Dear Friends:

Welcome to the web site for Georgia State University's Main Street Master Plan. I hope you will find your visit here informational and interesting.

The Main Street Master Plan is a 10-year vision for the shape of the Georgia State campus. In the past, Georgia State has grown in a scattered, checkerboard pattern. While this development pattern was unavoidable because of our land-locked location and the realities of the cost and availability of downtown real estate, we now hope to improve both the functionality and the sense of place of our campus by bringing our academic facilities into a central campus core.

We also plan to create a primary pedestrian corridor along Decatur Street, which will become the campus "main street." The future Decatur Street we see has fewer lanes of traffic, more students traveling on foot between classes, and street-level access to major campus buildings. Near the center of campus, Decatur Street will connect to a revitalized Collins Street, which is currently an alley-like passage underneath the Courtland Street viaduct. Opening up this area will improve the campus for our students and make our campus more connected to the downtown streets that have their own activity and character to offer.

Georgia State is excited about the potential of its Main Street Master Plan, but we realize that we remain constrained by the challenges that have always faced us — a land-locked campus and an increasingly competitive real estate market downtown. Nonetheless, we proudly present this opportunity plan that we hope to bring to fruition over the next decade and beyond.

Please take a few minutes to learn more about our plan here. I think you will appreciate its ambitious yet practical approach. Thank you for your interest in Georgia State University and its future.

Sincerely,

Carl V. Patton