"Greening" Midtown.
Parks, plazas, tree-lined streets, boulevards, planted flower areas, fountains and sculpture are all components of the parks and landscape plan. Together they enhance the experience of place year round. Midtown Atlanta wants to be "green," with sidewalks cooled by continuous lines of trees and punctuated by fountains and small parks. The "green" street experience should be linear and sequential.
   An enhanced landscaped experience is an excellent investment to attract workers, shoppers, and particularly to stimulate the new housing market, for both the young professionals, alternative life style community, and the mature 50+ couples from existing suburban areas.

Enhancing Pedestrian Realms.
The recommended plan puts a primary emphasis on the creation of enhanced pedestrian realms from which buildings are set back sufficiently to allow additional street trees and landscape treatment. At the base of residential and office buildings, landscaping is required. Buildings higher than 5 stories are required to set aside and maintain pocket parks equivalent to or greater than the floor area of the 6th floor of the building.

Recommendations:

1. Expressway Enhancement.
   Both edges of the Expressway as it passes Midtown should be green. Currently, the expressway is depressed in a concrete canyon. Using natural vegetative material like Virginia creeper or other climbing vines, combined with bushes and trees, can radically transform the image of Midtown along the vehicular access.

2. Landscaped Boulevards.
   The median area and the curb edge of a boulevard provide many opportunities for landscape enhancement. The streets and avenues with this treatment are shown with the center green line.

3. Street Edges.
   The "primary space network" referred to on the Open space/Landscape Map shows those areas that need the most intense landscaping emphasis in order to create a continuous green link between key areas. The secondary space network shows those areas that need landscaping enhancements but need not be quite as intense because these areas are not as significant in linking together key areas of the plan.

   >>See a 3-D map showing
   >>these elements.

4. Mid-block Parks/Squares.
   One of the defining features of Midtown will be the classical parks located in the center of the streets. Mid-block parks are a dramatic landscape feature as well as a traffic calming devise that enhances the residential character, reduces noise, and improves pedestrian and vehicular safety. 18 of these mid-block parks are recommended to complement the adjacent housing and commercial areas.

5. Corner and Pocket Parks.
   Small pocket parks must be incorporated in all blocks that have commercial development. The plan indicates areas where these small parks are recommended. Additional parks space will be created as Midtown is built out.

6. Intersection Circles and Plazas.
   Several intersections have been singled out for landscape enhancement. Varying designs of these intersections create opportunities for urban scaled circles and squares. The intersection of 14th and Piedmont is for an intersection circle that would make a more enticing entrance to Piedmont Park. The new circle draws this historic park into the commercial core of Midtown.
      16 intersection plaza/circles are recommended at key locations. These should be a combination of edge and center island treatments. Textured materials should extend from the sidewalk across the intersection. Bollards can successfully be employed to help demarcate pedestrian areas. The center island is an ideal location for sculpture and water elements.

7. New Large Parks.
   Two block-sized parks/plazas/squares have been created, one surrounded by 8th Street, Biltmore Place, West Peachtree Street and Spring Street, and the other surrounded by 12th Street, 11th Street, Peachtree Street, and Crescent Avenue. These are large squares and can be used for large community festivals, fairs and events.

8. Existing Lawns, Plazas, Parks and Landscaped Areas.
   The open space plan incorporates all existing landscaped areas into the continuous lace of open spaces. Classic examples of this are the lawn area in front of the First Baptist church and the area adjacent to One Atlantic Center (the IBM tower).

9. Parking Lot Greening.
   As an interim measure, all existing parking lots must be extensively landscaped. One tree must be planted for every four (4) cars interior to the lot. On the periphery, particularly between sidewalks and lots, a fence, hedge, or decorative wall at least four feet high is recommended. Parking lots at the recommended planting intensity can further contribute to the park-like quality of Midtown.

Street Trees

1. Street trees shall be required along all boulevards, avenues and streets. The required number is to be determined by dividing the street frontage by a spacing dimension specified for each use.
   

2. Street trees with a minimum caliper of 4" with a minimum height of 12 feet high shall be required to be planted at or near the curb edge. A minimum of one tree shall be planted for each twenty-five (25) feet of frontage for residential uses and thirty feet (30) of frontage or fraction thereof for all streets that have not been designated as primary or secondary. Double rows of trees are recommended for primary and secondary pedestrian realms.

3. Trees should have a two-year maintenance and replacement guarantee.

4. Trees shall be planted in tree wells a minimum of four feet square. Metal tree grates or gray paving blocks shall cover the tree wells.

5. Species selection shall be based on City arborist's recommendations. Care must be exercised not to obstruct store display windows and signing by planting in the appropriate location and with the appropriate species. All tree types must allow filtered light at full leaf-out.

Powerlines

All powerlines, telephone and cable lines currently above ground must be rerouted off the street or underground. All future lines must be placed underground.

>>Introduction

>>General Land Use

>>Transit

>>Pedestrian

>>Open Space /
>>Landscape

>>Street Types

>>Parking

>>Retail

>>High-Rise Offices

>>Housing