The Downtown Piece of ATL's CBD

A stroll through downtown Atlanta presents a very different CBD than New York's, which is described in Larry Ford's "Cities and Buildings". Because the city isn't located on an island or a coastline, the CBD has wandered over the years, spending a good deal of its history downtown starting in the mid-18th century but eventually wandering up Peachtree Street to create present day Midtown and Buckhead.

This "wandering" combined with a much weaker popularity than first-tier cities like NYC, Chicago and San Francisco until very recently, has turned the downtown portion of Atlanta's CBD into a patchwork quilt of architecture.
Above we see the historic Candler Building juxtaposed by its more modern neighbor, the Georgia Pacific building. While the GP skyscraper displays all the characteristics of a 1970s post-modern highrise with all the technologies available to allow it to tower over the Candler Building (steel-frame construction, A/C, quicker elevators), the Candler Building's U-shape and double-hung windows date the building back to a time before central air and electric lights. In addition to the telling ornateness of the Candler Building, its facade is divided into thirds, as early skyscraper architects struggled with how to divide up these tall, new buildings.
Not only has Atlanta's less demanding CBD retained such early 20th century gems like the Candler Building, but also structures like this brick five-story industrial warehouse/factory. Even though Atlanta's downtown does boast skyscrapers like the Weston hotel in the distance, remaining structures like this warehouse, which now serves as a parking deck, demonstrate that its not necessarily real estate prices that are insisting on these mammoth structures...it is more likely just an attempt at creating another symbol for the downtown skyline.

Though Atlanta doesn't have the early 20th-century skyscrapers of New York and Chicago, it does have office buildings like the Candler along with 10 story structures like the one pictured above. Though the original intent of the building above isn't known, it easily reminds one of the early department stores seen in New York, with its wide footprint, large windows and 10-story limit. The modernized, 2-story building in the foreground is another example that downtown Atlanta's real estate prices still don't compare with those of NYC or Chicago. The 70s mid-rises at the back of the photograph, tower over their neighbors and remind us of downtown revitalization projects that attempted to lure residents back downtown in the 60s and 70s.