The BeltLine and the Behemoth

The Atlanta BeltLine and Ponce City Market carve out their places in the city’s changing landscape

Two of the most ambitious development projects the city of Atlanta has ever seen are slowly but surely inching their way into our lives, step-by-step, brick-and-mortar by brick-and-mortar.

One connects the city by way of pathways, art, events and alternative transportation. The other is the disruptor, plopping down in the middle of an area some say would never change, for better or worse.

Some say you couldn’t find more diametrically opposite projects than the Atlanta BeltLine and Ponce City Market, but others wel-

April 17, 2015

come both as signs of the city’s new frontier.

Either way, they’re here. And they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. Here’s the latest on them both.

Atlanta BeltLine

The Atlanta BeltLine is a work in progress in the most flattering of ways. Typically when a development is under construction, it’s in one place; we see its progress whenever we happen to drive by, and before you know it, it’s complete.

But the BeltLine literally happens all around us. Different sections are created and connected at dozens of points around the city. Secret pas- sageways are revealed and new angles to view the city are opened up step by step, until we’re able to experience them ourselves step by step.

Here’s the latest on the BeltLine as we head deeper into spring.

The North Avenue Plaza

The North Avenue Plaza will connect Ponce City Market with the Eastside Trail as well as function as a public gathering space. It will be accessible from the bridge over North Avenue and from the existing path to Ponce City Market’s rail shed deck. Ponce City Market plans to construct stairs and an elevator from North Avenue accessible to the

This three-mile corridor on the city’s southwest side is now under construction and will run from University Avenue in Adair Park to Lena Avenue at Washington Park. Demolition of the bridge over Martin Luther King Jr. Drive took place in March to make way for a new bridge, with construction due to be completed in 2017.

The Urban Farm

The Urban Farm is a four-acre site located in southwest Atlanta adjacent to the West-