Atlanta Streets Alive

On April 17, 2016 the Turner Field Stadium Neighborhoods LCI planning team participated in Atlanta Streets Alive to unveil and receive feedback on three development concepts for the redevelopment of Turner Field and its surrounding parking lots. The LCI display tent was staged on the corner of Hank Aaron Drive and Georgia Avenue just north of Turner Field. The festival route down Georgia Avenue brought an estimated 80,000 visitors to the stadium neighborhoods and provided the perfect opportunity to present our design concepts to the public.

As a street activation activity, the planning team recreated French’s Ice Cream, a business which was located on Georgia Avenue from 1921 to 1964. The popup ice cream parlor offered free ice cream from local food truck Vintage Frozen Custard for survey participants.

Core Area Concept Plans

All three concepts incorporated feedback from the visioning workshops conducted on January 30th where 250 community stakeholders used 3D models to illustrate their ideal community type for the Turner Field area. Participants used wood blocks to construct their desired development, which were ranked based on population, density, jobs, open space and parking. The outcomes of this workshop were a set of guiding design parameters, that includes a street network, open space, a mix of uses, the planning team used to propose three distinct concepts.

Ballpark Plaza - This concept features a public square dedicated to Hank Aaron and connected to GSU’s centrally located baseball field and retail. It will also include a central plaza along Capitol Avenue that would integrate transit, paths, outdoor seating and kiosks. 

Big Park - The open public mall illustrated in this concept provides views of the Georgia Capitol Dome and a relocated Olympic Cauldron. The Mall incorporates the home plate of Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, site of Hank Aaron’s historic home run.  The Mall creates a unique space for commemorative sculpture and public gatherings

Neighborhood Squares - This concept has a neighborhood focus and scale. Several small public squares would be integrated throughout the residential blocks and pay homage to each district’s history and identity. To acknowledge Hank Aaron’s legacy, one square encloses the Fulton County Stadium infield. It is located just north of GSU’s baseball field.

Download the concept boards here.

People's Choice Awards

Participants were asked to nominate each of the three concepts on display for a “people’s choice award.” The ballot was designed to yield qualitative reactions; instead of a ranking it proposed several “senior superlatives,” such as:

  • Most Attractive
  • Most Neighborly
  • Most Meaningful
  • Most Likely to Succeed
  • Best All Around
  • Class Clown

The project team received 471 survey ballots. Because many participants assigned multiple categories/superlatives to concepts to best reflect their vision for the area, only the first category assigned was coded to aggregate the ballot results. Additionally, some participants neglected to list a category on each of the concepts, therefore the response was coded as non-responsive or (N/A). The following summarizes the participants’ preference for the future development of Turner Field. 

Results

Ballpark Plaza - The most frequently assigned category for the Ballpark Plaza concept was Class Clown (27%). 

Big Park - The most popular category for the Big Park concept was Most Attractive (48%). 

Neighborhood Squares - Finally, Neighborhood Squares concept had the most diverse responses with Most Neighborly leading at 31% 

Download the full results here.

In conclusion, Atlanta Streets Alive attracts participants from all over the Atlanta region, therefore some of the ballots were not completed by residents of the Turner Field stadium neighborhoods. Many of the participants mentioned to the planning team that the redevelopment of Turner Field will have a regional impact and they wanted to provide feedback.