Half a dozen little waterfalls around a grand staircase. Public seating ranging from large and functional to eye-catchingly quirky. Future restaurant patios galore.
Nearly five years to the day after early sketches for New City Properties’ grand overhaul of a former Georgia Power staging and storage yard emerged, construction fencing came down around a 1-acre plaza that adds a new dimension to one of the Atlanta BeltLine’s busiest intersections of commerce and recreation.
Situated between two 11-story office buildings connected by a Tron-like skybridge, the Fourth Ward project plaza was designed by Brooklyn-based Future Green Studios. It marks the first public-accessible facet (well, after the adjacent bike elevator) of the largest new development along the BeltLine to date.
A main restaurant space fronting the BeltLine is occupied for now by pop-up plant retailer The Victorian. Announced permanent retailers so far include a second location of Glenwood Park’s 3 Parks Wine, which will take a 1,600-square-foot space beneath offices.
Olson Kundig designers came up with this “gizmo”—a raisable glass wall for restaurant patios—at the northernmost building, facing the BeltLine. It's operated by manual hand-crank. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta
Elsewhere around the potentially $1-billion, multiphase venture, the new brick-clad apartment building that fronts Historic Fourth Ward Park is expected to see first move-ins in April. Mailchimp is scheduled to start moving into its new 335,000-square-foot headquarters in late summer. And an 18-story boutique hotel with a diamond-patterned shell is on pace to open in 2024, as Jim Irwin, New City president, told Urbanize Atlanta in late 2022.
The 12-acre site is considered the largest workable parcel of BeltLine-adjacent land on Atlanta’s eastside, and the first phase alone is expected to cost $550 million. New City officials have said it’s received no public funding.
In the gallery above, find a photo essay illustrating where this titanic, park-side project stands today.
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