Georgia State University has operated in downtown Atlanta for more than a century, but it has never looked like a traditional campus. The buildings are scattered across city blocks. The quads are sidewalks. The green space is shared with commuters and bus stops. On November 13, 2024, the university announced a plan to change that — fast.
The Building Pathways for Success Initiative is a $107 million project to physically transform Georgia State's downtown campus into something its president, M. Brian Blake, describes as a college town within the city. The centerpiece is an $80 million gift from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation — the largest donation in Georgia State's 111-year history and the largest the foundation has ever made to a University System of Georgia institution.
What Gets Built — and What Comes Down
Sparks Hall, a building that has stood on campus since 1955 and carries the name of Georgia State's first president, will be demolished. In its place: a new quadrangle that integrates into the existing campus greenway and extends across Gilmer Street to connect with Hurt Park. The street closure — one block of Gilmer — would create a continuous pedestrian corridor where students currently navigate traffic.
Woodruff Park, the downtown green space that sits between Georgia State's academic buildings and the Five Points commercial district, will also be reworked. Plans call for relocating the streetcar platform, building a wider staircase from an adjacent campus building directly into the park, and redesigning the space to draw student foot traffic across the park toward eastern campus buildings that have historically felt disconnected from the rest of the university.
Several buildings facing Hurt Park will be renovated, and the former United Way headquarters — an 18-story tower Georgia State purchased for $34 million in 2023 — will be incorporated into the campus footprint.
The World Cup Deadline
The timeline is aggressive by design. Georgia State is fast-tracking construction to complete the most visible changes before FIFA World Cup matches begin at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in June 2026. The stadium sits on the western edge of downtown, less than a mile from campus. Tens of thousands of international visitors will walk through Georgia State's campus neighborhood during the tournament — and the university wants what they see to reflect the investment.
President Blake described the Woodruff Foundation's approach as unusually open-ended. The foundation told the university: "Money is not your issue. Give us your ideas. Do the dream."
A Different Kind of Downtown Anchor
Georgia State is already one of the largest employers in downtown Atlanta and the largest university in Georgia by enrollment. But its physical presence has always been utilitarian — functional buildings on city blocks, not a campus that draws people in. The $107 million initiative is a bet that changing the physical environment will change how students, residents, and visitors experience the part of downtown that Georgia State occupies.
The university is also establishing a new Center on Health and Homelessness as part of the initiative — an acknowledgment that the campus transformation intersects with the needs of the people who already use Woodruff Park and the surrounding blocks as daily gathering spaces.
Original reporting by GPB News, Georgia Public Broadcasting, November 13, 2024.