Midtown Atlanta

Midtown Atlanta, or simply Midtown, is a busy area in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. It is a place where many people live and work, with tall buildings, shops, and hotels mostly along Peachtree Street between North Avenue and 17th Street. Midtown is located between the busy downtown area to the south and the upscale Buckhead area to the north. It is the second-largest business area in all of Metro Atlanta.

What makes Midtown special is its many art and cultural spots. Some of the most famous places include the Fox Theatre, the Woodruff Arts Center, the High Museum of Art, and the Center for Puppetry Arts. Each year, millions of visitors come to Midtown for big events like the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, Atlanta Pride, outdoor music concerts called Music Midtown, and games played by the Georgia Tech sports teams. Since the 1990s, many new buildings have been built in Midtown because it has good public transportation, a nice street layout, and is a popular place to live and visit.

Geography and nomenclature

The area known as Midtown Atlanta has changed over time. Originally, it was a small neighborhood halfway between Downtown and Buckhead. Today, different groups define Midtown in different ways. The City of Atlanta includes the busy part along Peachtree Street, Historic Midtown, and the homes east of Piedmont Avenue and south of Piedmont Park.

A group called the Midtown Alliance talks about a larger area called "Greater Midtown," which covers about four square miles. This includes the city's version of Midtown and adds neighborhoods like Ansley Park, Sherwood Forest, Atlantic Station, Home Park, and Loring Heights. In the past, this area had other names. Long ago, it was called North Atlanta, and later, some people called it Uptown Atlanta.

History

Midtown Atlanta started in 1848 when Richard Peters bought land to use pine trees for fuel. Over time, families built homes there. After the Civil War, a rough settlement grew up, but as Atlanta expanded, fancy homes appeared along Peachtree Street.

By the 1880s, new streets and parks like Piedmont Park were added. Shopping areas grew, and by the 1910s, Peachtree Street was known as a fine place to live. In the 1950s, a new freeway caused some buildings to be torn down, but later, new shops and tall buildings were built. The area changed a lot in the 2000s with many new homes and places to shop and eat.

The Midtown Alliance started in 1978 to help improve the neighborhood, and today Midtown is a busy place with lots of people living, working, and enjoying the area.

Architecture and historic districts

In the early 1980s, Midtown Atlanta was mostly empty, with many parking lots. But in 1987, the building called One Atlantic Center was built, and this helped bring new life to the area.

Some famous buildings you might hear about include the High Museum of Art, designed by Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, and One Atlantic Center by Philip Johnson. Other notable places are 1100 Peachtree, 1180 Peachtree, AT&T Midtown Center, the Four Seasons Hotel, Promenade II, Spire, ViewPoint, and 1010 Midtown.

Around Peachtree Street, not many old buildings were kept, but some special ones are saved and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. These include the Margaret Mitchell House, Rhodes Hall, Edward C. Peters House, and the Academy of Medicine.

Two historic areas in Midtown are the Fox Theatre Historic District and Historic Midtown. Both are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Fox Theatre Historic District has the Fox Theatre, built in 1929, the old Georgian Terrace Hotel from 1911, the Italianate Ponce de Leon Apartments from 1913, and the Cox-Carlton Hotel from 1925. Historic Midtown, mostly east of Piedmont Avenue, is famous for its cozy bungalows and beautiful Queen Anne style houses.

Parks and recreation

Midtown’s main green space is Piedmont Park, which grew larger in 2011. The park is next to the Midtown business area to the west, Ansley Park to the northwest, the Beltline, Morningside, and Virginia Highland to the east, and the Midtown Historic District to the south. The Atlanta Botanical Garden is right beside the park.

The Beltline is a long trail that circles older neighborhoods in central Atlanta. The Beltline Eastside Trail links Piedmont Park to the Inman Park MARTA station. The "Art on the Beltline" project added several modern art pieces along the trail.

Economy

Midtown Atlanta is a busy area with lots of offices and companies. It has space for about 22 million square feet of offices, with more being built all the time. Many big companies have their main offices here, like Equifax, EarthLink, Invesco, The Coca-Cola Company, NCR, and CNN/Warner Bros. Discovery.

There are also offices for other important companies such as Norfolk Southern, Wells Fargo, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and AT&T Inc.. Some big stores and markets, like the largest Whole Foods Market in the southeastern United States, can be found in Midtown too.

Retail

Close to Midtown, you can find big shopping places like Ponce City Market and Atlantic Station. There are also places to shop along Peachtree Street, and many great restaurants that people love to visit.

Arts and culture

Midtown is often called Atlanta's "Heart of the Arts." It is home to the Ferst Center for Arts, the Fox Theatre, the Woodruff Arts Center, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta Ballet, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Center for Puppetry Arts, and many other arts and entertainment places. The Woodruff Arts Center has recently expanded, with more changes to come, including a new Atlanta Symphony Center.

The High Museum of Art works with famous museums to show special art collections, including from the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nearby is the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA), the only museum in the Southeast focused just on design. Midtown is also home to the Atlanta campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design, located in historic buildings.

Piedmont Park in Midtown is a favorite spot for cultural festivals. Every spring, the Atlanta Dogwood Festival takes place there when the dogwoods bloom. The park is also the finish line for the Peachtree Road Race on Independence Day. The Atlanta Arts Festival happens there too, bringing artists from all over the country. Another big event is the Festival Peachtree Latino, celebrating Hispanic-American culture with arts, crafts, family fun, sports, a parade, dancing, food, and live music.

Midtown hosts the big Music Midtown festival, which started again in 2011 after a break. Near the Midtown MARTA station, the Peachtree Music Festival happens, featuring indie rock and electronic music. In the fall, the Atlanta Pride festival brings together the local and regional LGBT community, and the week-long Out on Film festival shows movies made by, for, and about the LGBT community.

Education

Residents of Midtown Atlanta go to schools in the Atlanta Public Schools. Some of these schools include Virginia-Highland Elementary School, David T. Howard Middle School, and Midtown High School.

The area is also home to important places for learning, such as the Georgia Institute of Technology, John Marshall Law School, and the Atlanta part of the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Transportation

Midtown Atlanta has several train stops as part of Atlanta’s rail system, called MARTA. You can ride the train at the North Avenue, Midtown, and Arts Center MARTA Stations. MARTA also runs many buses in the area. There is a free shuttle that goes between the Arts Center MARTA Station and Atlantic Station. Another free shuttle runs during the day between the Midtown MARTA station and Georgia Tech.

Midtown Ecodistrict

Ecodistricts are special areas in cities that work together to be better for the environment and the economy. Midtown Atlanta created the first ecodistrict in Atlanta in 2012. This ecodistrict helps businesses and people use energy, water, and transportation in smarter ways to make the area a nice place to live.

In 2014, the Midtown Alliance started to show which buildings and shops in Midtown were doing great things for the environment. Midtown has many buildings, skyscrapers, and hotels. There are also special paths for people who ride bikes, and the restaurants help keep the environment clean by recycling almost everything they use.