RECLAIMING THE OLD
REDEFINING THE NEW
Featuring
Ellen Dunham-Jones
Georgia Tech Professor
Author, Authority on Redevelopment
Jim Irwin
Former Senior Vice president, Jamestown Properties, Inc.
Developer of Ponce City Market
President, New City, LLC
Current Developer of 725 Ponce
Atlanta Beltline
Vision of Ryan Gravel, Georgia Tech Masters Thesis, 1999
Remade the map of Atlanta
Ponce City Market
Amazing 2.1 million square foot mixed use facility
725 Ponce
New development on the other side of the Beltline
Agenda
Friday, October 21, 2016
IN SUBURBIA
10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Four Seasons Hotel
Ellen Dunham-Jones
11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Four Seasons Hotel
Lunch
IN URBAN ATLANTA
12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Four Seasons Hotel
Jim Irwin
Leave by Bus at 1:30 p.m.
Professor, Georgia Tech School of Architecture
“Redevelopment Strategies for Aging
Suburban Property Types”
President, New City, LLC
“Both Sides of the Beltline: The
Development of Ponce City Market and 725 Ponce”
Tour of the Amazing Ponce City
Market and the Atlanta Beltline
Walking tour (bicycles available upon request)
Meet on the 3rd Floor of
Ponce City Market at 2:00 p.m. BICYCLE THE BELTLINE directly into the Ponce
City Market, Third Floor (from Piedmont Park
Return by Bus at 4:00 p.m.
to Ponce City Market – 1.1 miles)
to Four Seasons Hotel
Guided and Unguided Walking
Tours
Optional Biking (free for guestsplease indicate interest)
Restaurants, watering holes,
upscale shopping, roof vista, the
Old Fourth Ward, and much more
Speaker
Ellen Dunham-Jones
Professor, Georgia Tech
College of Architecture
Ellen Dunham-Jones is Coordinator of the MS in Urban
Design. She teaches “Theories of Urban Design,”
“Retrofitting Suburbia” and urban design studios.
A leading authority on suburban redevelopment, she and
June Williamson wrote Retrofitting Suburbia; Urban Design
Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs (Wiley & Sons, 2009,
update in 2011, mandarin edition in 2013). The book
documents successful retrofits of vacant big box stores,
dead malls, aging office parks, etc., into more sustainable
places. The book received the PROSE award from the
American
Association
of
Publishers
as
best
architecture/urban planning book of 2009, was featured in
Time Magazine’s March 23, 2009 cover story, “10 ideas
changing the world right now” and is the subject of her 2010
TED talk and 2012 TED-NPR Radio Hour interview. She
appeared in the 2011 documentary Urbanized, the 2012 PBS
series “Designing Healthy Communities” and was recently
interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition. She continues to
build her database of suburban retrofits, lecture widely, and
publish successful strategies for meeting 21st century
challenges.
Ellen’s published over 60 additional papers linking contemporary architectural theory and practice. Most
recently, “Irrational Exuberance: Rem Koolhaas in the Nineties” in the 2013 book Architecture and
Capitalism was named one of the ten most popular essays of 2013 by The Design Observer Group.
“
Usually when a mall dies, there's a reason — there was too much
competition from other malls or something — so it's not always
the best move to try to replace it with retail. We find all sorts of
interesting things. They're being turned into office space —
Google Glass happens to now be in a former dead mall. They're
being turned into medical centers, churches, schools and
universities, civic functions. Some of them have played a role in
disaster recovery.
”
Ellen has served in several national leadership roles including Board Chair of the Congress for the New
Urbanism, AIA Design and Health Leadership Group, the Hanley Wood Sustainability Council, and the
advisory boards of the Journal of Urbanism, Places, (in)Forma, the Livability Index, and is chair of the board
of Commons Planning.
She received undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from Princeton University and taught
at UVA and MIT before joining Georgia Tech’s faculty to serve as Director of the Architecture Program
from 2001-2009.
Educational Background
1980 – A.B. in architecture and planning, summa cum laude, Princeton University
1983 – M.Arch, Princeton University
Fields
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Sustainable Urban Design
Suburban Redevelopment – (Re-inhabitation, Re-Greening, and
Redevelopment of dead malls, big box stores, office parks, etc.)
New Urbanism & Smart Growth
Health and Urban Design
Post-Industrial Development Patterns and Globalization
Contemporary Architectural Theory
Research:
While I continue to maintain interest in contemporary architectural theory and in the impact of the postindustrial economy on global development patterns, I am primarily focused on expanding my research
on suburban retrofits in the following areas: metrics comparing before and after social, economic, and
environmental performance to assess sustainability; additional examples of re-inhabitation, re-greening,
and redevelopment; retrofitting suburbia for an aging population; case studies of morphological
changes; tools for the assessment and modeling of retrofittability; regional design/planning targeting
appropriate locations for different retrofit strategies; strategies/case studies for improving architectural
design excellence in urban/suburban design
Recent Publications
Books:
Dunham-Jones, E. & Williamson, J. Retrofitting
Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning
Suburbs. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. 256 pages.
First printing December 2008, second printing in
May, 2009, third printing in January 2010, updated
paperback edition printed in March, 2011.
Parts of Books:
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Dunham-Jones, E., “Foreword: Atlanta, Public Health, and New Urbanism?” in Lerner J. (Ed.),
Building Metropolitan Atlanta: Past, Present & Future, (pp.1-2), www.lulu.com, 2010.
Dunham-Jones, E., “Free Trade Zones, Downtown Financial Cores, and Sprawl: the Landscapes
of Globalization “ in Owen G., (Ed.), Architecture, Ethics, & Globalization, (pp. 17-32), London:
Taylor & Francis, 2009
Dunham-Jones, E., “New Urbanism: A Forum not a Formula” in Hass T., (Ed.), New Urbanism and
Beyond: Designing Cities for the Future, (pp.70-73) New York, Rizzoli. 2008
Re-publication of “New Urbanism’s Subversive Marketing” (2005) in Blauvelt A, (Ed.), Worlds
Away, New Suburban Landscapes, New York, D.A.P. 2008. Catalog to exhibition of the same name
at the Walker Art Center, Heinz Architectural Center and Yale School of Architecture.
Re-publication of “New Urbanism, A Counter-Project to Post-Industrialism” (2000) in Kelbaugh
D. & McCullogh K. (Eds.), Writing Urbanism, An ACSA Reader, (pp.185-193) London, Routledge,
2008
Dunham-Jones, E., “Economic Sustainability in the Post-Industrial Landscape,”
commissioned essay in Tanzer K., and Longoria R. (Eds.), The Green Braid, Towards an
Architecture of Ecology Economy, and Equity, An ACSA Reader. (pp.44-59) London, Routledge,
2007
Dunham-Jones E., “Seventy-Five Percent” and “Smart Growth in Atlanta” republished in
Saunders, W. S., (Ed.), Sprawl and Suburbia, A Harvard Design Magazine Reader, (pp.1-20 and 5770) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005
Dunham-Jones, E. “New Urbanism’s Subversive Marketing,” in M. Shamiyeh (Ed.), What People
Want, Populism in Architecture and Design (pp.255-269). Basel, Birkhauser, 2005
Recent Exhibitions
Exhibition of Student Urban Design
Proposals
"Downtown Atlanta 2041"
Atlanta City Studio
Ponce City Market
675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30308
“Downtown Atlanta 2041” is a 25-year
vision of the opportunities to create
distinctive new neighborhoods and a
walkable network of Class A streets by
redeveloping Downtown’s parking lots
and leveraging the potential impact of
autonomous buses and robotaxis. The work was sponsored by the City of Atlanta and produced by a
mix of architecture, planning, and urban design graduate Georgia Tech students in the Spring 2016
MSUD studio led by Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones. The exhibition is in the city’s pop-up city design
studio on the second floor of Ponce City Market and seeks public comment on the proposals. All are
welcome.
Team leader for “LWARPS-we can reduce sprawl”, winner of the Infiniti Award for Extraordinary Design
and 2nd Place in the 2008 History Channel’s City of the Future design competition for visions of Atlanta
in 2108. This proposal has since been exhibited numerous times:
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2010 – included in the traveling exhibition “Adapting Suburbs in the 21st Century” and displayed
at the Rochester Regional Community Design Center in Rochester NY, the Museum of Design
Atlanta, and will travel to Seattle, WA. Ellen Dunham-Jones served as an advisor to the exhibition
based largely on Retrofitting Suburbia and organized by the Rochester Regional Community
design Center.
2008 – included in “Modern Atlanta,” Mason Murer Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2008 – included in “City of the Future Exhibition,” Ernest G. Welch Gallery, Georgia State
University, Atlanta, GA.
Teaching:
Recent Courses
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Arch 4803/CoA 6120: Retrofitting Suburbia (interdisciplinary seminar)
Arch 7060/7090: Critical Positions and Masters Project Studio (required thesis prep and studio)
Arch 4822/6132: Architectural Theory and Criticism II (required lecture course)
Speaker
Jim Irwin
President, New City, LLC
Jim Irwin is the President of New City, LLC and directs the
company’s real estate development and consulting
operations, as well as new business pursuits. Over the
course of his career, Jim has been responsible for over
$500 million of new investment around the United States.
Prior to founding New City, Jim served as a Senior Vice
President at Jamestown Properties, leading the
development of Ponce City Market, a 2.1 million square
foot former Sears, Roebuck & Co. distribution facility that
was originally constructed in the 1920’s. During its
redevelopment, the project was one of the largest and
most significant historic renovations underway in the
United States.
Jim began his career in real estate working for Atlantabased Barry Real Estate Companies. Among other
projects, Jim managed the development of a FBI Regional
Headquarters, a $60 million-build-to-suit project in
Minneapolis, and Harrison Square, a 16 acre mixed-use
development in Fort Wayne, Indiana, anchored by an
8,000 seat minor league ballpark associated with the San Diego Padres. Since it opened to the public,
the ballpark has been named “best overall minor league baseball experience” in the country four
separate years.
Jim earned a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College, where he played football for four years. After
college, he served as a legislative aide to two U.S. senators and a U.S. representative before returning
to Atlanta to pursue a MBA with a concentration in real estate finance at Emory University’s Goizueta
Business School. Jim and his wife, Elisabeth, have three young children.
WHEN NEW CONSTRUCTION IS CALLED FOR, WE SEARCH FOR WAYS TO
CONSTRUCT BEAUTIFUL HIGH-QUALITY PROJECTS THAT FIT WITHIN THE
CONTEXT OF THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT. WHETHER IT’S SPACE
FOR THE COMMUNITY TO WORK, SHOP, EAT, OR LIVE, WE BELIEVE THAT
EACH PROPERTY SHOULD INCLUDE AN INTERESTING MIX OF USES,
ENCOURAGE WALKABILITY, AND INCLUDE THE LATEST INNOVATIONS IN
TECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY.
Ponce
City Market /
Beltline
Experience
Friday, October 21, 2016
Ponce City Market
P o nc e C i ty M a r k e t breathes new life into the historic Sears, Roebuck & Co. building in Atlanta.
The classic structure, which is the area’s largest adaptive reuse project, has been reinvented as a vibrant
community hub housing the Central Food Hall, various shops, flats and offices, all while pointing back to
the roots of its inception. The market infuses vigor and excitement into this historically-significant
structure, located in one of Atlanta’s most cherished neighborhoods.
History
Ponce City Market
Late-1800s Atlantans flocked to the gardens and springs, which were expanded in the early 20th-century
to include a dazzling amusement park. Through the 1980s, the draw was the eight-story hub of tools,
clothes and housewares—the South’s train-stop headquarters for Sears, Roebuck & Co. Imagine that.
Thousands of square-feet of former warehouse and showroom floors—now home to Ponce City
Market—once overlooked the grandstands and the
baseball diamond of the home-run hitting Atlanta
Crackers and Black Crackers, predecessors to the
Atlanta Braves.
In 2014, Ponce City Market began to reopen the fully
renovated Sears, Roebuck & Company building,
restoring its prominence as a vital landmark in
Atlanta’s burgeoning Old Fourth Ward. Linked
directly to the Atlanta BeltLine, and situated across
from Historic Fourth Ward Park, our iconic stretch of
Ponce de Leon Avenue is a major part of the
redevelopment movement at the crossroads of Atlanta’s most established neighborhoods.
At the heart of Ponce City Market is the marketplace itself, a flexible space to gather, eat and shop. In
the Central Food Hall, artisan chefs and local purveyors fill an authentic market with the design, food, and
flavors of Atlanta. From morning coffee to lunchtime shopping and date-night dinners, the Central Food
Hall is a daily gathering place and culinary destination, year-round.
Retail shops and offices add to the life, color, and culture of Ponce City Market and surrounding
neighborhoods. Residents of the Flats apartments in the upper floors of the east and west wings are just
a few steps or an elevator ride from workplaces, shopping, the Central Food Hall, and direct access to the
BeltLine. Atlanta neighborhoods of Virginia-Highland, Poncey-Highland, and Midtown are all within easy
walking or pedaling distance.
History
1860s
1903
1907
1925
Ponce City Market
1991
2010
2011
2012
2014
2015
Continuing Development
Inspired by 205 Water Street in Brooklyn, NY, the architecture of the new 360,000 square
foot office tower above an urban-prototype Kroger accentuates workmanship, clean lines
and punctuated geometry, and BeltLine connections are integrated into the structure.
725 Ponce is
well-located in a dense retail and residential
corridor in Midtown, the largest business district in Atlanta. The
building is surrounded by approximately 2,500 multifamily units
within 3-miles, with more under development to serve the
growing population, as well as the most desirable historic
neighborhoods in the metro area.
Steps From Retail, Restaurants, and Recreation
Today’s employee desires a comprehensive experience; with 725 Ponce positioned on the BeltLine,
employees have access to Atlanta’s best parks and restaurants. Restaurants from known chefs – Anne
Quatrano, Sean Brock, Jay Swift, Ford Fry, Kevin Rathbun and Guy Wong, to name a few – are walking
distance from 725 Ponce, and entertainment venues such as Dad’s Garage, 7 Stages, Venkman’s, City
Winery and Variety Playhouse are within arm’s reach.
725 Ponce is positioned on Ponce De
Leon Ave, the main East-West corridor
in Atlanta’s Midtown neighborhood,
less than 0.25 miles from Freedom
Parkway, which connects Midtown to
I-85 and Downtown Atlanta, and
along North Avenue, providing easy
access to MARTA. It’s directly across
the BeltLine from Ponce City Market.
History
1999
The Atlanta Beltline
Georgia Tech graduate student Ryan Gravel proposed
linking multiple city neighborhoods with a new transit system
along the old Atlanta “Belt Line” rail corridors. His thesis inspired
the Atlanta BeltLine and gained immediate interest and citizen
support including Cathy Woolard, former City Council President
and current Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. Board member.
2002
Under the leadership of Ryan Gravel and Cathy
Woolard, Friends of the BeltLine began to build grassroots
support, meeting with neighborhoods across the city.
2005
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin created the Atlanta
BeltLine Partnership to galvanize private sector and citizen
support for Invest Atlanta’s (formerly The Atlanta Development
Authority) BeltLine efforts. Ray Weeks, a veteran civic and
business leader, is selected to chair the Atlanta BeltLine
Partnership. The Atlanta BeltLine Redevelopment Plan and the
BeltLine TAD are approved by the Atlanta City Council, Fulton
County Board of Commissioners, and the Atlanta Public School
Board of Education following a 6-month process of community
input.
2008 Led by the PATH Foundation, the first segment of the Atlanta BeltLine West End trail opened – enhanced by Trees Atlanta’s Atlanta
BeltLine arboretum. MARTA and the Federal Transit Administration, in partnership with ABI, commenced the Environmental Impact
Statement, a critical federal study to determine the alignment of transit and trails, assess impacts on the environment and make the project
eligible for future federal funding. The Atlanta BeltLine Running Series hosted a 5k on the West End Trail (Phase 1). Ground was broken for
Historic Fourth Ward Park. Including gifts from many of Atlanta’s leading corporations and foundations, The Atlanta BeltLine Partnership’s
$60M capital campaign was 50 percent complete. First Atlanta BeltLine TAD Bonds were issued, totaling $64.5 million. The Atlanta BeltLine
Affordable Housing Trust Fund was approved by City Council and initially capitalized with $8.8 million in TAD Bond proceeds.
2012 The final subarea is approved by Atlanta City Council, concluding the master planning process for the Atlanta BeltLine. Construction
began on the Atlanta Streetcar project, which will eventually connect to the Atlanta BeltLine. Progress on the Eastside Trail continues with
major construction activities with completion scheduled for the summer. The Atlanta BeltLine hosted its first ever Business Opportunity
Forums in partnership with Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council, the Atlanta Business League, the Urban League of greater
Atlanta and the Greater Women’s Business Council. The Forum provided information about the projects and procurement process for
Transportation Referendum initiatives in the region for majority and minority firms. The Atlanta BeltLine began the public input process to
develop an Environmental Justice Policy. ABI held its second annual Organic Land Care Symposium. The Atlanta BeltLine Partnership’s
Running Series kicked off the first Atlanta BeltLine Run Club with more than 70 runners coming out for a fun run/walk through the
neighborhoods along the Eastside Trail.
2015
Stanton Oaks, formerly Boynton Village, is renovated as part of the Atlanta BeltLine’s affordable workforce housing program, and
the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta and Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. launched a partnership to fund housing initiatives on the Atlanta BeltLine.
Ground was broken on Reynoldstown Senior, an affordable housing development. The Design Review Committee launched and began
review of projects in the plannning area. Senate Bill 4 was signed into law, paving the way for public-private partnerships to fund
transportation. The PATH Foundation completed on a spur trail connecting the Northside Trail to the Bitsy Grant Tennis Center. The revised
Atlanta BeltLine/Atlanta Streetcar System was adopted by City Council in December. The second skatepark on the Atlanta BeltLine opened
at Arthur Langford, Jr. Park.
The BeltLine’s Eastside Trail is changing the way Atlantans live, work, shop and recreate. The trail will be
725 Ponce’s front door, giving tenants an opportunity for a lunchtime run, afternoon farmer’s market
pick-up and short walks to countless food and entertainment venues as well as spontaneous art and social
gatherings. Experience a new way to work in Atlanta with 725 Ponce.
As the primary catalyst shaping the way Atlanta will grow
throughout the next several decades, the $5B Atlanta
BeltLine is the most comprehensive economic development
effort ever undertaken in the city of Atlanta and among the
most significant urban redevelopment projects currently
underway in the country.
Upon completion, it will
provide a network of public
parks, multi-use trails and
transit along a historic 22-mile railroad corridor circling downtown and
connecting 45 neighborhoods.
The Beltline’s Eastside Trail is changing the way Atlantans live, work, shop
and recreate. The trail will be 725 Ponce’s front door, giving tenants an
opportunity for a lunchtime run, afternoon farmer’s market pick-up and
short walks to countless food and entertainment venues as well as
spontaneous art and social gatherings. Experience a new way to work in
Atlanta with 725 Ponce.
Old Fourth Ward
Walking distance to Park with direct access to
The Beltline & Ponce City Market
FREEDOM PARK TRAILS
Largest public green space set aside in US
PONCE CITY MARKET
Historic icon & local landmark now open