Midtown moves forward with park among skyscrapers. Any big ideas?

The formal process for turning one of the final multi-acre blank slates in central Midtown into a noteworthy greenspace has officially begun.

Midtown Alliance has issued a Request for Qualifications seeking ideas from design teams capable of turning a vacant, 4-acre site on 14th Street into a “compelling… essential place” set among posh high-rise hotels and iconic office skyscrapers.

The request calls for multidisciplinary designers to come forward with a “bold conceptual design” and preliminary cost estimates for what it might take to pull the vision off.

Context of the site between the Connector expressway (left) and Colony Square (right). Google Maps

The Midtown Improvement District leadership group also revealed this week that short-term plans call for cleaning up the 98 14th St. site, regrading it, and allowing the public to use it as a more rudimentary lawn and hangout space in the short-term, while designs take shape and fundraising efforts proceed.

According to Midtown Alliance, site cleanup has started, and grading of the land is expected to begin later this year, pending permit approval at the city level.

Early plans for an interim, public-accessible 4-acre park space at the 14th Street site. Midtown Alliance

District leadership describes the 14th Street site—where ultra-luxe condo tower No2 Opus Place went bust and tumbled into foreclosure after years of breathless, hollow hype—as a “rare and transformative civic opportunity to shape a landmark destination.”

The RFQ includes a slideshow of images from parks around the world that could lend a sense of what Midtown Alliance has in mind, in terms of functionality, distinctive public art, and special features.

Situated just west of Peachtree Street, the acreage—“one of the last undeveloped parcels of its size in Midtown”—is set among the largest concentration of cultural and arts attractions in the Southeast, with nearly 45,000 residents, visitors, workers, and students within a seven-minute walk at any given time, per Midtown Alliance. (For context, the 4-acre site is about 2 acres smaller than Woodruff Park, a downtown centerpiece greenspace.)

The deadline to reply to the RFQ is August 22.

Courtesy of Midtown Alliance

The 4-acre site's 14th Street frontage, as seen last summer. Google Maps

Midtown Alliance announced plans for the centralized park in March. But the site has been a subject of fascination for Atlanta urbanists for nearly a decade.

Pitched as one of the grandest, most amenitized skyscrapers Atlanta’s ever seen, No2 Opus Place first came to light in 2016 as a 74-story, $300-million statement condo building with amenities that called for two pools, an IMAX screening room, and a 40th-floor golf simulator. Despite staging a dynamite-fueled “groundbreaking” in 2018, the project was scaled back and consistently delayed until it fell into foreclosure in fall 2023.

Now, the broad goal is to create a premier attraction, social hub, and magnet for cultural and arts experiences that people won’t find anywhere but Atlanta, officials have said. The Midtown Improvement District bought the site in May for roughly $46 million. No timeline has been specified for design and fundraising phases.

Which all begs the question, dear armchair designers and developers of Atlanta: What should go here, in a Midtown park space potentially like no other?

The shabby, vacant site from ground level, shown prior to cleanup efforts. Courtesy of Midtown Alliance