Midtown Atlanta, or Midtown for short, is a high-density commercial and residential neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. Midtown is known by many residents as Atlanta’s “Heart of the Arts”. It is the home of the Ferst Center for Arts, Fox Theatre, the Woodruff Arts Center, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Richard Meier- and Renzo Piano-designed High Museum of Art, as well as the Atlanta Ballet, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Center for Puppetry Arts, and other arts and entertainment venues. Recently, the Woodruff Arts Center and its campus were expanded. Future additions will include a new Atlanta Symphony Center.
The exact geographical extent of the area is ill-defined due to differing definitions used by the city, residents, and local business groups. However, the commercial core of the area is anchored by a series of high-rise office buildings, condominiums, hotels, and high-end retail along Peachtree Street between North Avenue and 17th Street. Midtown, situated between Downtown to the south and Buckhead to the north, is the second-largest business district in Metro Atlanta.
Midtown has the highest density of art and cultural institutions in the Southeast, notably including the Fox Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, the High Museum of Art, the Center for Puppetry Arts, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Museum of Design Atlanta. Midtown attracts more than six million visitors annually, mostly in connection with large annual events such as the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, Atlanta Pride, Music Midtown, and Georgia Tech athletic games. Since the 1990s, Midtown has also been a primary area for high-density development due to the area’s mass transit options, urban street grid, and desirability.
Large-scale commercial development began with Colony Square, the first mixed-use development in the Southeast, which was built between 1969 and 1973. The MARTA subway line opened in 1981. In the 1980s, many older properties were demolished, some remaining vacant for decades. High-density commercial and residential development took root in the north–south corridor along Peachtree and West Peachtree. The BellSouth Center (1982), now the AT&T Midtown Center, was long the landmark skyscraper in the area. However, commercial development escalated after 1987, when One Atlantic Center was completed.
Historic districts include the Fox Theatre Historic District and Historic Midtown; both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Fox Theatre Historic District comprises the Fox Theatre (Oliver Vinour et al., 1929), William Lee Stoddart’s Georgian Terrace Hotel (1911), Stoddart’s Italianate Ponce de Leon Apartments (1913), and the Cox-Carlton Hotel (1925). Historic Midtown, which includes most of Midtown east of Piedmont Avenue, is noted for its bungalows and Queen Anne style houses.
Midtown’s focal point is the expansive greenspace of Piedmont Park, which underwent a major expansion in 2011. The park is surrounded by the Midtown business district to its west, Ansley Park to its northwest, the Beltline, Morningside, and Virginia Highland to its east, and the Midtown Historic District to its south. The Atlanta Botanical Garden adjoins the Park.
The Beltline is a 22-mile-long (35 km) trail circling the older neighborhoods of central Atlanta which will be developed in stages. The Beltline Eastside Trail connects Piedmont Park (at the intersection of 10th and Monroe) to the Inman Park MARTA station at DeKalb Avenue. The “Art on the Beltline” project has resulted in the installation of several contemporary art pieces on the trail.
Immediately adjacent to Midtown on the southeast side along the Beltline are the large Ponce City Market lifestyle center in the former Sears building, Midtown Promenade power center with Home Depot and other big box stores, and Midtown Place community shopping center with a Trader Joe’s and a cinema multiplex. Atlantic Station a large regional mall and lifestyle center, and the community-size Ansley Mall are adjacent to Midtown’s north end. Some retail shops are located along Peachtree Street but the area has not been a major shopping destination since the 1960s and a boulevard of upscale shops envisioned in 2006 never came to establish itself
