Why do we have to keep talking about the past in the midst of creating a city for the future? Mostly because there are some things that our ancestors got right: walkability, community space, and electric transportation to name a few. What the future has going for it is aspirational creativity, technology, and closing the gap of social, environmental, and financial injustice that has lingered for far too long.
We are surely on the verge of something new. An evolutionary momentum flows through our streets and calls for us to expect more from those tasked with designing the built environment that we all call home. This means appealing to developers like Omair Pasha – who have a formulaic outlook on acquiring and developing buildings and land – to connect with the architects and entrepreneurs who can help guide a more creative vision than gas stations every quarter mile.
By purchasing the Engineer’s Bookstore building on Marietta Street, Pasha has acquired a piece of history. Now, one can argue that that in and of itself should be important. I am not proposing that just because a building is old that it should be saved. This argument is more about preserving the integrity of a community that is defined by its buildings because industrial Atlanta – insofar as the downtown area is concerned – was once the beating economic heart of a region is seeing a reemergence of financial and social capital and an influx of individuals who long to live in more dense, walkable, and engaging communities that retain a sense of character.
Based on Mayor Reed’s hiring of Tim Keane, Atlanta is in the throes of massive planning changes to fashion a city that appeals to the creative classes. New industries, attracted by a skilled and creative workforce, will thus provide the continued economic sustenance the region needs to continue thriving. Within this environment, parks and bicycle lanes are growing ever more present as is adaptive reuse architecture like Krog Street Market. Tearing down a building like the Engineer’s Bookstore that has the potential to celebrate Atlanta’s history and re-stimulate a once robust commercial strip squanders resources and is not what the future of Atlanta is about.
The repurposing of old buildings to create places like Ponce City Market, reclaiming the old railroad network as the walkable Beltline trail, and converting old buildings into residential lofts and empty lots into urban gardens all play significant roles for city dwellers seeking to grow their social and artistic networks. These old buildings set the character and tone of neighborhoods that are just starting to emerge as a matrix of cohesive residential properties tying a vibrant downtown together again.
This isn’t just about tearing down a building that some deem special; this is about a collective vision of the future. What will it take for Atlanta to take pride in the power of architecture to help transform the city? What will it take to keep building the creative energy that attracts new talent from other cities and encourages graduating students from Emory, Georga Tech, and the AUC to stay and lend their brilliance to the new Atlanta that is emerging, phoenix-like, from the light?
Our streets and our buildings help connect us as long as we are willing to slow down, plant our feet in clean soil, and forgo the urge to cater to cars that turn every street parallel to the highway into an alternative escape route to the suburbs?
Perhaps the will toward preservation comes because of so few new architectural wonders line our streets. Let’s integrate the old with the new and savor a future that enhances the best of both worlds. Yes, our city should be beautiful.
Beauty is balance and harmony, new and old. Beauty keeps families rooted and charms tourists, both of which keep the economic engine running. Beauty makes history and appeals to our hearts to rally on behalf of communities and makes new city officials proud. Beauty is a building with character and not a gas station spilling contaminants into the Earth while selling bad food amidst toxic fumes.
Beauty is resurgence: the collective history and future that we find in the buildings and people that make up the wonderful City of Atlanta.
To join in the fight for Atlanta’s future, please sign the Marietta Street Artery petition: chn.ge/2a8WT2K
