreds of feet into the air. they really need to bury those things in the city of atlanta, they look like complete hell and leave an unusable patch of weeds and scrub pines below wherever they traverse.

back to the positive part, there is a lot of room for improvement and the new section would be great if there were more shade trees planted— they are probably still in the progress of planting them, i can't imagine they would leave it as-is. i can't stress again how great the northwoods is, it's sublime, it's like being in a rainforest or something. the park curves through trees that are literally hundreds of years old, i have been told that the oldest tree in the atlanta area resides somewhere in that area. the views of the creek from the pathway through there are perfect, it could be used in a movie. i only wish there were more paths through the woods, i imagine that will come in the future with the beltline and all.

the fact that we don't have more tax money going to fund these sorts of projects is a crime.

[L.ARCH]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

i went out and walked it today. if y'all haven't seen the section they're calling 'the northwoods', you should definitely check it out. that part has technically been open for a few years, albeit with an unpaved path, so it wasn't really part of the new section. it's beautiful, absolutely stunning.

the rest of the new section... eh. it's a lot like the beltline park down at the south end of boulevard. it's like they took a weedy patch and put some sod in the middle of it and called it a park. of course, i'm exaggerating a bit, but there are zero shade trees, and the land outside of the grass they've planted, especially along clear creek, is essentially a giant weed patch. the same problem exists south of 'the northwoods' along the creek between the beltline and the new pathway in the park, it's just a total mess, no shade trees, completely covered in weeds.

another thing that bothered me is the high-voltage power lines running through the park— i'm referring to the steel poles that run hundreds of feet into the air. they really need to bury those things in the city of atlanta, they look like complete hell and leave an unusable patch of weeds and scrub pines below wherever they traverse.

back to the positive part, there is a lot of room for improvement and the new section would be great if there were more shade trees planted— they are probably still in the progress of planting them, i can't imagine they would leave it as-is. i can't stress again how great the northwoods is, it's sublime, it's like being in a rainforest or something. the park curves through trees that are literally hundreds of years old, i have been told that the oldest tree in the atlanta area resides somewhere in that area. the views of the creek from the pathway through there are perfect, it could be used in a movie. i only wish there were more paths through the woods, i imagine that will come in the future with the beltline and all.

the fact that we don't have more tax money going to fund these sorts of projects is a crime.

My guess is that trees will be planted in the fall/winter. Planting them now is not recommended by anyone in the industry, and it would be hard to find a contractor willing to do so, since most contracts will require some sort of guarantee of the tree's survival for some number of years. Much like the beltline's east side trail, I imagine this "grand opening" is really just the conservancy granting people access to the area that is still going to undergo further phases of development (including planting, lighting, new paths, etc.) before becoming "complete."