The Atlanta City Council voted unanimously on May 20, 2013, to approve a 20-story Ferris wheel for downtown Atlanta. The attraction, branded as SkyView Atlanta, would rise next to The Tabernacle — the century-old former church building on Luckie Street that had been converted into one of the city's most distinctive concert venues.
The wheel itself had a history. It had previously been installed in Paris and Pensacola before two St. Louis businessmen, Todd Schneider and Al Mers, purchased it and proposed downtown Atlanta as its permanent home. A ride would cost between $12 and $13, and Jason Evans, speaking for SkyView Atlanta, indicated the attraction could be in place as early as June 2013.
A Different Kind of Downtown Landmark
Atlanta's downtown tourism district had long been anchored by institutions: the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, the CNN Center, Centennial Olympic Park. SkyView added something the district did not have — a visceral, visible, moving attraction that could be seen from blocks away and that gave visitors a reason to look up rather than forward.
The location mattered. The Tabernacle sits at the southern edge of the Centennial Olympic Park district, near the intersection of Luckie and Marietta streets. Placing a 20-story wheel there extended the tourist corridor south, pulling foot traffic toward a stretch of downtown that had historically felt like a boundary rather than a destination.
What SkyView Became
SkyView Atlanta opened and became one of the most photographed structures in downtown — a feature of the skyline visible from the Connector, from hotel windows, and from the park itself. Its 42 climate-controlled gondolas offered views that reached from Stone Mountain to the east to the suburbs north of Buckhead, reframing a city that most people experience at street level.
For downtown Atlanta, SkyView filled a specific gap: an attraction that works at night, that draws families and couples after the Aquarium closes and the museum crowds thin out, and that gives the district a kinetic, lit-up presence after dark that few American downtowns can match.
Original reporting by GPB News, Georgia Public Broadcasting, May 20, 2013.
