The World Cup is coming to Atlanta, spurring a historic district’s rebirth

Indicators for Underground Atlanta are the very first thing subway riders see after they emerge from the east exit of the 5 Factors subway station onto a downtown Atlanta road.

The four-block space has a storied historical past. Initially a Reconstruction-era railroad hub, the realm morphed right into a industrial district within the Nineteen Twenties when metropolis leaders constructed viaducts over the prepare tracks and outlets opened on the second stage of the industrial buildings above the rail visitors. Within the Sixties, the decrease stage turned a nightlife vacation spot, and within the Nineteen Eighties, a shopping center. It served as a hub for the 1996 Olympic Video games, then struggled to draw patrons for a few years. Bought by native actual property developer Shaneel Lalani in 2020, the historic district is within the midst of one more transformation into an arts and leisure hub.

As Atlanta prepares to welcome guests to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which shall be held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium lower than a mile away, Lalani and metropolis leaders are making enhancements designed to welcome and information thousands and thousands of worldwide guests by way of downtown, laying the inspiration for a civic infrastructure they hope will serve Atlanta lengthy after the soccer followers have returned house.

“Town administration has been very targeted on making preparations for lots extra worldwide vacationers and an inflow of friends and guests, individuals who aren’t aware of downtown Atlanta,” mentioned Anne Michael Sustman, director of business blended use and adaptive reuse for Web page, an structure and engineering agency that Stantec acquired this yr.

Underground Atlanta commissioned Web page to organize for that inflow by learning learn how to enhance the house’s attraction as a walkable vacation spot with common wayfinding interventions and a reimagined streetscape, Sustman mentioned.

“There was an enormous push by town to essentially enhance the pedestrian expertise all through downtown Atlanta,” Sustman mentioned. The Underground Atlanta homeowners imagine “long-term sustainability depends on a continuing presence of patrons for the companies there,” she mentioned. 

Catalyst for revitalization

Underground Atlanta’s retail areas had been largely vacant when Lalani purchased it, Sustman mentioned. The developer discovered artwork galleries and music venues to fill the areas beneath the road. “Now they’ve this extremely vibrant nightlife, with over 700 exhibits a yr, however they realized that they wanted extra activation on the road stage,” she mentioned.

Web page’s design options streetscape and lighting enhancements, in addition to greenery, to make the realm really feel safer and extra accessible to individuals through the day. Pedestrian pathways are huge sufficient for meals vans and emergency automobiles however are designed to stop automobiles from driving right into a crowd of pedestrians at a excessive velocity, Sustman mentioned. Town has made two blocks of the primary thoroughfare, Higher Alabama Road, pedestrian-only and plans to take action for a portion of Pryor Road, which intersects it, as nicely.

A number of buildings are being retrofitted to take care of the realm’s authenticity and “preserve it gritty,” mentioned Phuong Nguyen, Web page’s experiential graphic design director. “We would like small-business homeowners to have the ability to afford these areas, so we’re beginning with a light-weight contact that reuses areas — probably the most sustainable kind of constructing.”

On the intersection of Pryor and Higher Alabama, the Antebellum-era Macon & Western Railway constructing — most not too long ago a Foot Locker and a gallery house — is being tailored for reuse as a 7,000-square-foot “micro” meals corridor that may home native restaurant startups providing inexpensive lunch choices, Sustman mentioned.

Past welcoming vacationers, Sustman mentioned, the mission’s core purpose is to help town’s push to deliver extra housing and residents downtown. Many Atlantans haven’t visited the downtown space since Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympic Video games, she mentioned.

“It’s not simply the World Cup that’s creating that momentum and that catalyst — though it’s a very good excuse for town to return in and assist out in some methods,” she mentioned. “Town has an consciousness that we’re not simply on show for guests, however we’re on show for individuals who might actually be the catalyst for complete change and transformation and revitalization of our downtown.”