The start of fall classes at Georgia State University might be another three weeks away, but changes are being implemented now that one of Georgia’s leading colleges hopes will beef up campus safety and placemaking while putting its commuter-school past further behind it. 

The initiative is called the GSU Blue Line. Taking inspiration from the Atlanta BeltLine and Manhattan’s High Line, the project calls for a 3.7-mile, demarcated walking path throughout campus in the eastern blocks of downtown.

The Blue Line’s goal, as GSU’s magazine relays, is to inject parts of campus with Eastside Trail-like vibrancy, increase safety with more “eyes on the street,” and generally change the feel along the route from an urban downtown to more of a college town. A people-focused connecting thread, if you will.

More than 90 markers for the Blue Line trail are being installed prior to students’ arrival in late August, alongside new blue emergency call boxes.

Sky Design/Georgia State University

Other additions will include block-long decals marking the Blue Line, blue accent lights along the route, street-level spaces of buildings bedecked in Panther blue, and GSU-branded sidewalks, crosswalks, and welcome banners.

That will work in concert with security upgrades that include AI-equipped cameras designed to pinpoint gathering crowds and atypical noises, brighter LED streetlights (plus more streetlights in general), and parking decks with high-speed gates and more security cameras, according to the university.

The Blue Line will worm through five different “neighborhoods” or “quads” around GSU’s growing campus, providing an off-street connector between classroom buildings, research centers, libraries, and dorms.

New wayfinding signs and trail markers will include QR codes that lead to the Blue Line’s website—and details on downtown destinations and Instagrammable murals and art along the route, the magazine reports.

Planned route of GSU's Blue Line in downtown's eastern blocks. Sky Design/Georgia State University

GSU’s chief operating officer L. Jared Abramson envisions the Blue Line becoming a destination in itself, he told the publication.

Abramson expects the project will create “a palpably different feel on campus” by the time students return and a “critical mass of like-minded people walking together” soon—another step toward fully rebranding and redeveloping the downtown campus.

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