For proof that Atlanta’s youth is passionate about the city’s future—and the quality of its urbanism—look no further than a 76-page report coined “PACMAN” for short.
That’s an acronym for Public Activation Concepts for Midtown and Neighbors, a study compiled by Georgia Tech graduate students in the College of Design’s School of City and Regional Planning, who participated in the Urban Design Studio during the fall semester.
Pulling inspiration from cities around the world, from Sydney to Baltimore, the report zeros in on points across Midtown with ideas both large and monumental, relatively simple to expensive and complex, with the goal of crafting a pedestrian-centric place that inspires joy in both full-time residents and visitors just walking around. It asserts that Midtown has emerged as Atlanta’s de facto central business district, and that the subdistrict “has immense potential to become a world-class business district [with] universally recognized characteristics and features.”
Participants tell Urbanize Atlanta the study was done in partnership with Midtown Alliance, and then handed over to that agency in December. (We’ve inquired with Midtown Alliance officials about what they plan to do with the analysis, if anything, but had not heard back as of press time. Last year, Midtown Alliance hired global design firm Snøhetta— known for turning New York City’s Broadway corridor into a pedestrian zone near Times Square—and Kimley-Horn engineers to study how to make nine blocks of Peachtree Street less dominated by automobiles, a similar focus of the Georgia Tech study.)
How a multimodal Peachtree Street could function, per the Georgia Tech design studio analysis. Submitted; courtesy of Georgia Tech, School of City and Regional Planning
With phrases like, “Today, Midtown Atlanta is all architecture and no urbanism,” the PACMAN report is less a starry-eyed ode to the city’s high-rise development…
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