Local artists lend Underground Atlanta vibrant, highly visible upgrade

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With themes representing “togetherness, diversity, inclusivity, and culture,” 16 otherwise unremarkable pillars are enlivened

By Sean Richard Keenan@ThatSeanKeenan Aug 14, 2018, 12:09pm EDT

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Concrete pillars decorated with public art jut up from the street level at Underground Atlanta. — Four Atlanta artists painted designs on otherwise boring pillars at the South Downtown site.

Downtown’s Underground Atlanta is fast becoming—gasp!—lively, with a popular music venue, fresh coffee shop and coworking space, and new branding that pops.

Three years ago, that statement would have been wildly off-base. Underground was desolate, little more than a Johnny Rocket’s hamburger joint tucked in a stuffy basement.

The burger spot is gone, but today, storied Atlanta music hall The Masquerade has planted roots in the under-development project, as has Post-Office Cowork and its ground-floor coffee shop.

Artist Delta Tango Mike marks up one of the pillars with a paintbrush.

Now, local artists are adding the next Underground accent to developer WRS’s South Downtown makeover.

Enter Toni Williams, the founder of Atlanta artist collective Cultivating Culture and Underground’s programming director, with a new idea to inject some beauty into the long-neglected site.

Williams, with the help of Jabari Graham, of Arts Beats + Lyrics, is leading a project that’s giving a facelift to Underground’s above-ground district.

They’ve recruited four Atlanta artists to decorate the 16 pillars dotting Upper Alabama Street.

“With themes that represent togetherness, diversity, inclusivity, and culture, the 16 pillars integrate the brand identity created by Visual Soldiers while reflecting the new direction of the historic area,” according to an Underground press release.

Artists Pash Lima, Travis Love, Delta Tango Mike, and C. Flux Sing contributed.

Meanwhile, WRS’s four-block redevelopment rolls on.