Highways, Urban renewal, and patterns in the Built Environment: Exploring Impacts on Atlanta Neighborhoods

During the mid-twentieth century, cities across the United States underwent drastic changes known broadly at the time as “urban renewal.” In many cases, these changes included widespread demolition of varied neighborhoods in the established urban core to make way for uses deemed more appropriate, such as Interstate highways, public housing projects, and other large-scale public developments or private developments with public backing. Atlanta, Georgia serves as a prime example of this trend, as large swathes abutting its historic downtown were leveled in the 1950s and 1960s for construction of Interstate 75-85 (the Downtown Connector), Interstate 20, and Atlanta Stadium (later known as Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and subsequently demolished). Significant additional parts of Atlanta’s inner city were similarly cleared later in the twentieth century for construction of landmarks such as Freedom Parkway, the Georgia World Congress Center, Turner Field, and various other projects. Such changes obviously had a profound disruptive impact on neighborhoods that existed previously