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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Neighbors oppose razing Midtown buildings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Proposals to demolish four historic buildings in Midtown didn’t fare will at the neighborhood association’s Land Use Committee meeting Tuesday evening.
The proposal that drew the most vocal opposition from the 75 attendees was one by the Georgia Tech Foundation to demolish the Crum and Forster building at Spring and Fourth streets.
I wrote about plans for the buildings and the opposition in a previous post.
The only people who spoke in favor of that demolition were three representatives for the foundation.
Neighbors, Georgia Tech students, architects, local businessmen and historic preservationists describing the foundation’s plan as “unfathomable,” “astonishing,” “arrogant” and “insensitive.”
One community activist even yelled out that the demolition would only go forward “over my dead body.” Someone else in the audience chimed in: “Mine too.”
Tony Rizzuto, chairman of the Land Use Committee, said a website had been created earlier that day to save the Crum and Forster building, and it already had 225 names.
“That to me is another one of these public relations nightmares for the foundation,” Rizzuto said.
But the foundation officials showed no signs of backing away from plans to demolish the building, even though they have no immediate plans for the property.
In the end, the committee voted resoundingly to oppose the demolition. Now it will go before the Midtown Neighbors Association board next week and the Neighborhood Planning Unit next month.
A proposal to demolish three historic homes on Juniper Street to make way for a surface parking lot was presented by the Saint Mark United Methodist Church, located at Peachtree and Fifth streets.
The Land Use Committee asked the church officials if they would be open to exploring possible alternatives. Rizzuto and other committee members made it clear that if a vote were to have been taken Tuesday evening, the proposal would have been denied.
Instead, Rev. Jim Moor agreed to a 30-day deferral of the demolition application to give church officials an opportunity to meet with preservationists and real estate developers to explore creative solutions for the property.
How different the tone was between both proposals.
On the one hand, the Georgia Tech Foundation showed no willingness to consider saving the Crum and Forster building, which made many residents visibly and audibly angry.
And on the other hand, the attitude of Saint Mark church to work with the neighborhood generated feelings of goodwill among the attendees.
There’s a lesson here.
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Colony Square developer discusses Midtown’s future
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When he developed Colony Square back in the early 1970s, Jim Cushman was viewed as a maverick who was way ahead of his time.
He developed a high-rise, mixed-use center that included offices, retail, residences and a hotel. Unfortunately a real estate recession followed, and Cushman’s Colony Square struggled in its early years.
This morning, Cushman returned to Colony Square to see the renovated W Atlanta-Midtown Hotel and to attend the Midtown Alliance’s “Let’s Talk Midtown” program on the future plans for Piedmont Park and the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
After the meeting, Cushman, 77, was visibly proud and energized when he spoke to me about today’s Colony Square and Midtown.
“It far exceeds my dreams,” Cushman said. “The whole concept of Colony Square was to build a small town within the city, and to build community.”
Cushman left the Midtown Alliance with several associates to discuss future development possibilities in the area.
“We are looking to the east,” Cushman said while standing in the lobby of the W hotel. “There are some gaps between Colony Square and Piedmont Park.”
And Cushman envisions Piedmont Avenue “becoming the Park Avenue of Atlanta.” In short, Cushman, who in the early 1970s saw the Atlanta of the future, is still looking forward.
“Change is always necessary,” Cushman said. “You must not stay the same in real estate development. It’s an exciting time. It’s a neat time.”
