Atlanta is notorious for spit-balling exciting projects that would alter the skyline and then watching them die. Occasionally, though, the stars align, and something like the Bank of America Plaza rises, adding floors to its initial design because demand was so high. The latest mega-development idea is upon us, slated for a 4.5-acre patch of land across the street from Four Season Atlanta in Midtown. New York developers want to erect three towers by 2020, rising 60, 57 and about 39 stories, respectively. If a plan like this sounds familiar, you may be thinking of the initial three-tower concept for the Promenade project next door to the "symphony center" site. The second tallest building, Promenade II, has stood at 691 feet over Midtown since 1990. It was actually planned to reach nearly 200 feet higher, but was scaled back during construction due to a collapse in commercial real estate markets. Its mirror-image partners (each with the same highly reflective glass and ziggurat-like tapering spines) were never built. Womp womp.
Nonetheless, this talk of potentially building Atlanta's tallest structure is intriguing stuff, even if the location will do little to unify our fractured downtown/Midtown skylines. All told, the site would be home to 90,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, 1,300 apartments, 340 hotel rooms and about 1,500 parking spaces. That's what you call ambition. Or haughty spit-balling. Kind of sounds like these plans for two 65-story towers — and a game-changing number of ancillary buildings — proposed by Swedish architect G. Lars Gullstedt back in 1991. He who soon ran out of money. Anyhow, enough of the pessimism. Let's gauge what Atlantans think: Take a second to vote on whether you believe these towers will rise or not ...
· First look at towers planned for Midtown [ABC]
· Here Now, ATL's Top 10 Towers That Never Happened [Curbed Atlanta]
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