Making a university connection
GSU's president is pushing an innovative plan to make the inner city campus more a part of the central business district and downtown revitalization efforts, including redesigning Decatur Street.
— The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, January 18, 1999, Horizons front page, by Melissa Turner

For those who may not have noticed, a major public university sits in the heart of downtown Atlanta.

Georgia State University has existed for decades largely as a walled enclave, isolated within the inner city. Now its president, Carl V. Patton, an urban planner, is weaving his campus into the fabric of the central business district.

Nothing short of the Olympics has had such an impact on the re-emergence of downtown as an economic and socially viable community. And if Patton's ambitious blueprint for the next decade is realized, no one will be able to miss Georgia State's footprint downtown.

Patton wants to see the university's 22,000 students everywhere. Loping to class along the historic streets of the Fairlie-Poplar district. Drinking coffee at Starbucks at the base of the Equitable Building. Studying at the wrought-iron tables in Woodruff Park. Streaming out of the Five Points MARTA station toward the campus's new front door on Decatur Street.

"We want to be a part of our community, not apart from it," Patton said.

Already, Georgia State has expanded beyond its original small commuter college campus into the Fairlie-Poplar district, converting old under-used buildings, including the dilapidated Rialto Theater, into university facilities. A new five-story classroom building will go up across the street from the theater. Controversial because it will force the demolition of a number of turn-of-the-century commercial buildings, the new classroom facility will flood the district with 10,000 students a day.

And that's exactly what Patton wants.

The campus master plan approved by the state Board of Regents last week is based on Patton's vision that blends the university even further into downtown. City blocks, streets, sidewalks and parks become part of Georgia State's campus. Just as the university's new classroom buildings, research laboratories and residential housing become part of the city.

Patton wants his students and professors out of the buildings and on the streets, mingling with the office workers, conventioneers and tourists who populate downtown during the day.

And, more importantly, he wants his graduate and married students living downtown and patronizing new restaurants and coffee shops during the now-dormant evening hours. Patton's plan to persuade private developers to build 2,000 new housing units for his students would quadruple the downtown population.

"I don't think there's any doubt that the commitment of Georgia State has been very important in the resurgence of downtown," said Charlie Battle, president of Central Atlanta Progress. "Bringing more housing downtown has always been the missing piece and we're delighted there's a focus on getting that done."

Patton says all his grand plans will take a public-private commitment, not unlike the strategy he's perfected to propel many of his recent campus expansions. While the state will finance classrooms and laboratories, housing and recreation centers typically require private investment.

"To believe that you can isolate yourself from the city is pretty naive; you just can't do it," said Patton, whose academic background in urban planning and public policy shapes his design vision. "We are a part of the city. We don't want to separate ourselves from it. It's the interaction of students and residents and visitors in town that give you a lively campus."

The city's development authority already has stepped up to assist GSU in its expansion efforts with tax-exempt financing and zoning changes, such as its recent agreement to issue $33 million in revenue bonds for a new student recreation center. That's likely to continue, because, city planners say, what's good for GSU is good for downtown.

Focusing on Decatur Street
Atlanta's planning commissioner, Michael Dobbins, says Patton's vision is essential to downtown revitalization efforts. "It really strengthens the core of the city to have a university campus spread amidst it," he said. "When you start seeing things spontaneously and purposefully happening that start connecting things together, it's really exciting. And Georgia State sits in the middle of it."

The university is the nexus between two historic neighborhoods and potential tourist draws: the Fairlie-Poplar district and the Auburn Avenue and Martin Luther King district. And GSU's plan to link those two with pleasant pedestrian corridors cutting through the university campus furthers city planners' goals of making downtown more walkable and livable, Dobbins said.

Key to that plan, according to Patton, is transforming Decatur Street into the "Main Street" of the campus. He's working with city planning and transportation officials to redesign the street, traffic patterns and sidewalks to create a pedestrian corridor.

The plan involves:

• Narrowing Decatur Street from four to two lanes as it cuts through campus.
• Widening the sidewalks and adding trees.
• Locating academic and student support facilities on Decatur Street to create a campus core.
• -Locating recreation, housing and parking on lower Decatur Street as it becomes DeKalb Avenue.
• Lowering the central campus plaza to street level to encourage students to be part of the urban environment.
• Converting the alley-like Collins Street into the "university village center," the new campus focal point offering access to the plaza, student services and academic buildings.

Dobbins says the city can work with GSU to narrow Decatur Street and widen the sidewalks. "All over town, we're looking for opportunities to replace the dominance of the car with the dominance of the pedestrian. This is a classic example of how to do that," he said. "I believe the technical issues can be overcome for a more important goal, which is to populate the streets and make the whole campus visible and accessible."

Patton agrees. "The Main Street concept is applicable all over town. Atlanta is not now a walking city. But if Decatur Street is improved and Auburn Avenue were improved it would start to link together places where people want to walk," he said.

Patton's desire to strengthen the university's connection to the city is not altogether civic do-gooding. Patton needs the city's help as much as downtown needs his students.

Non-traditional beginnings
Georgia State's location in the central business district precludes building a traditional campus around a large, central green space. In fact, the university originated as anything but a traditional campus. GSU began in 1913 as a business-oriented night school for Georgia Tech. It was housed literally in a house adjacent to the Tech campus. Over the years, it moved into various rented spaces downtown to be accessible to the business community.

In 1931, the college began to sink downtown roots, buying its first building at Luckie and Walton streets. In 1946, it acquired Kell Hall on what was then Ivy Street (now Peachtree Center), staking out its current campus on the southeast side of downtown. Though cramped, it still houses the university's science labs and classrooms.

For decades, the university existed as a small downtown business college with a few thousand commuter students. But as GSU began to grow into a major research university, it needed to expand, building additional classrooms and laboratories. With no vacant land on which to build, the university needed to acquire and remodel old buildings not necessarily contiguous to the campus.

Beginning in the early ‘90s, the university acquired and renovated the Rialto Theater and the adjacent Haas-Howell Building and Standard buildings in Fairlie-Poplar to house the school of music. With the help of revenue bonds issued by the Atlanta Economic Development Corp., the Rialto underwent a $14 million renovation and opened in 1996 as the successful Rialto Center for Performing Arts.

The university also acquired the C&S National Bank Building and Commerce Building to house the college of business administration and offices for its information systems and technology department. The buildings have largely been donated by corporations seeking tax benefits, or bought in partnership with the city and GSU's foundation.

To further stamp the university's presence on downtown, Patton moved the GSU president's residence from Buckhead to a loft in the Muse's Building downtown early last year. Until recently, Patton was considered the patron saint of Fairlie-Poplar.

But after announcing plans to buy and demolish a block of buildings across Forsyth Street from the Rialto, a civic war erupted. Preservationists and some downtown residents thought it abhorrent that Patton would raze buildings to construct a mammoth new classroom building. And the owners of the biggest building in that block have tied up GSU's plans in court.

The university and the owners have reached a settlement. Demolition of the block will begin sometime this spring. Construction will begin in September. The $30 million building, already approved for funding by the Regents, should be open for classes in 2001. After that, Patton said, he's done mining Fairlie-Poplar.

"The classroom building solves the problem for those other buildings that have gone into that area," he said. "There are no more buildings planned for Fairlie-Poplar. That's not to say that somebody is not going to try to give us something."

Edgewood Avenue housing
Initially, Patton thought Fairlie-Poplar might be fertile ground for new student housing. But now he's focusing on Edgewood Avenue as a likely spot for as many as 2,000 units of new in-fill housing. The Georgia State University Village on North Avenue has met the demand for undergraduate housing, Patton said.

But older students have a tough time finding affordable homes near the university. "If you're a graduate student, you don't necessarily want to live in a large residence hall," he said. "We know the demand is there."

And private developers say they'd step up to build the housing if they can make the economics work. Generally, they say they'd need a combination of tax allocation bond financing, tax abatements and, perhaps, the university to sign a master lease guaranteeing the demand that Patton says exists.

"It would be a big enough shot in the arm for the city that it could take care of the financing through some revenue bonds," suggested Charles Ackerman, who has developed downtown projects for several decades. "That kind of opportunity has so many other dollar benefits for the city. You would put 2,000 new people in downtown that are buying, shopping and creating sales tax."

While developers are hesitant to build market-rate housing downtown, because land costs are so high, they say GSU's plan would work, particularly if the university's foundation assembles the land.

Said Louis Brown, president of Aderhold Properties, which developed the Muse's Lofts on Peachtree Street: "The 2,000 units need to be phased in over two or three years. You bring in a private developer who gets public funding through tax-exempt bonds and gets help on property taxes and gets commitment as far as providing students for housing. Yeah, it's doable."

"Long range, that's the most important thing that can happen downtown," Battle said. "I think there is certainly a commitment by the city and the (Atlanta Development Authority) to try to make downtown as developer-friendly as possible in connection with housing."

Battle would like to see the university take a more active role in maintaining and policing Woodruff Park, just as it does Hurt Park in the center of the campus. The university's expansion into Fairlie-Poplar makes Woodruff Park a central campus gathering place.

Patton said the university will develop a plan over the next year to take to the development community. But he's confident developers will step up. "I don't have to solicit these guys. I'm trying to hold them off," he said.