Assignment 1
When one sees these renderings many thoughts come to mind, the hustle and bustle of everyday life, high traffic on narrow urban streets, the revitalization of pedestrian life, social interaction in the urban setting, a mixed use environment where one would live above the stores they shopped. What is being seen in the images are "picturesque" renderings of what Atlantic Station hopes to be. Narrow streets to slow down the traffic, wide sidewalks to promote pedestrian life, large street facing windows and no setbacks on the store fronts to engage the passersby with their surroundings; all of this to revitalize life inside the city that is not strictly vehicle oriented. At the same time these images portray an upper-middle and upper class community of people. There don't seem to be any 'everyday' working class or lower class people here not to forget the homeless that are bound to be wandering the area. There generally seams to be a higher ratio of people to vehicles in these renderings, but what happens when 17th street becomes an active route to Northside? Will there simply be major traffic jams and very few people walking around or will the ratio still be more pedestrians than cars? Is the Atlanta car oriented mind set going to stand strong with the population or will there be enough people with a walking mentality that will decide to walk everywhere? Will Atlantic Station become an oasis within the havoc of Downtown/Midtown Atlanta or will it promote a growth of life where it has been dwindling?
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