Little pain for a lot of gain: Little Five Points’ Findley Plaza undergoing renovations

A project more than a decade in development is finally coming to fruition in one of Atlanta’s most vibrant neighborhoods. 

Findley Plaza, located at the intersection of Euclid Ave and Moreland Ave, is undergoing renovations that will feature wider open space for the public. The redesign moves the tree wells to the outer edges of the plaza, opening up more space in the center and doubling as a buffer between the plaza and the street. 

Newer, healthy oak trees will also be planted during the renovations, replacing crepe myrtles and maple trees, according to the advocacy group Little 5 Points Alliance. Additionally, the plaza will come with added benches, bike racks and electricity connections for events held there.

The centerpiece feature of the new plaza will be a sculpture by Ronnie Land, a prolific, longtime Atlanta artist known widely for his iconic praying hands that read “Pray for ATL” all around the city.

The construction, slated to be a three-month project, is already halfway through and the hardscaping — the concrete and main components of the redesign — is expected to be ready by mid-October for the neighborhood’s biggest festival of the year, the Little Five Points Halloween Parade and Festival. The landscaping that will complete the finishing touches, however, will take place in November, but won’t affect the parade route or activities. 

Lauren Welsh, executive director of Little 5 Points Alliance and the Little Five Points Community Improvement District, has been working with the organizations since 2018. She’s lived near Little Five Points — in Candler Park — for 20 years, and has seen the redevelopment plans go through their ups and downs to finally arrive where it is today. 

“It was started by a group of residents and business owners who basically came together and were trying to figure out ‘how do we improve public space in Little Five Points,'” Welsh said, adding that neither the Alliance nor the CID was around at the time. “They created a friends group from Park Pride, and it was called The Friends of Little Five Points, and their first project was to look at how to redesign Findley Plaza.”

Part of why the plaza took so long, said Welsh, was community engagement and getting feedback at each step of the process. Additionally, any agreed-upon designs had to get approvals from the city, followed by fundraising and permitting.

“Yes, this [project] did take a long time, but generally speaking, that’s true of a lot of infrastructure or community projects in the city,” Welsh said, adding that when he first joined the Alliance in 2018, she too thought the process would be much quicker. “I kept going to business association meetings and telling them: “Guys, they should be breaking ground soon.” And that was my first lesson in understanding how long projects take, because it was several years later that we were breaking ground. So it’s been a learning process, even for me.”

The unknowns of the project timeline were especially concerning for the nearby local businesses, Welsh remarked. Although construction is only slated for three months, three months of reduced foot traffic due to construction can make a world of difference, despite the fact that the businesses remain open.

Still, Findley Plaza hasn’t been renovated in over 40 years, dating back to 1983 when it was created. The project, when finished, should encourage even more foot traffic around the area. 

The project aside, the neighborhood will continue to retain its identity as a haven for local businesses and one of the coolest neighborhoods in the city, with more than 40 percent of businesses being women and minority-owned, Welsh said. Many of the businesses have been fixtures in the neighborhood for decades.

Welsh hopes more people will visit the neighborhood during the intermittent period of construction and support local businesses, instead of waiting until the project is completely finished.