BUCKHEAD REdeFINED

Details:

Client: Livable Buckhead, Buckhead Community Improvement District (CID)

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Status: Planning Completed in 2017

Highlights:

  • Placemaking and connectivity plan to improve Buckhead’s vitality, mobility, and livability
  • Extensive public outreach

  • 6 Big Ideas and 100-day Action Plan

  • Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) funded process

  • 2017 Georgia Planning Association – Outstanding Planning Document – Large Community for Buckhead REdeFINED

Description:

A collaboration of Buckhead organizations retained TSW and Kimley-Horn Associates to lead the Buckhead LCI Update, known as BUCKHEAD REdeFINED, to address changing demographics and development patterns since the previous LCI. The process is Buckhead’s first Master Plan in more than a decade.
BUCKHEAD REdeFINED focused on placemaking and connectivity to enhance the overall quality of life in the greater Buckhead area. In order to manage the large study area, six smaller subareas were created based on general neighborhood boundaries, and three were studied in greater detail because of the opportunities for change: Lenox Square, West Village, and South Piedmont. Though hundreds of recommendations from the public outreach effort, six “big ideas” emerged:

  • Construct a district-wide multi-use trail (the Buckhead Cultural Loop Trail) to connect and celebrate the area’s history and culture
  • Activate and enliven a continuous network of streets and destinations
  • Enhance mobility to and from Georgia Highway 400 and beyond
  • Foster a distinctive Buckhead identity along Lenox Road
  • Diversify housing opportunities
  • Define the civic heart of the community through parks and greenspace

TSW led the project marketing and public outreach strategy, which included multiple open houses and workshops, community intercepts on Election Day and at the Lenox and Buckhead MARTA stations, neighborhood meetings, steering committee meetings, a walking audit, and an interactive online mapping tool and multiple surveys that received more than 1,000 responses combined.

TSW also led the placemaking recommendations, resulting in a public space framework that focuses on creating true public spaces, given that Buckhead is today dominated by parking lots, semi-public plazas, and private green spaces. Implementation will include establishing a Public Arts Organization that focuses on street activity, infill retail, and public art. The plan also recommends the creation of true public parks, including the proposed Park Over 400.