Atlantic Station - Millennium Gate Monument
 

It's not a skyscraper, but a fun construction project to follow nonetheless.
website: http://www.thenmf.org/projects.htm

http://www.thenmf.org/images/monNav/monimage.gif
Now under construction in Atlantic Station, Midtown Atlanta.

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Shot with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL at 2008-06-15

Photo - 3/12/2007
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Photo - 5/18/2007
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Paris has the Arc de Triomphe overlooking the great Champs Elysees. Rome boasts the Arch of Constantine near the Colosseum, the Arch of Augustus in the Forum, and Bernini and Michelangelo's Porta del Popolo overlooking its great Piazza del Popolo entrance.

Great company to be sure, but none can boast a vista quite like that of Atlanta's newest monument - a retention pond! Napoleon and Caesar would be jealous...

At the time of construction these monuments may have overlooked worse...probably raw sewage running through their arches. :) I don't have any idea if I'll like this thing when it's built, but I certainly won't judge it ahead of time and we should all keep in mind that when the famous landmarks mentioned were under construction they were not exactly beloved....

25 years from now, the Millenium Gate will probably be the only thing to remind us that AS existed!

Go ATL! If done right, i'm sure this will look fantastic. The neighborhood in that photo looks like it has the makings of a really high quality place.

I just hope that the artistry and construction on this thing is very high quality. It irks me when developers try to mimic classic designs but use cheap materials. It ends up looking very tacky much of the time.

This is true, it'd be nice to see a new classic monument erected in this day and age. I really had never thought about that being a possibility before. Having an arch similar to the Washington Square Arch in Manhattan (not a copy!), would really cement Atlanta's reputation as the New York of the South!

Yes, I think that would do it! :jester:

This project is garbage. It's like Berlin building a half size replica of a pyramid in 1880. Why???

The left and right wings of this project are already built and they add nothing to the area. They're already chintzy and cracking.

The Arch is in the median...nothing passes through it!

All this Arch says is "Welcome to some craptastic mexican-labor-built housing, let's hide that with the diversion of a mock homage to bombast!"

Too bad that the criminal anarchist who tried to burn down the Atlantic Station condos isn't around today to burn down this hideous structure.

I think that pond looks hideous with the fence around it and a monument isn't going to help it anymore.

You know, I have been re-thinking my views on this monument. Many of us -- and yes, I have been one of them -- have been quick to condemn this thing.

But let's consider a few points. First, look at what we had before. A rusting, contaminated brownfield that was going nowhere.

Secondly, no one has stopped me from going out there and building a monument of my own with my own money. At least the people who are doing this have the gumption to try, and to put their money (which is a whole lot more than I have) where their mouth is. So they don't need me sitting over here on the sidelines carping at them.

Thirdly -- and here I will draw on lessons from my own life -- there is no shame in not being the greatest. In every race somebody has to finish second, and usually there are those who come in third, fourth, fifth and right on down the line. We don't say those people are worthless. So why should we condemn this monument just because it's not as exciting or impressive or well-situated as some other monuments? A famous person whose name I cannot recall once said, “It’s important to know your limitations.” Just maybe this is a case in point.


“Those who can do; those who can’t criticize.” -- Author unknown.

I think Adrea is right...I'm going to try to withhold judgment until I see the completed project.

On another note, I HOPE TO GOD they are going to at least put a real fountain in that retention pond. It looks awful.

That above, my good friends, is wisdom. I could not agree more.

I think you are confusing two things, Andrea: the "accomplishment" of AS (which is, I think, an accomplishment) and the construction of a kitschy McMonument that bespeaks a cultural inferiority complex for all the world to see. I don't think anyone would deny that these people have a right to build anything they damn well please on whatever property they own (well, some people might, but I don't). On the other hand, it is part of Atlanta's landscape that everyone else has to live with--can't it be criticized without a MarketWorksian response of "uber-successful people have done this, you didn't, so stop sniveling"? Whether it's an exercise in "gumption" or just another exercise in tasteless schlock (Las Vegas probably thought it was too tacky) is up for debate.

On the plus side, the Arch is an absolutely spot-on bookend to the Olympic Torch viewing platform that rises majestically (as if in a dream, really) along the Connector. :haha: I think we can all take pride in this (everybody now: "We're Number One!", "We're Number One!",... )

Tombstoner, we can’t hide from this monument and sooner or later we’re going to have to own up to it. So we might as well take civic ownership of it and put the best spin possible on the situation. If it’s kitsch, at least it’s our own homegrown kitsch – as you say, it’s a worthy counterpart to certain other monumental elements of the urban fabric.

I'm not waiting to hold judgment. I know the area, and I know this is a mistake on many many levels. Again, they've already built the side pieces, and they're junk. Just because private money is being used, does it make the decision to build this any less foolish? At least if public money was being used we might have a better shot at having this demolished in a generation. I could stomach the McArch in a better location, but this is silly where it is. The former monument to industry that was there was much better and actually fit in to the environs.

I was right about WOC...it is crap, but everyone wanted to hold judgment. Now we're stuck with a building in which only one of its four facades are acceptable (the one facing the aquarium - the ones facing the city and the park are as if Coke is mooning Atlanta.)

I'm completely with Tombstoner on this one, and how it smacks of immaturity. Hopefully The Atlantic will be as good as the models and no one will really notice this arch.

More importantly, any updates on the abandoned office space above the retail of AS? Is that ever going to fly or are they going to have to redo those floors?

I wish I had your pragmatism, Andrea. You're right, of course; tilting at windmills probably doesn't get us anywhere... But I do hope that when the Annuls of Atlanta in the Early 21st Century are written, somewhere a footnote will record that "not everybody thought this was a good idea." ;)

My only response to the mountain-out-of-a-molehill thread is to wonder just who has the inferiority complex to which you refer. The presence of this rising monument to whatever does not make me feel the least bit defensive or insecure. It's just a building, and I suspect it will look a lot better than what used to sit there.

Who owns that stupid thing and why is it still there? I think it needs to be the victim of an UNFORTUNATE cutting torch accident.

Meet me at the 3rd Street Tunnel at 3AM. Bring the supplies. ;)