Midtown Atlanta, Arts Center Plaza

JOIN US FOR THE MAY T3*

UrbanTalk with Ginny Kennedy

Ginny Kennedy, the Director of Urban Design at Midtown Alliance will speak about:

• Midtown Alliance streetscape and open space projects
• The Peachtree Bridge enhancements
• MARTA transit station enhancements

Thursday, May 16th, 5:30-7:30pm

Location:
Steel Restaurant
950 West Peachtree Street, NW

MAP

– please walk or ride, but if you drive, park in the deck behind Publix –

*T3 (Thirsty Third Thursdays) is a monthly gathering organized by the Atlanta Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU Atlanta) for architects, planners, real estate professionals and all others who are interested in our built environment.

Ginny Kennedy is the Director of Urban Design at Midtown Alliance. With a background in architecture, art history and urban planning, she brings a multidisciplinary approach to the organization’s efforts to advance livability in Midtown through good design. Recently she has been responsible for projects ranging in scale from the sweeping initiative to improve the visual experience on the I-75/85 Atlanta Connector to installing temporary pocket parks as a means of activating underutilized sites throughout the district. Upcoming work will focus on enhancements to Midtown’s MARTA Transit Stations. She provides ongoing assistance to the development community through design review of proposed projects to ensure consistency with the Blueprint Midtown vision and conformity with the SPI-16/17 zoning codes. Prior to her role at Midtown Alliance, Ginny was a Senior Associate at Urban Collage with significant project management experience in urban redevelopment plans, community master plans, and facility planning for Atlanta Public Schools. Ginny is a native of Atlanta with an undergraduate degree from Smith College and Masters of Architecture and Masters of City Planning from Georgia Tech.

Poster Credit: Scott Doyon, Placemakers

The Atlanta chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism welcomed Jeff Speck, author of the book Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America One Step at a Time, the last week of March. On Thursday, March 28 Speck spoke to a group of the Midtown Alliance and on Friday, March 29 CNU Atlanta conducted an all-day workshop exploring transit-oriented development (TOD) opportunities at the King Memorial and H.E. Holmes MARTA stations, with Speck the featured speaker.

View photos of Speck speaking at the Midtown Alliance gathering here. Picture credit: Terry Kearns.

Esteemed local journalist Maria Saporta recapped Speck’s visit with an article on her well-read blog Saportareport.com.

Saporta reported on one of Speck’s major points during his talks in Atlanta, “Cities that are more walkable are more productive,” Speck said. “There is a strong economic argument.”

Saporta continued: “In his Atlanta workshop, Speck actually offered tools that the city can adopt to make it more walkable. He is a big advocate of road diets – reducing the amount of space devoted to cars and reallocating it to people. Pick streets that are the most likely winners — those that are strong candidates to become pedestrian-friendly. Reduce the number and/or width of the lanes, widen sidewalks, put in bike lanes, add parallel parking, plant street trees between the road and pedestrians and make sure there’s a building with active storefronts or restaurants opening up to sidewalk.

Nothing kills street life more than a surface parking lot or a lifeless concrete garage butting up to a sidewalk.”

JOIN US FOR THE FIRST T3* OF 2013! David Emory will introduce TranspoCamp South, an “unconference” focused on transportation and technology that will be coming to Atlanta in February.

Today’s comprehensive plans are operating with only 50% of their legal machinery; they are implemented primarily through zoning ordinances alone. However, zoning originally had a critical and necessary partner: the master street plan. In this brief presentation, the history, concept, and legal aspect of the master street plan will be explored relative to its role in city planning. Specifically, two questions will be addressed: What is a master street plan? and Why is a master street plan so critical in city planning? 

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER, PLEASE VISIT:  http://www.cnuatlanta.org/cnu-atlanta-winter-luncheon/

Let the Health Impact Assessment begin! As athletes prepared for the 2012 London Olympic Games, so did England’s planners and health professionals with the following assessments:

• Rapid Health Impact Assessment of the Proposed London Olympic Games and Their Legacy
• The Health Impact of the 2012 Games: a Screening Health Impact Assessment of the North East’s Draft Vision for the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games 2012
• Health Impact of the 2012 Olympic Transport Plans

Click here to view the entire article.