What a company!
The Piedmont Park Conservancy presented its new comprehensive plan on April 24, which will lead the future growth, maintenance and use of the typical green areas of Atlanta.
The 28th annual milestone delivered the venue of the “Great Unveil” with a keynote speech by Thomas Woltz, senior principal of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. His company led the design work together with Perez Planning and Design in Atlanta, which the public thousands of human-committed people to weigh up the plan.
“Since 1895 with the cotton states and the international exhibition, this piece of land in the world has announced who Atlanta is,” said Woltz. “This is an extraordinary fact. For over a century, this country of the outside world has been telling who Atlanta is and the values of Atlanta. Today we are celebrating the best of what Atlanta is – in Piedmont Park.”
In short, Piedmont Park has something for everyone, and the public is passionate about what happens to the space that we all believe. The planners had to compensate for all aspects of the park – from his ecological foundation to their amazing place in the history of the city – and at the same time plan a lively future.
Doug Widener, President and CEO of the Piedmont Park Conservancy, said that he was so satisfied with how the plan came together because he showed that “extensive from every perspective”.
After checking the entire plan, I recommend all the work that the four core goals have developed:
- Expand access to free public open space for everyone.
- Create one of people friendlier.
- Steward healthy and resilient natural systems.
- Plan a taxally sustainable and physically waiting future.
The efforts to plan the future of Piedmont Park are surprisingly complex. The plan provides to expand the park in the north and at the same time improve its existing footprint.
It becomes complicated because Piedmont Park Conservancy, founded by the Friends of Piedmont Park in 1989, has to carry out a balancing act between all the different constituencies that affect the park.
This includes the city of Atlanta, which has the country, which has been Piedmont Park since 1904. The nature reserve has a memorandum of understanding with the department for parks and recreation of the city.
Widener said that the city was open to discussing a new declaration of intent after the comprehensive plan was published. “We are pleased that these talks start,” he said.
The Atlanta Botanical Gardens (ABG) have a major impact on the park. In the 185 hectare Piedmont Park, the gardens lease 30 acres on the western edge, which are fenced for the public and are not freely accessible.
But the ABG has an enormous influence in this city, so it is more important than ever to compensate for the needs of the public to the wishes of the gardens.
At the eastern edge of the park, the recently opened Atlanta Beltline Trail drives through the room, and it is expected that the existing millions will bring more visitors to the six million who are currently enjoying the park every year.
“This is really one of the most difficult nodes to untangle,” said Woltz. “You already have a beloved park with an enormous amount of activity. You are shortly before extending the north and you have a thin area that belongs to the Piedmont Park over a gorge with the botanical garden that presses down.”
Woltz described the pressing of the park as a slipper and said that they would have to become creative by creating a canopy and other paths along the gorge and making clear creek for parking visitors much stronger.
The new comprehensive plan gives the Piedmont Park Conservancy a foot to protect the publicly heard country, which is to be freely used by the public.
One of my main criticisms of the plan is that he does not urgently point out that the use of vehicles in the park is restricted. When I visit the park, I don't see a day when I don't see any numerous cars or vehicles with the streets – a danger for everyone running, cycling and skate along these paths.
When ABG and the preservation pushed on the construction of the parking garage, one of their sales points was that it had removed vehicles from the park. However, cars are invasive types and find paths to take over rooms that should be devoted to non-vehicular means of transport.
Previously, the city was previously patrolled with police officers in the park in the park. Garbage would rather be picked up by someone in a golf car than from huge trucks. And then the park codes will generously cause the cars of those who hold events in the park, a conflict with the pastoral nature of the green areas.
“Cars in the park will be a problem as long as the number of events is what it is,” wrote Widener in a text. “These organizers receive the codes and overview.
And that brings me to another pet peeve. The city of Atlanta uses gas -powered flowers and maintenance devices (instead of electrical devices) that pollute our air. We can do it better.
According to Widener, an essential part of the plan is to create a basic level of maintenance and care.
“The park looks good,” said Widener. “[But] Our park should look great. “
There is a need for the park to be better maintained – whether it repairs the rough roads, finds solutions for the numerous drainage problems that Lake Clara Meere improves, which Woltz describes and improves the Baum -Baldachin throughout the park.
As suggested, the implementation of the first phase of the plan, which costs the prevention of the basic expectation of the park and the expansion of the park in the north – will cost between 50 and 75 million US dollars. The completion of the entire plan would probably cost up to 150 to 175 million US dollars, including the restoration of Clear Creek and Lake Clara Meer.
“We know that this will take some time. Even if we had all resources, it will be introduced for various reasons,” said Widener. “I would like to see all the big projects in the next 10 to 12 years.”
Widener, who had joined the conservancy in October 2023, added: “Atlanta is my home. I have invested in this city in the long run.”
Admittedly, the comprehensive plan is a “high -ranking concept,” said Widener. It is expected that the conservation will continue to work with the city, the planners and the public to refine and detail how the various projects are implemented, so that Piemont Park can exhaust its potential as a world-class earnings.
“I am a nature lover. All the ecological restoration – that makes me happy,” said Widener. “We have all this density. And we have these little vignettes of nature.”
Woltz said our parks were an indicator of who we are as a civil society.
“Why does that work? Because we take care of each other because we take care of our planet,” said Woltz. “The results are beautiful. We get a healthier city from the perspective of biodiversity, water, trees, air. If everything gets better, the Piedmont Park gets better.”
Woltz pragmatically said that people move to Atlanta and stay here because amenities like Piedmont Park, which makes our community stronger.
“Today we are the focus of the history of Piedont Park,” said Woltz. “We have over 100 years of history to build up and we have far more than 100 years.”
Note to the reader: When Piedmont Park became 100 years old in 2004, the Conservancy published a coffee table book: “Piedmont Park: Celebrations of Atlantas in common”. I was happy to write the final essay in the book: “Celebrate the seasons of my life in Piedmont Park.”
More than 20 years have passed since the book was published. But every day that passes, I think of my parents and the hundreds of people who have dealt with ensuring that we protect and preserve Piemont Park and ensure that the interest of the public is respected.
It would be wonderful if we could revive the friends of Piedmont Park to help Steward in the park and ensure that the conservation in our name can work to implement the new comprehensive plan.
