Newsroom
Get the story behind the places, faces, and current events shaping the downtownATL district.
Central Atlanta Progress proposed capping three-quarters of a mile of Interstate 75/85 with parks, walkways, and green space — an idea modeled on Dallas's Klyde Warren Park that could stitch downtown Atlanta's east and west sides back together.
The building at 152 Nassau Street in downtown Atlanta — where Fiddlin' John Carson recorded country music's first major hit in 1923 — faces demolition for a Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville Resort. Preservationists are fighting to save it.
The Atlanta Hawks announced a 20-year naming rights deal with State Farm, renaming Philips Arena as State Farm Arena. The change accompanied a $192.5 million renovation that transformed the venue into one of the most modern arenas in the NBA.
Cabbagetown grew up around the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill, built by Appalachian families who grew cabbages in their front yards and cooked them in shotgun houses so close together the whole neighborhood smelled like soup.
Castleberry Hill's story begins with bootleggers, political riots, and a merchant named Daniel Castleberry who helped rebuild the neighborhood after it was burned to the ground. Today it's the National Park Service's pick for Atlanta's most complete surviving warehouse district.
MLS awarded the 2018 All-Star Game to Mercedes-Benz Stadium after Atlanta United's inaugural season shattered every attendance record in the league — including a single-game mark of 71,874 against Toronto FC.
The $1.6 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened in August 2017 with a retractable roof, 4,000 solar panels, and a FIFA-compliant field — immediately positioning Atlanta as one of 39 U.S. cities under consideration for the 2026 World Cup.
In 2017, Arthur Blank's Atlanta United launched its inaugural MLS season with 30,000 season ticket holders, a world-class roster, and a sold-out temporary home at Georgia Tech — months before Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened its doors.
At the 2016 A3C festival, photographer Cam Kirk was building something larger than a portfolio — a visual archive of Atlanta's hip-hop scene that aimed to change the perception of the genre and the city that shaped it.
In August 2016, Central Atlanta Progress publicly floated a $300 million idea: build a platform over three-quarters of a mile of I-75/85 and turn the highway trench that divides downtown from Midtown into usable urban space.
Twenty years after the 1996 Games, artist John Ryan — the man who designed the most controversial mascot in Olympic history — broke his silence. His message: "What happened to Izzy is not his fault."
The Atlanta-Fulton County Central Library, Marcel Breuer's last completed building, faced demolition calls in 2016. Architects argued that its brutalist design was irreplaceable — and that the building deserved a second life, not a wrecking ball.
By 2016, Atlanta was simultaneously building a $1.5 billion football stadium downtown and a $672 million baseball stadium in Cobb County. The scale of the investment — and the public money involved — forced a citywide reckoning with what stadiums actually do for the communities around them.
The 27th annual Peach Drop brought an estimated 80,000 people to Underground Atlanta on New Year's Eve 2015, with T.I. and Sister Hazel headlining a celebration anchored by an 800-pound fiberglass peach dropping from a tower at midnight.
After its first year of free rides along Auburn Avenue, the Atlanta Streetcar had carried nearly one million riders, generated $671 million in nearby investment, and earned a grade of B or C from the people who rode it most.
