Planning Atlanta


Book Description

More than any other major U.S. city, Atlanta reinvents itself again and again. From the Civil War to the 1996 Olympic boom to the current housing crisis, its history is a cycle of ruin and resurgence. In Planning Atlanta, two dozen planning practitioners and thought leaders bring its story to life. Explore Atlanta, where change is always in the wind. Planning Atlanta continues the APA Planners Press series on how planning shapes American cities.




Planning Atlanta


Book Description

More than any other major U.S. city, Atlanta regularly reinvents itself. From the Civil War’s devastation to the 1996 Olympic boom to the current housing crisis, the city’s history is a cycle of rise and fall, ruin and resurgence. In Planning Atlanta, two dozen planning practitioners and thought leaders bring the story to life. Together they trace the development of projects like Freedom Parkway and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. They examine the impacts of race relations on planning and policy. They explore Atlanta’s role as a 19th-century rail hub—and as the home of the world’s busiest airport. They probe the city’s economic and environmental growing pains. And they look toward new plans that will shape Atlanta’s next incarnation. Read Planning Atlanta and discover a city where change is always in the wind.




The Atlanta City Design


Book Description




Diverging Space for Deviants


Book Description

This book explores the often-overlooked positive role of public housing in facilitating social movements and activism. Taking a political, social, and spatial perspective, the author offers Atlanta as a case study. Akira Drake Rodriguez shows that the decline in support for public housing, often touted as a positive (neoliberal) development, has negative consequences for social justice and nascent activism, especially among Black women. Urban revitalization policies target public housing residents by demolishing public housing towers and dispersing poor (Black) residents into new, deconcentrated spaces in the city via housing choice vouchers and other housing-based tools of economic and urban development. Diverging Space for Deviants establishes alternative functions for public housing developments that would necessitate their existence in any city. In addition to providing affordable housing for low-income residents—a necessity as wealth inequality in cities increases—public housing developments function as a necessary political space in the city, one of the last remaining frontiers for citizens to engage in inclusive political activity and make claims on the changing face of the state.




Atlanta Unbound


Book Description

Looking at Atlanta, Georgia, one might conclude that the city’s notorious sprawl, degraded air quality, and tenuous water supply is a result of a lack of planning—particularly an absence of coordination at the regional level. In Atlanta Unbound, Carlton Wade Basmajian shows that Atlanta’s low-density urban form and its associated problems have been both highly coordinated and regionally planned. Basmajian’s shrewd analysis shows how regional policies spanned political boundaries and framed local debates over several decades. He examines the role of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s planning deliberations that appear to have contributed to the urban sprawl that they were designed to control. Basmajian explores four cases—regional land development plans, water supply strategies, growth management policies, and transportation infrastructure programs—to provide a detailed account of the interactions between citizens, planners, regional commissions, state government, and federal agencies. In the process, Atlanta Unbound answers the question: Toward what end and for whom is Atlanta’s regional planning process working? In the series Urban Life, Landscape, and Policy, edited by Zane L. Miller, David Stradling, and Larry Bennett




Visions of Home


Book Description

A new volume from the esteemed architecture firm Historical Concepts features extraordinary homes rooted in tradition and enriched with a modern sensibility. Known for designing welcoming Southern homes, Historical Concepts, one of today's leading traditional architecture firms, is now working on diverse projects across America and in exotic locales, such as the Caribbean and Patagonia. A multigenerational team of architects is extending the firm's founding philosophy--expressing both timeless and inventive perspectives on design. Showcased are beautifully photographed country estates, coastal retreats, and pastoral properties, all weaving the classical principles of symmetry, scale, and proportion with vernacular motifs and artisanal craftsmanship to create stylish and comfortable backdrops for contemporary living. Sophisticated interior decoration and stunning landscapes accompany the architecture, creating a harmonious sense of place. Through engaging stories that inform, Andrew Cogar shows how to reimagine the traditional home--whether an elegant Greek Revival pavilion, a chic Hamptons summer house, or a reinterpretation of a historic Charleston single house--to capture one's unique point of view. Visions of Home is an invaluable resource for those who enjoy the warmth and charm of traditional architecture.




Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-century Atlanta


Book Description

Atlanta is often cited as a prime example of a progressive New South metropolis in which blacks and whites have forged "a city too busy to hate." But Ronald Bayor argues that the city continues to bear the indelible mark of racial bias. Offering the first




Estate Planning for the Modern Family: A Georgian's Guide to Wills, Trusts, and Powers of Attorney


Book Description

Imagine the patriarch of the family is in his second marriage. He is retired from a business he currently owns and has several children. Imagine two of his children are grown, married, and from his first marriage. One of his children is a toddler and is from his second marriage. Also, imagine he is the stepfather to a child born to his second wife. Now, imagine his daughter runs the business he created and owns. She is married to a man who is a real estate agent and they have three children together. His son is in a same-sex marriage and he and his partner have adopted a daughter. Imagine from one man you have a second marriage, retiree, raising a toddler, stepson, married daughter, same-sex marriage, adoption, and grandchildren. Sounds like the makings of a good sitcom, doesn




Parks and Recreation System Planning


Book Description

Parks and recreation systems have evolved in remarkable ways over the past two decades. No longer just playgrounds and ballfields, parks and open spaces have become recognized as essential green infrastructure with the potential to contribute to community resiliency and sustainability. To capitalize on this potential, the parks and recreation system planning process must evolve as well. In Parks and Recreation System Planning, David Barth provides a new, step-by-step approach to creating parks systems that generate greater economic, social, and environmental benefits. Barth first advocates that parks and recreation systems should no longer be regarded as isolated facilities, but as elements of an integrated public realm. Each space should be designed to generate multiple community benefits. Next, he presents a new approach for parks and recreation planning that is integrated into community-wide issues. Chapters outline each step—evaluating existing systems, implementing a carefully crafted plan, and more—necessary for creating a successful, adaptable system. Throughout the book, he describes initiatives that are creating more resilient, sustainable, and engaging parks and recreation facilities, drawing from his experience consulting in more than 100 communities across the U.S. Parks and Recreation System Planning meets the critical need to provide an up-to-date, comprehensive approach for planning parks and recreation systems across the country. This is essential reading for every parks and recreation professional, design professional, and public official who wants their community to thrive.




City on the Verge


Book Description

What we can learn from Atlanta's struggle to reinvent itself in the 21st Century Atlanta is on the verge of tremendous rebirth-or inexorable decline. A kind of Petri dish for cities struggling to reinvent themselves, Atlanta has the highest income inequality in the country, gridlocked highways, suburban sprawl, and a history of racial injustice. Yet it is also an energetic, brash young city that prides itself on pragmatic solutions. Today, the most promising catalyst for the city's rebirth is the BeltLine, which the New York Times described as "a staggeringly ambitious engine of urban revitalization." A long-term project that is cutting through forty-five neighborhoods ranging from affluent to impoverished, the BeltLine will complete a twenty-two-mile loop encircling downtown, transforming a massive ring of mostly defunct railways into a series of stunning parks connected by trails and streetcars. Acclaimed author Mark Pendergrast presents a deeply researched, multi-faceted, up-to-the-minute history of the biggest city in America's Southeast, using the BeltLine saga to explore issues of race, education, public health, transportation, business, philanthropy, urban planning, religion, politics, and community. An inspiring narrative of ordinary Americans taking charge of their local communities, City of the Verge provides a model for how cities across the country can reinvent themselves.