Comments on: America Doesn’t Think Much of Our Building Legacy

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:40:59 +0000

I’m no expert on architecture but I think ATL’s place on a general survey is a very good marker of where our city stands in this field for two reasons.

First, Atlanta doesn’t really have a centralized skyline. We have several miniature skylines that can all be viewed individually, downtown, Buckhead, galleria area and some others. If we were a bit more dense so that most of our large structures could be viewed side by side we might fare better at a glance and more of our buildings might stand out in the minds non-Atlantans. Most people don’t look at a city with the eye of an architect, after all.

Second, and probably more importantly, most of the buildings of any size here have only been built in the last two decades or so. When I first moved here when I was a kid, if I remember correctly, the only buildings of any size were the IBM Building, the Westin and GA-Pacific center. Nations Bank, Sun Trust, 191 P’tree and most of the other buildings of note have been built since I moved here in ‘91. In this survey Atlanta is competing with other, older buildings that have had time to become iconic even if they’re not as esthetically pleasing, the PanAM (now Met Life) tower in NYC springs to mind.

I’m confident that, given another few years, given some time for our architecture to creep deeper into the public consciousness that you’ll see a number of Atlanta’s buildings creep up that list.

I think that, in time, as more people

By: Jolomo

Jolomo — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 05:53:31 +0000

Some good news: 1180 Peachtree (which I like a lot) placed #4 in the world on Emoris’s best buildings of 2006

http://awards.emporis.com/?nav=award2006&lng=3

By: BPJ

BPJ — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:15:13 +0000

Don’t feel bad about the small number of Atlanta buildings on the list - hardly anything in the South made it. The 1983 High building by Richard Meier would be first on my list, followed by Renzo Piano’s sensitive 2005 addition. The Hyatt is by far my favorite Portman building - it’s original and fairly subtle, compared to the awkward, gimmicky lines of the Plaza or the Marriott. The other building I would add is the “IBM Tower” (One Atlantic Center), which was the subject of rave reviews when it opened in the late 80’s.

I do like the building with “wings” in Midtown, but I’m waiting for a more significant building with wings to open next to it: the Santiago Calatrava designed Symphony Hall!

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:09:11 +0000

The Hyatt? Ew. The High, yes, although most Atlantans probably only think of what it looks like from the front (which is really not all that inspiring). The new Wachovia building in Midtown (the one with the wings) is…interesting. I can’t decide if I like it.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 16:50:50 +0000

I agree that Atlanta is lacking in great buildings.

I love the city’s skyline, especially in ever-changing clouds and fog. But there is no single building I love more that another. Some are interesting, and it was apparent that the architects had a “vision” of what the buildings should look like. But none of the resulting building rise past mildly idiosyncratic and achieve some level of iconic status.