Given the world’s wobbly financial status, Atlanta development headlines have been dotted lately with news of projects hitting pause, being scaled back, or pulling the plug altogether. Gasp. Sigh. 

But this being Atlanta, almost nothing can stop its growth. And with this being Labor Day weekend, it’s time to spotlight a few truly monumental projects continuing to get work done out there (in some cases, it should be noted, with significant taxpayer support).

So in the spirt of fun competition, we’ve briefly described 15 projects below that help set metro Atlanta apart, ranging from entire new towns to vibrant pathways and towering structures that promise to reshape this city.

Have a look, and vote at the bottom of this post for the one you subjectively consider the region’s best.

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Ponce City Market’s next phase

Already a hit among global tourists, Atlanta’s grandest adaptive-reuse project is undergoing a phase-two growth spurt that’s seen three buildings top out, including two high-rises.

As seen in mid-November, construction progress on infrastructure and base levels at 619 Ponce and the 21-story hospitality tower next door.

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Buckhead’s PATH400

A northern, linear answer to the Atlanta BeltLine, this 5.2-mile, crucial piece of a planned regional multi-use trail system is more than 80 percent built. And it’s barreling toward Sandy Springs now.

PATH400

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Downtown’s Stitch

With backing from the highest levels of local power and now the federal government, this initiative aims to create 14 acres of park space over the downtown Connector—and to help right societal wrongs caused by highway construction.  

Vision for The Stitch's greenspace-heavy Energy Green section. Central Atlanta Progress; thestitchatl.com

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New City’s Fourth Ward Project

This billion-dollar, multi-phase patch of towers and plazas is a certifiable BeltLine highlight already. Could it be the most architecturally compelling addition to Atlanta since Portman’s heyday?

Totality of phase one. The Fourth Ward project masterplan calls for more than 2-million square feet of development eventually. HKS is the full project's local architect of record. Renderings courtesy of New City Properties; design architecture, Olson Kundig

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Atlanta BeltLine 22-mile loop

One of the most talked-about, transformative reclamation projects involving urban land in the United States, if not the world. Construction to expand the loop is ongoing all over town, with a goal of finishing by 2030 or before.

An illustration of how the Westside Trail's final segment to be built could sweep under a Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway bridge. Atlanta BeltLine Inc.; 2021

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Buckhead Village evolution

For competition’s sake, let’s consider this not only Jamestown’s revitalized Buckhead Village district, but the towers popping up left and right around it. 

Plans for Intro Atlanta's timber-built facade in Buckhead Village. Harbor Bay Ventures; designs, HPA

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Midtown Connector Park

While it’s not as expansive as initially planned, this versatile, highway-capping greenspace concept would still see 17 acres created out of thin air, across nearly a half mile.

Where an elaborate, versatile events space would have been placed at 5th Street, per the latest designs. Courtesy of MCP Foundation

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Serenbe’s next phases

Nearly 20 years old, this ever-changing, master-planned community southwest of ATL melds agrarian paradises with top-flight home design. It’s about to undergo a major growth spurt.

Courtesy of Serenbe

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HUB404 park in Buckhead

Buckhead’s serpentine answer to highway-capping initiatives in more centralized parts of town. It landed another $750,000 in federal funding this week.

Seating and pathways within the park proposal. HUB404

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1072 West Peachtree skyscraper

Now under construction, it’s the tallest new building since Atlanta’s 1990s skyscraper heyday. Need we say more?

West Peachtree Street view of Rockefeller Group’s planned 60-story Midtown project.Rockefeller Group; Brock Hudgins Architects; TVS

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Evolution of Battery Atlanta

Cobb County’s home-run, made-from-scratch district anchored by Truist Park is sprouting new buildings like fresh notches in the Atlanta Braves’ win column.

Planned facade for the apartment and retail component of The Henry project along Circle 75 Parkway, with the Braves' stadium depicted at right. A second building with a hotel would rise at left, per developers. Goldenrod Companies; designs, Holland Basham Architects

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Centennial Yards

Sky’s the limit for this gargantuan, heavily subsidized remake of Atlanta’s long-festering Gulch, with the first high-rise buildings underway near a crafty new brewery in a very old space.

Centennial Yards' first two high-rise components (a hotel, at left, and apartments) broke ground in 2022. Centennial Yards

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Star Metals District

The next tower is rising up—with others in the pipeline—at this multi-block project that’s already reshaped West Midtown.

According to the most recent images available, how Star Metals' development phases along Howell Mill Road (at bottom) would relate to the existing Star Metals Offices building, shown at bottom left. (Note: The scope is no longer accurate.)Courtesy of The Allen Morris Company; designs, Oppenheim Architecture

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Trilith’s town and studios

It’s a growing, European-style town and commercial district beside the largest TV and movie studios in North America. The pond is nice, too. 

Trilith's de facto Main Street. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

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Pullman Yards

Maybe it’s not yet the thriving studio production and mixed-use hub it was promised to be, but this new eastside district has big versatile events venues, hundreds of new apartments, Fishmonger, pickleball, and plenty of AlcoHall.   

Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta