Located just north of Downtown Atlanta, and just south of Atlanta's third downtown, Buckhead, is the real heart of the city, Midtown. Midtown is a casual mix of old Victorian and American Craftsman-style homes, walkable commercial areas, and of-the-minute office and condo high rises. With the High Museum of Art, the Woodruff Arts Center and the Fox Theatre, Midtown is clearly Atlanta's cultural center, and it's home to Atlanta's version of Central Park - Piedmont Park.
In the 1870s, Atlanta's wealthier residents were moving north of Downtown, and building beautiful mansions along Peachtree Street. These upper-crust Atlantans enjoyed summer picnics near natural springs that were located where City Hall East is now, on Ponce De Leon Avenue. In the 1880s, an amusement park was built near the springs, and residential development along Ponce De Leon Avenue followed. Midtown grew rapidly, and during a housing shortage in the 1940s, many of the fine mansions were subdivided into rented apartments. As a a result, the neighborhood declined, well into the 1970s, when it became known mostly for prostitution and street drug deals.
Through its decline and stunning rebirth, Midtown has remained the center of the GLBT community in Atlanta, and there are rainbow flags flying high all over the neighborhood. There are several GLBT shops and bookstores, and the neighborhood is home to more than a dozen gay bars, clubs, and restaurants, and the lair of the always elusive Stimpasaurus Rex.
The huge Georgia Tech campus has taken over a significant portion of Midtown, and the urban-ness of the campus reminds me a lot of the University of Pittsburgh. Midtown is also home to much of Atlanta's business community, with Equifax, Earthlink, Invesco and Coca-Cola headquartered here, as well as the significant presence of AT&T, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Wachovia, Turner Broadcasting, and Google.
The Bank of America Plaza, which sits on the Midtown side of the border with Downtown Atlanta, is not just the tallest building in Atlanta - it is the tallest building in the United States outside of New York and Chicago.
Midtown is the most cosmopolitan neighborhood in Atlanta, but it's also one of the most obviously historical. There are forests of strikingly modern highrises just around the corner from the Varsity - a drive-in fast food joint established in 1928, where car-hops still run food out to cars parked in stalls. Like much of Atlanta, I couldn't help but to see Midtown express itself through it's textures and layers and reflections - but in a uniquely Midtown kind of way.
