Exclusive: Full vision for upgraded Piedmont Park emerges

Josh Green

Wed, 02/05/2025 – 10:42

What could be the future look and functionality of Atlanta’s most-visited park is coming into clearer focus.

Piedmont Park Conservancy has provided imagery to Urbanize Atlanta (including a never-before-seen sketch depicting an enhanced Beltline connection) that illustrates how key areas of the 200-acre greenspace could be expanded or generally more accessible and pleasant soon.

The Conservancy also included notes explaining what’s shown in each visual.

They depict the park’s centerpiece Lake Clara Meer with a new boardwalk loop and other enhancements; a remade section along the Beltline’s recently finished Northeast Trail segment with new pathways and chances to experience Clear Creek up close; and perhaps most substantially, the long-planned North Park Expansion that would swap a commercial node where Piedmont Avenue meets Monroe Drive with park space, including an amphitheatre and new play features.

That expansion proposal has been garnering headlines since outgoing Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced it as part of a $100 million park project in 2017.

Overview of three main focus areas in Piedmont Park’s first Comprehensive Plan in a quarter-century. Courtesy of Piedmont Park Conservancy

The work is all part of Piedmont Park’s first Comprehensive Plan put together in 25 years.

One of the final opportunities to give in-person input for the park’s next chapter is scheduled for Saturday morning at Dockside in Piedmont Park, according to park officials. All recent sketches for park changes will be discussed at that input session.

“The park has been Atlanta’s backyard for over a century, and now, the community has [an] unique opportunity to help shape its future for generations to come,” Conservancy reps wrote in an email this week. Planned changes are “a pivotal step in ensuring that the park continues to serve the needs of its more than six million annual visitors.”

Last year, the nonprofit launched the Piedmont Park Conservancy 35th Anniversary Appeal, a campaign to raise $3 million for a masterplan to add new greenspace and acreage, implement enhancements and needed improvements, and generally help reimagine the park.

The finalized Comprehensive Plan is scheduled to be revealed April 24 at the Conservancy’s 28th Annual Landmark Luncheon.

For now, here’s a closer look at three main areas identified for park upgrades and growth:

Planned upgrades around Piedmont Park’s centerpiece lake. Courtesy of Piedmont Park Conservancy

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How the park would better link with the Beltline’s Northeast Trail just east of Atlanta Botanical Garden and the park’s elevated Legacy Fountain. Courtesy of Piedmont Park Conservancy

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Draft sketch for the long-planned expansion around today’s North Meadow, with an expanded Atlanta Botanical Garden shown at bottom left and Monroe Drive at top right. Courtesy of Piedmont Park Conservancy