UrbanizeAtlNewsBot

UrbanizeAtlNewsBot

$107M remake planned for parts of downtown before World Cup Josh Green Wed, 11/13/2024 - 16:13 South Downtown and Centennial Yards aren’t the only sections of downtown aiming to roll out a multi-million-dollar, redevelopment welcome mat for FIFA World Cup visitors in less than 600 days.

Georgia State University relays in a thorough report this week that $107 million in campus upgrades are set to be designed, constructed, and open to the public in roughly a year and 1/2. Project heads are calling the initiative among the most transformative a Georgia university has ever undertaken.

The bulk of upgrades spanning eastern blocks of downtown will be funded by an $80 million Woodruff Foundation grant announced Tuesday—the largest in GSU’s 111-year history and the most generous gift the foundation has ever given to a university in Georgia.

Collectively it’s being called The Building Pathways for Success Initiative, and it seeks to build upon momentum started with the GSU Blue Line project, in hopes of creating a true college town feel downtown.

A campus Greenway space in the works near Hurt Park. Georgia State University

GSU is contributing $27 million of its own funding to bring the changes to fruition before millions of visitors start arriving downtown ahead of World Cup matches in June and July 2026. Plans were approved this week by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents’ Committee on Real Estate and Facilities.

The bulk of redevelopment will occur around Hurt Park and Woodruff Park, both important downtown respites of greenspace set amidst a concrete jungle of GSU administrative and classroom buildings.

Plans call for remaking sections of GSU property around the parks into centralized social hubs that bring students together and “create safe, inviting, and comfortable spaces for the community,” according to a GSU announcement.

At Woodruff Park, on the opposite side of Peachtree Street, changes call for moving an Atlanta Streetcar platform to better align with a park entrance, new sidewalks, and plaza and façade improvements at the 25 Park Place building.

A block of Park Place, between Edgewood and Auburn avenues, will be closed to all vehicles except the streetcar, per GSU.

Plans at the cusp of Woodruff Park call for closing a block of Park Place to vehicle traffic, allowing only the Atlanta Streetcar. Georgia State University

More significant changes are in the pipeline around Hurt Park, which wrapped an extensive renovation two years ago.

GSU’s plans call for removing three-story Sparks Hall so that Hurt Park next door can link with the campus’ existing Greenway. That would be achieved by making Gilmer Street a pedestrian-only zone and adding an elevated plaza, walkways, and green buffers where Sparks Hall currently stands. That area would be known as an expanded “Panther Quad.”

Overview of planned changes near Hurt Park and the 100 Edgewood building, at right. Georgia State University

Other changes around Hurt Park call for adding a glassy, more contemporary façade to the Arts and Humanities Building. Food trucks would congregate near its base along the pedestrianized Gilmer Street.

Across Edgewood Avenue, just north of Hurt Park, big changes are also in store for the 100 Edgewood high-rise building.

According to GSU officials, the 1960s, 18-story structure will see a dining area and gathering space at its base, while the first four floors will be remade into classrooms, “confirming [100 Edgewood’s] presence as a cornerstone of the new campus core.”

Plans for a renovated Arts and Humanities Building and a pedestrianized Gilmer Street. Georgia State University

Blue Line branding and other changes in the Edgewood Avenue pipeline, east of Woodruff Park. Georgia State University

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