ATLANTA, the un-abashed southern center of “big-city-ism”
has reached it’s oh-so-transparent target.
Since the 1960’s, and even many decades before, Atlanta has professed its plan to grow beyond being the capital of the south, as America’s next international city– and global city.
For years, nay-sayers complained Atlanta was the capital of sprawl– and they weren’t so wrong– about its unbridled super-growth nature. Still, Atlanta has been, for decades, the largest and most important arts center in the southeast, as well as being the continually-growing nexus of all-things-business.
Today a city of almost 6 million citizens, Atlanta is expected to be the 5th largest technology center in the US (Forbes) and is already the 3rd largest film/television capital– in addition to it’s being the capital of financial technology and international logistics.
Currently, Midtown is exploding with everything high-tech as world-acclaimed Georgia Institute of Technology jumped the I-75/I-85 connector. Scores of tech companies have relocated here, including the international headquarters of NCR, bringing with them, many thousands of high-paying jobs.
The population of Midtown is exploding with 17,000 new luxury apartments built in 2015 and 2016, and many more under construction. And, that’s only in Midtown, not to mention Atlanta’s other sub-markets, which are cities unto their own–Downtown, Buckhead, Perimeter, Cumberland, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, and other population core areas which are being rebuilt into walkable nouveau urban areas.
The US census estimates the Downtown Atlanta growth to be more than 10%, while New York and Chicago are experiencing reducing populations. Recent studies have verified that New Yorkers and Chicagoans have been moving to the Atlanta metropolitan area for decades.
Also, international Atlantans have increased to 14%, with the largest Japanese population in the southeastern US (1990 Census). Today’s Atlanta’s foreign-born populations are mainly from Mexico, India, Korea, China, Vietnam, and Cuba.
Neighborhoods all over the metropolitan area are being rebuilt in the urban mixed-use style. Many Atlantans can now walk to restaurants, shops, as well as, their offices.
The other urban-design trend that has taken Atlanta by storm is the proliferation of urban trails that criss-cross the city. The internationally-acclaimed Atlanta BeltLine, an under-construction 22-mile trail and transit line which will encircle the inner city, has been so loved, that it has spawned trails all over the huge 8,376 sq. mile metropolitan area which has over-grown northern Georgia, and has almost connected to Chattanooga, TN.
“Atlanta is an “alpha-” or “world city” that exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, research, technology, education, media, art, and entertainment. It ranks 40th among world cities and 8th in the nation with a gross domestic product of $270 billion”
according to Wikipedia and other sources.
The pinnacle of innovation in Atlanta’s Tech Square:
CODA will be unlike anywhere built before:
“A premier mixed-use development with 645,000 square feet of office space, Coda will serve as the core of collaboration and pinnacle of innovation in Midtown Atlanta’s Tech Square. With a first-of-its-kind Class T office environment, Coda is designed to facilitate interactions between start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, university affiliates, researchers and students. The project combines creative workplace design with cutting-edge research labs, comfortable communal spaces, industry event space, as well as unique retail concepts and restaurants/bars.
Delivering in 2019, Coda will provide companies the rare opportunity to co-locate with others who are embedded in the Georgia Tech innovation ecosystem — home to some of the top engineering and computer science programs in the world. Technology pioneers and enthusiasts alike will intermingle on Coda’s campus, evoking an undeniable vitality.”
From Ga Tech Codatechsquare.com
Georgia Globe Design News 
How did you get the Japanese population statistic?
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I apologize, Nicholas, I believe I failed to edit myself properly. Although I do not know what my source was at that time, it was certainly incorrect, or was a typographical error. I have an affinity for the Japanese culture, but there are fewer in Atlantav than I noted.
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