assignment 1: emily

Buckhead hasn't always been the mass of office buildings, condos, and shopping centers it is today. It was once a home for the wealthy who planted their estates on the picturesque hills just up the road from Atlanta's center, followed by middle class neighborhoods like Garden Hills that emerged as Atlanta grew outward in the early 20th century. Buckhead wasn't even annexed by Atlanta until 1952, but it didn't take long for this jumble of major intersections to lure business from downtown and become Atlanta's 2nd major business district (CBD). As a CBD moves, it has ahead of it the "zone of assimilation" and leaves behind it a "zone of discard." As it evolves, we see the center tighten and the frame go through a variety of changes as it learns to support or is excluded by the core. Larry Ford particularly talks about the adjustments residential neighborhoods go through to accommodate the incoming business before the area eventually bows to destruction. Although it should no longer be considered Atlanta's primary or even secondary CBD (Atlanta does tend to sprawl) Buckhead has been constantly evolving since the construction of Lenox Square mall in 1959 and the first office high-rises in 1966. This constant construction and evolution has created pockets of zones of both assimilation and discard as the skyscrapers and widened roadways leave shops behind only to re-envelope bits of the frame later. Funnily, despite all the destruction and construction Buckhead has never completely obliterated it's past, and evidence of each time period remains, making for some dramatic juxtapositions in the landscape.

1. A few blocks from the core, one finds a confusing mix of architecture. Quaint cottages remain, standing alone amidst condos and modern shopping centers where they were once part of whole neighborhoods. The front yard has long since been paved over and signage indicates how this building has had to adjust to its new situation. Oddly, some neighborhood streets have remained intact, but zoning has made them solidly commercial. Actually, demolition in Buckhead seems to have been so jumpy that even at the feet of skyscrapers, bits of architectural history remain. A fancy home (now repurposed as well of course) sits next door to the original towers of Buckhead (Lenox Towers) and "The Mansion" (condos), along with other glass office buildings, now tower over it.

2. It's not just homes from the first half of the century, but even mid-20th century single-story shopping centers that sprang up to feed the growth are now dwarfed by parking decks and loomed over by the ever-present construction crane, evidence of Buckhead's constant evolution.

3. Just a little farther out this shopping strip along Piedmont has been left in the lurch most likely by the widening of that street as it approached the new CBD. Now, though on the edge of a residential neighborhood (Garden Hills), it is unapproachable and thus unusable.