Before/After: How decade of growth transformed Midtown Atlanta
Before/After: How decade of growth transformed Midtown Atlanta
Josh Green
Thu, 07/17/2025 – 17:09
Parking lots. Parking lots. Parking lots.
That could qualify as an assessment of the Midtown visitor experience circa 2014 and 2015—especially from pedestrian or bicyclist perspectives—just as this cycle’s long development boom was about to hit overdrive.
Today in Midtown, as this photo essay illustrates, is a different story. For the most part.
Midtown Alliance has tabulated that $10 billion in private development was invested between 2018 and 2024 in the 1.2-square-mile Midtown Improvement District, or what’s generally considered the neighborhood’s commercial core. Last year alone, another six major developments delivered, adding almost 2,200 more living options to the subdistrict.
Much of that activity has come along the Spring and West Peachtree street corridors, where we’ll focus today. (Find a similar before-after comparison of additional Midtown blocks from 2023 over here.)
Overview of core Midtown development over the past six years, with the recent proposal neighboring The Varsity and two-tower Middle Street Partners project near Piedmont Park not shown. Courtesy of Midtown Alliance
Below, find select Google Maps images from roughly decade ago, juxtaposed with “after” photos taken last month and aligned as perfectly as time (and our quirky slider function) allowed.
For Atlanta newcomers, hopefully this lends perspective on how far the city’s most amorphous district has come, from a density perspective. And for longtime residents, maybe this conjures (sour?) memories of the more vacant, parking-friendly past that was.
We start in Midtown’s northern Spring Street blocks, trickle down, and then back up West Peachtree Street.
Overview of core Midtown development over the past six years, with the recent proposal neighboring The Varsity and two-tower Middle Street Partners project near Piedmont Park not shown. Courtesy of Midtown Alliance
Before/After: How decade of growth transformed Midtown Atlanta
Josh Green
Thu, 07/17/2025 – 17:09
Parking lots. Parking lots. Parking lots. That could qualify as an assessment of the Midtown visitor experience circa 2014 and 2015—especially from pedestrian or bicyclist perspectives—just as this cycle’s long development boom was about to hit overdrive. Today in Midtown, as this photo essay illustrates, is a different story. For the most part. Midtown Alliance has tabulated that $10 billion in private development was invested between 2018 and 2024 in the 1.2-square-mile Midtown Improvement District, or what’s generally considered the neighborhood’s commercial core. Last year alone, another six major developments delivered, adding almost 2,200 more living options to the subdistrict. Much of that activity has come along the Spring and West Peachtree street corridors, where we’ll focus today. (Find a similar before-after comparison of additional Midtown blocks from 2023 over here.)
Overview of core Midtown development over the past six years, with the recent proposal neighboring The Varsity and two-tower Middle Street Partners project near Piedmont Park not shown. Courtesy of Midtown Alliance
Below, find select Google Maps images from roughly decade ago, juxtaposed with “after” photos taken last month and aligned as perfectly as time (and our quirky slider function) allowed. For Atlanta newcomers, hopefully this lends perspective on how far the city’s most amorphous district has come, from a density perspective. And for longtime residents, maybe this conjures (sour?) memories of the more vacant, parking-friendly past that was. We start in Midtown’s northern Spring Street blocks, trickle down, and then back up West Peachtree Street.
Tags
Norfolk Southern
Bank of America Plaza
Midtown Atlanta
Midtown Development
Midtown Construction
Atlanta Construction
Atlanta Development
Spring Street
1072 West Peachtree
NCR
Images
Overview of core Midtown development over the past six years, with the recent proposal neighboring The Varsity and two-tower Middle Street Partners project near Piedmont Park not shown. Courtesy of Midtown Alliance
Subtitle
Street-level perspectives on how so many parking lots, vacant parcels have been replaced
Neighborhood
Midtown
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Before photos: Google Maps; after: Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta Read More
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