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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Ryan Gravel, MCRP + M.Arch '99, concieved of the Atlanta BeltLine while he was a graduate student at Georgia Tech. The Beltline as it exists today aims to turn defunct railroad tracks into a 22-mile paved looped trail, with light-rail trains to line its circumference. Many are proclaiming that this unlikely city, with its long history of segregation and suburbanization, is on the verge of a renaissance. Already, hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment have poured into the project and the restaurants, markets and shops around it; land values are soaring; and the city Sherman once burned looks shiny and new. The makeover fervor is spreading — a new streetcar runs through central Atlanta and bike lanes are sprouting. Gravel has been a quiet presence behind the $4.8 billion BeltLine, although it still has some growing to do. Current planners estimate they will still need 17 more years to complete the project.
