The beautiful Buckhead & The Cool Little 5 Points

[citykid09]

I believe both Uptown/Galleria and Montrose can learning something from both Buckhead and L5P.

I decided to hit up Buckhead and L5P today.

Here is some Google Earth imagery of the locations involved. I got tired of sitting around in the suburbs, drove to Sandy Springs, rode MARTA down to Buckhead, walked around and took some pictures, headed to Little Five Points, took some pictures, then headed back to the suburbs. Took about seven hours. :haha:

First, some pictures from the Dunwoody MARTA station. MARTA recently changed their photography policy to prohibit only "commercial" photography. I came armed with a printout of their new policy (and a 1911).

Most of Sandy Springs is a glorified office park, but they do have these condo high-rises.

Now we're in Buckhead. Which, as it turns out, I no longer like. Sure, there are some nice towers, but like Sandy Springs it is not much more than a glorified office park. As you'll see, a lot of the buildings are set away from city streets by small parks. Also, many of the high rises have their own driveways that seclude them from normal city streets. There is no grid or anything. I hit dead ends and got turned around twice. Absolutely asinine. A small strip of Peachtree St looks like an actual city, but only until you cross north past GA 400. From then on, office parks and malls.

First is a Google Earth image of the route I followed. East along Peachtree up to Wieuca, then down to Piedmont, then up Peachtree to the MARTA station again.

Buckhead is funny. Back during the Jim Crow era, Mayor Hartsfield convinced Buckhead to join Atlanta so as to keep a white majority in the city. Now Buckhead wants to secede because they think Atlanta is wasting their tax dollars. I'm all about more local and responsive government, but the whole situation is just ironic.

Oh well. On to yuppie-ville.

Here is an example. The entrance to the Mansion on Peachtree. The entrance is secluded down a small street off Peachtree. Rather than an actual street, it feels like a col-de-sac. It dead-ends at some condos.

Turned back walking down Peachtree St.

That's the owner in the striped shirt. I ran into him picking up his wife and daughter after getting turned around by Phipps.

Headed back down Peachtree St.

This is the building I kept trying to get to but could not find due to asinine office park urban planning.

Oops! Not a street, just a driveway into a parking garage...

Back towards Peachtree.

At least with this shopping center, the parking garage is secluded behind the structure.

Go down this street a little way and turn left to park.

On Peachtree again.

Headed back down Peachtree towards the Terminus development.

Another example of an office park.

Look, I can see Downtown.

I heard the distinct sound of an Italian exotic, so I stopped to snap a few.

I didn't notice it at the time, but that is Bank of America Plaza poking up over there.

Office park...

Back towards the part of Buckhead that actually looks like a city.

When I was like twelve I watched a 4th of July fireworks display from the patio level of this building. One of my mom's friends lived there at the time. Now with 3344 Peachtree/Sovereign the view is pretty much completely blocked.

How many threads of different cities have you seen this exact building? I get the feeling I've seen this in threads of several other cities.

One of the Terminus buildings is in the center looming over a future restaurant at 3344 Peachtree.

See what I mean? On this side, though there are trees, shrubs, and other assorted greenery, the buildings face the street.

Looking back towards Mansion on Peachtree.

Terminus

Down Peachtree, another building that actually faces the street.

These buildings are a part of the Terminus complex. See how they face the street? Oh, and that one structure in the foreground in the center of the picture? That's a parking garage blended in with the rest of the buildings.

This shot is dominated by the parking garage.

On this side of Buckhead, it looks like they've tried to hide the parking structures.

The AJC ran an article on a lady who lives in this building. She purchased two luxury condos and a lake house during the boom and is facing foreclosure on her condo here. Yeah, I feel real sorry for a lady who bought two overpriced condos and a lake house at inflated prices.

Then I got mixed feelings looking at this. Did her property get foreclosed on just for someone to set up a gaudy satellite dish and replace their deck railing with particle board?

Final shot of Buckhead.

[citykid09]

Continued:

Sick of the glorified office park that is Buckhead, I decided to head to Little Five Points, aka L5P. KingoftheHill keeps asking for shots from there, so I had to go by. I have friends on the APD, one of whom works this zone. His advice is the reason for the 1911. Though actually walking the streets, I got the impression that this area is more nice than some of the most secluded suburban gated communities out where I live.

I started at the Inman Park/Reynoldstown MARTA station, headed along the route you see, then walked the reverse on the way home.

Homes in Inman Park.

The L5P retail district.

Downtown looming over L5P.

Back to L5P.

I'd take Little Five Points over Buckhead any day.

[musicman]

guess the poster you copied from doesn't agree.

Now we're in Buckhead. Which, as it turns out, I no longer like.

Sick of the glorified office park that is Buckhead,

[citykid09]

guess the poster you copied from doesn't agree.

Now we're in Buckhead. Which, as it turns out, I no longer like.

Sick of the glorified office park that is Buckhead,

Yeah, but I'm sure if he saw the Uptown/Galleria area, he would be thankful for the somewhat urban Buckhead.

[august948]

Ahh...Atlanta. What a great city. Lived there for most of the 90's. If you want this to happen to Houston, though, you will need to tear up a lot of our roads and force commuters into narrow corridors with few options for alternate routes. That way development would have to concentrate in response to the hassle of getting around. As long as Houston can spread out in all directions, there isn't a much impetus to concentrate. Unless, of course, gas prices go through the roof again.

[UrbaNerd]

And what exactly do we need to learn from this? It is basically Houston, with hills.

As for our Uptown, they're trying to fix the traffic issues, with the extension of some side streets. Oh, and don't forget the MetroRail. Furthermore, they were SUPPOSED to have some nice mixed use stuff (BLVD Place, etc), but the economy kinda put a damper on that. Yeah.

Many of those luxury condos and offices will be empty, due to the economy, ya know. At least Houston was quite reserved with the building of condos and the like, so we should NOT experience as much of a glut as Atlanta (hopefully). Sure, the "glut" may be good once there is an economic upturn, due to lower leasing rates, but Houston has a bit as well, and the resulting demand may produce new buildings as well.

But hey, Houston itself has some nice urban enclaves popping up here and there; as previously stated, they're just on hold/etc due to the economy. You should check out the area near West Ave, which is coming along quite nicely. With the way the economy is now, H-Town isn't taking it so bad. With the rising oil prices and all, we seem to be faring quite well compared to other cities.

[citykid09]

Ahh...Atlanta. What a great city. Lived there for most of the 90's. If you want this to happen to Houston, though, you will need to tear up a lot of our roads and force commuters into narrow corridors with few options for alternate routes. That way development would have to concentrate in response to the hassle of getting around. As long as Houston can spread out in all directions, there isn't a much impetus to concentrate. Unless, of course, gas prices go through the roof again.

It seems to me that concentration is more attractive. Riding down the street and seeing a shopping center would usually not make me want to see the shops within it. But if the area is set up in an urban way where the store are right up to the sidewalk with trees and people walking around, I would want to check that area out. There are thousands of shopping centers in Houston, but how many truly urban areas are there to shop?

The Montrose area has bits and pieces that are similar to the urban street scape of Little 5 Points (L5P), but there is lots of empty land that can be filled in, side walks that can be fixed, and trees that can be planet for shade.

[worldlyman]

Just couldn't help but notice this post, another one of those "Houston can learn from" such and such city.

The magic of the Montrose is its sheer weirdness. I've been to Little Five Points. It's nothing more than Montrose in a Disney form. But we might guess that's what the Anal Urban types like, things in neat packages.

Atlanta is trying kind of hard to be "New York of the South" and with someplace like Little Five Points, it's like "see, we have our own SoHo." But its layout is nothing too different from trying to be like Melrose or Oak Lawn/Greenville. Typical packaged streetscape.

Little Five Points is, of course, a fun little area to visit while in the ATL. But let's not genuflect it at the expense of what we have here in the Houston area!

Now, Montrose is a jagged collection of block buildings, bungalows and mini-mansions. Montrose has funky backstreets like Fairview. Where do you find coffee houses like Taft, Agora and Avant Garden in LA, Dallas and Atlanta? Where do you find a rather truly weird back street like Fairview in plastic cut ATL, LA and Big D?

Take a spin down Fairview. You have a sophisticated SF-like bar/lounge Boheme, then just across the skinny street is something very Houston, the Ziggy Bar and Grill, set in some Munsterish mansion. That little Puerto Rican food hut just a bit down the road...

Look at those eclectic establishments along Montrose/Richmond Ave, not merely lower Westheimer. That is true diversity and funky color right there. That's real diversity of character. It's not always about basic block buildings in a neat arrangement and cut scale.

That sense of jumbled array...that is the beauty and uniqueness of Houston...something that the Anal Urbanists won't really want to give H-town credit for, because it doesn't fit their sense of scale.

Driving down lower Westheimer on a Thursday or Friday night, crowded sidewalk bars and clubs like Royal Oak, Catbirds, Boondocks, Anvil and Etro Lounge in the same section, I mean, c'mon, citykid.

[citykid09]

I wanted to add these photos that I recently found on Skyscraper Page. Some nice pictures, I like the idea of Atlanta's Midtown Mile, where there will be a mile of walkable retail, etc.

Pretty tree in Piedmont.

DSC00156 by midcentmodern' date=' on Flickr

Children playing on 10th.

DSC00176 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

DSC00449 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

DSC00433 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

DSC00458 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

Part of Midtown Mile.

DSC00459 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

There a line at Blake's? Five Napkin Burger replacing Nickiemoto's across the street.

DSC00460 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

DSC00456 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

DSC00426 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

Federal Reserve.

DSC00463 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

Peachtree and 10th.

DSC00461 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

Four Seasons.

DSC00506 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

DSC00497 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

Home Park.

DSC00519 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

14th Street and Atlantic Station in back.

DSC00520 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

DSC00517 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

From Post Parkside.

DSC00269 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

Fin.

DSC00040 by midcentmodern, on Flickr

[LTAWACS]

nice shots. thanks for posting.