Well, to begin Atlanta lacks the destinations and public spaces around which to build deeper community appeal. We lack a beach front or monumental rivers or mountains, nor are there the man-made attractions to create a social identity. (ie: We're neither Vegas nor Orlando) So in order for Atlanta to take the next step up the ladder we need to enhance our urban spaces and hope that the development around these fulfill our desires for iconic and appealing design.
So I'd start off with more plans like the Beltline and all of its affiliated parks plus I'd push real hard for the many ideas from
Central Atlanta Progress to become a reality:
Here's
Perkins and Will's variation on the Central Atlanta Progress idea for a park space stretching from Five Points to the proposed multi-modal station. I like how they frame the front of Philips Arena at the end of one vista.
Couple that with CAP's vision for a bridge/plaze reaching over the connector next to the State Capitol:
Personally I'd prefer a design that fosters a more axial alignment from the building, but regardless now you've created attractive and iconic spaces around which people can gather and celebrate the city.
Then of course there's Historic Mims Park as being pursued by the
National Monuments Foundation, which has a nice
preview video shared elsewhere on this board.
I'd also love to take many of the existing attractions and relocate them into a cluster closer to downtown. Fernbank, ATL History Center (paired with the Cyclorama) and a relocated Center for Puppetry Arts. Would love to see the ImagineIt science museum also traded in for a larger and more formal Museum of Science and Engineering, like a smaller kin to the Museum of Science and Technology in Chicago.
Now if we could indeed cover the connector through midtown (The Big Lid!) then we could cluster these attractions and others along that linear park, and suddenly you have a truly magical space that people will want to use everyday.
That's a start.