The Atlanta Regional Commission’s Regional Excellence Awards recognize projects in metro Atlanta that exemplify cutting-edge, livable design that enhances the surrounding community and support the goals and policies of the Atlanta Region’s Plan.
This year’s winners are as follows:
Building the Daily Community
The 2045 Unified Plan
Gwinnett County
Gwinnett County has grown quickly and steadily over the past several decades, transforming from a primarily rural and suburban area on the outskirts of Atlanta to a vibrant, diverse community with a distinct identity of its own.
The 2045 Unified Plan focuses on how to accommodate Gwinnett’s growing population while maintaining its high quality of life.
The plan is oriented around the idea of Building the Daily Community— a concept of development and design principals that create vibrant, healthy places where a variety of people want to live. It also employs the 15-minute city model where jobs are closer to homes, recreation, opportunities and amenities. Leaning on both, the community came together to prioritize investments to transform and establish walkable centers across Gwinnett County’s unincorporated areas.
The Melody
Partners for Home, City of Atlanta, and Atlantica Properties
The Melody, an innovative community, envisioned by City of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and delivered through the Mayor’s Rapid Housing Initiative, is a bold approach to caring for the city’s unhoused population.
The Melody was built to be a permanent supportive housing community. Located on Forsyth Street in Downtown Atlanta, 40 tiny homes were built from repurposed shipping containers in just four months from inception to completion. Each windowed unit overlooks a courtyard and is equipped with its own bed, oven, sink, refrigerator, microwave, TV, and bathroom with a shower.
The Melody is a winning example of a creative solution to address homelessness. It is already serving as a model for other cities, while offering hope to some of our cities most vulnerable residents.
Midtown Public Space Network
Midtown Alliance
Midtown Public Space Network is a mixed-use district in Midtown that has enjoyed a steady increase in its public space inventory through the transformation of underutilized transit plazas, vacant lots, and parking lots.
The network provides free amenities and creative activities for people of various ages, abilities, and interests to connect and share experiences.
These efforts, combined with bustling street level commercial activity have created a compelling, vibrant place where balanced growth and quality of life go hand-in-hand in Atlanta’s midtown.
Clarkston Greenway Feasibility Study
City of Clarkston and Perkins & Will
Clarkston leaders initiated the Greenway Feasibility Study to identify ways to connect people to parks, greenspaces, commercial corridors, and popular destinations. To ensure that as many residents as possible could participate in the planning process, Clarkston hired community engagement ambassadors to translate, interpret and distribute information to its diverse population.
Phase 1 will showcase a “model mile” built for residents’ leisure and recreation use, incorporating wayfinding and placemaking components.
The trails and paths will ultimately promote cultural vibrancy by increasing equitable access to parks, nature, and the community at-large.
The North Woods Project
City of Avondale Estates
This once neglected acre-plus-area of woodlands is tucked adjacent to Lake Avondale and is traversed by Cobbs Creek and wetland areas.
While initiating a mitigation project to filter stormwater from Berkely Road and reduce sediment and pollutants in the creek and lake, the City transformed the underutilized plot to create a community amenity in the heart of its historic residential area.
ARC’s Strategic Partners are committed to fostering collaborative regional approaches that improve quality of life in metro Atlanta. Their support elevates ARC leadership programs, research and events throughout the year. Learn more.
