Best New Addition to the Cityscape

Launched by Ryan Wilson and TK Peterson in 2016 with a mission to serve as a members-only club for the city’s growing population of professionals, creatives and entrepreneurs, THE GATHERING SPOT could have easily turned into nothing more than a see-and-be-seen kind of destination. But, serving as a venue for conversations on investing in local artists and for launching new businesses like the African-American culture website Cassiuslife.com, it quickly evolved into a space where some of Atlanta’s best and brightest congregated to work and collaborate — not pose. And with plans in the works to open a second Gathering Spot in another market, chances are good that opportunities to connect and develop community will grow as well. 384 Northyards Blvd. N.W. 404-948-2459. www.thegatheringspot.club.

Spot for Atlanta’s Shakers and Movers

photo by: Lindsey Max

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If you’re hankering for a new angle on Atlanta’s skyline, the NEW PONCE CITY MARKET ROOFTOP has finally arrived. Should you decide to peel your eyes away from the quirky narrow stretch of buildings, turn around and find yourself in Skyline Park, the 1.7-acre-rooftop boardwalk-inspired amusement park decked out with a dunking booth, mini golf, skeeball, and a free-fall Heege ride. Jamestown Properties plans to use the roof’s remaining 4.3 acres for restaurants, events, and private space for building tenants. Yes, it will cost you $10 to access, and extra money if you want to enjoy the attractions. But just think: The rooftop gives visitors a one-stop shop to dunk someone in a tub of water while taking in the picturesque skyline of Atlanta. That’s what we call good architecture. less...

Boulevard Tunnel used to be a place most pedestrians avoided. The dark and creepy underpass that connects Old Fourth Ward and Cabbagetown had broken lighting, busted roads, and lifeless walls. The conditions dramatically improved in spring 2014. The BOULEVARD TUNNEL INITIATIVE, a local nonprofit that has been working for years to spruce up the underpass, partnered with Living Walls to breathe life into the walkway. BTI and LW members cleaned up the tunnel once filled with trash and poop. New York-based muralist MOMO and a mighty army of volunteers brightened up the tunnel with a rainbow-colored mural. The beautification project has managed to make a ho-hum tunnel into something beautiful, made the area safer, and brought together different neighborhoods. Take that, concrete jungle! boulevardtunnelinitiative.wordpress.com. less...

One of the best parks - arguably the best park - in Atlanta just got better. This summer, Piedmont Park’s 13-acre expansion and its collection of new entrances was unveiled. The add-on near the intersection of Piedmont Road and Monroe Drive is crowned by the new Piedmont Commons, a multi-use field for relaxing and picnicking. New access points to the park, including a trail through the North Woods forest alongside the Atlanta Botanical Garden, offer easy access to Ansley Park and Morningside residents. The effort is a follow-up to a 2011 expansion that included wetlands, an expanded and improved dog park, and an interactive fountain. Even more excellence is on the way: The park’s final planned expansion is set to include a skate park, and eventually the Beltline will also be built out along the greenspace. www.piedmontpark.org. less...

If there’s a part of Atlanta that’s seen as little investment as southwest Atlanta, it’s northwest Atlanta. Running through that long-overlooked part of town is Proctor Creek, a polluted waterway stretching from Vine City and English Avenue to the Chattahoochee River. It’s an untapped asset that, thanks to a bold plan by some private developers, could become the Emerald Corridor, a linear park and bike trail flanked by smart development. The project has the blessing of the federal government and is far along in discussions with City Hall, which is providing some land. Much like the Beltline or every other project that aims to improve an area, it could spark questions and concerns about public investment and gentrification. But it has great potential to revitalize the area and will be something to watch unfold. less...

Not too many animals, domesticated or not, have their own Facebook page with more than 4,600 likes. But Piper the Beltline Cat, so named for her home in a drainage pipe along the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail, has become an Atlanta celebrity and unofficial mascot for the smart-growth project ever since she cozied up in the metal coop earlier this year. It was there that she would chow down on Fancy Feast and “read” fan mail left in the mailbox admirers planted in her front yard. That is, until she was “bought out” by a developer building a residential complex atop her claimed home. No worries, however. The feline apparently found a new home a few blocks from the Beltline in a similar pipe attached to a bungalow. A big *pawbump* (her catchphrase, not ours) to the city’s coolest stray. www.facebook.com/BeltLinePiper. less...

Atlanta Beltline officials will tell you the coolest shortcut between Piedmont Park and Inman Park isn’t officially open yet, but even they know the Eastside Trail already has plenty of users (gaze on the winding path from Freedom Parkway and you’ll see the occasional jogger or hipster bicyclist pedaling toward DeKalb Avenue). The $12 million project - which has been delayed from opening by more than a year thanks to construction issues - isn’t just a pretty bike trail. The path, which abuts Ponce City Market and Historic Fourth Ward Park, has helped attract more than six new dense developments with several thousand new housing units and create a buzz around the area between Ponce de Leon Avenue and Freedom Parkway - a vibrant pocket which could become the example of what the Beltline could look and feel like in the decades to come. Not to mention help further boost an already progressive, vibrant neighborhood. (Mark our words: Good luck finding room on the trail when the path opens.) The park’s cool and Ponce City Market has promise. But the trail stitches everything, including the neighborhoods along the route, together. less...

Not much is going down in Buckhead since the neighborhood purged its nightlife, but plenty is going up. Atlanta hasn’t skyscraped this feverishly since the downtown/Midtown boom in the late ’80s and early ’90s. By the end of the year, the title “Buckhead’s Tallest Building” will have changed hands twice in 2007. Come ’08, the title will belong to SOVEREIGN. Inside a curving, 635-foot-tall exterior that kind of looks like a giant Ionic Breeze, Sovereign will offer office, retail, restaurants and 93 condos that will cost up to $12 million. Here’s hoping the mixed-use monolith encourages more centralized living, working and playing — and thus less driving, driving and driving.

Tower Place 200, 3348 Peachtree Road, Suite 1095. 404-266-3344. www.sovereignbuckhead.com

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TERMINUS 100 may not be quite finished yet, but when it’s completed in the spring, the 26-story glass-and-steel high-rise will bring a Fifth Avenue vibe to the intersection of Peachtree and Piedmont roads. The Buckhead tower, designed by Duda/Paine Architects of Durham, N.C., is the first of five planned by Cousins Properties on the 10-acre site. It will be anchored by two floors of retail space set up against the sidewalk, with a glitzy, Vegas-style restaurant plaza around the side. A stunning example of Atlanta’s mixed-use building renaissance, Terminus 100 is certain to bring a new jolt of energy to a rapidly changing part of town. The high-profile address and highfalutin architecture already has roped in a high-profile tenant: Cousins itself plans to move from the suburbs into the Buckhead building. That’s certainly making a statement.
www.terminus-atlanta.com

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If you’ve ever been to a wedding, you know Midnight Star’s “No Parking (On the Dancefloor)” is a guaranteed floor filler. Except it’s not meant to be taken literally, because an SUV takes up more prime real estate than most clubs can afford — especially if it enters through the window, as BAZZAAR found out the hard way in July. Thankfully, no one was hurt by the errant driver — bad even by Atlanta standards — and this forward-thinking lounge continues to bolster its own reputation for unassuming indulgence by fostering the city’s top DJ talent under the watchful eye of Bill Kaelin. less...

When United Parcel Service went public in 1999, its generous employee stock option made millionaires out of longtime employees, from managers to delivery truck drivers. And UPS keeps on giving. Even part-time employees get full benefits, including forgivable student loans of $2,000 per year for four years. The company was ranked eighth in the U.S. for employee benefits by MONEY magazine. And Fortune ranked UPS No. 23 out of 1,000 companies for minority employment.
55 Glenlake Parkway. 800-742-5877. www.ups.com.

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The 41-story glass tower rising on the corner of Peachtree and 14th streets marks the tallest construction in Atlanta in more than a dozen years. But 1180 PEACHTREE, designed by the prestigious Connecticut firm Pickard Chilton, has more than height going for it. The building’s swooping lines evoke the contours of a gigantic, shimmering cell phone. Or is it a neo-gothic cathedral? Either way, it’s also the largest structure in Atlanta to attain “green” status; developer Hines Interests is constructing the tower using at least 10 percent recycled materials, and it will be outfitted with water-saver toilets and faucets. The high-rise, informally known as Symphony Tower, is scheduled to open next year, when mega-firm King & Spalding sets up shop on 17 floors.
www.1180peachtree.com.

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As if people making pilgrimages here from hundreds of miles away wasn’t enough evidence that Atlanta has reached a new milestone, how about $19.99 for a sleek dining room chair? We now have proof that Atlanta has come of age, and that proof occupies 366,000 square feet inside a blue and yellow building emblazoned “IKEA.” The mostly modern offerings at the home-furnishing Mecca that opened in June are certain to do wonders for interior decor in metro Atlanta and beyond. When your friends’ formally frumpy homes suddenly take on the refined glow of the pages of Real Simple, you know something big has happened. less...