Over the last half of 2011, Midtown Alliance, Midtown Improvement District, Central Atlanta Progress, and Atlanta Downtown Improvement District utilized the services of SWA Group of Houston, TX and Urban Collage to develop a bold strategic plan for enhancing Atlanta’s Downtown Interstate Highway.   The Atlanta Connector Project melds landscape, lighting, art and urban design to enhance the roadway’s appearance and the experience of thousands of nearby city residents and almost half a million daily commuters and visitors to the City.  The Vision outlines a $30-40 million improvement program to transform the roadway and adjacent properties and builds on Atlanta’s reputation as a City in the Forest and upon the wealth of cultural resources in Midtown and Downtown Atlanta as a variety of landscape and urban design elements to improve the Interstate’s appearance, mitigate environment impacts, and enhance wayfinding and economic development opportunities along Atlanta’s most highly traveled freeway.

As part of a broader plan to improve access and traffic flow along US-280, Urban Collage was charged with outlining new land use strategies for development along this perimeter corridor.  In cooperation with Sain Engineers out of Birmingham, a redevelopment plan was created that identified different general approaches for attracting, accommodating and maintaining growth along a stretch that had been struggling in the past decades.  The plan used a “target site” to show the different manners in which growth patterns could be reshaped into a healthier, and more sustainable, commercial corridor.