Since its inception, Atlanta has had an almost insatiable appetite for construction, and the city has certainly taken lumps for subsequent, unflinching destruction. But this raze-and-build-anew craze may have never been as ubiquitous as right now, in post-recession Atlanta.
With summer’s building frenzy in full swing from Brookhaven to College Park, it seemed an opportune time to pause for a moment and reflect on a city that was vastly different, in many places, just a few years ago.
We’ve dug deep into the photo archives to find vantages and places that don’t exist in Atlanta anymore — some for the better, others probably not.
So lace up your kicks, and have a stroll down this built-environment memory lane ...
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In the summer of 2013, anyone exiting Savi Urban Market in Inman Park would find this across the street. The collection of low-rise retail and office structures (and one very busy valet lot) was replaced by Inman Quarter:
Here’s another angle from Highland Avenue:
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Before the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail was winning international accolades for urban redevelopment, and before the advent of trail-adjacent hotspots like Ladybird Grove & Mess Hall and the Bantam Pub, the neglected former rail corridor was a desolate, itchy place, as seen here in 2011 and 2012:
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By the fall of 2013, this prime slice of Midtown real estate across the street from the High Museum had festered for years. John Wieland’s pricey, ultra-exclusive One Museum Place condos are currently finishing here:
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Speaking of Wieland, the veteran Atlanta developer bulldozed this circa-1929 Old Fourth Ward structure — originally James G. Dodson's Ironized Yeast Company before being taken over by the Creomulsion Company — and its inimitable architectural features in early 2015, despite concerns from neighborhood officials:
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Here’s Krog Street Market in 2013, before Bon Appétit magazine named it "one of the country’s coolest food halls" (and before the advent of $14 sandwiches) ...
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Inside Ponce City Market just two years ago, which Travel + Leisure magazine has called one of the world’s top new tourist attractions:
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On the Westside’s Howell Mill Road, this parking lot (as seen in 2013) would make way for mixed-use venture The Brady:
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Also on Howell Mill Road, here’s the industrial Westside Ironworks project in 2015:
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This was the Project Formerly Known as Buckhead Atlanta in August 2013, still very much a work-in-progress:
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Before Fuqua Development’s gargantuan Krobar at Glenwood Place, there was this site, as seen in early 2015, next-door to Glenwood Park:
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This makeshift, fenced-off skatepark and dog kennels along North Avenue became the 755 North apartments:
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It’s hard to believe such a vast parking lot, as seen two years ago, lasted so long in the heart of Midtown:
And so on and so forth ...
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