By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 24, 2014
The Georgia World Congress Center Authority and the Savannah convention center are exploring a potential partnership that could lead to the GWCCA taking over the management contract of the trade center on Hutchinson Island.
One of Atlanta’s greatest architects — Henri Jova — has passed away.
Jova, 94, died on Jan. 13 in West Palm Beach, Fla. after a short illness, according to his partner of 42 years — David Rinehart. A celebration of his life is planned at the Atlanta Botanical Garden on Thursday, April 3 at 5 pm.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 17, 2014
The YWCA of Greater Atlanta will close its five-bedroom Cascade House for homeless women and children on Jan. 17 so it can focus its efforts on its other core programs.
The “Women in Transition” homeless program, located at the Cascade House in southwest Atlanta, cost the YWCA nearly $250,000 to operate last year.
Ordinarily I would be thrilled to see one of Atlanta’s premier cultural institutions doubling in size and attracting a world-renowned collection as significant as Jim Henson’s puppets.
But my heart literally dropped to my stomach when I saw the design for the proposed expansion of the Center for Puppetry Arts.
Here is an institution devoted to the preservation of puppets from around the world, and yet the Center for Puppetry Arts has totally ignored the significant history and urban context of its own location — the former Spring Street Elementary School.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 17, 2014
As important as it has been for Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank to select a leading architect to design an iconic football stadium, it has been just as important to recruit a visionary leader to help rebuild the neighborhoods around it.
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 10, 2014
The National Center for Civil and Human Rights had reasons to celebrate over the holidays — it had received a $2 million gift from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation.
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 10, 2014
From Ernest Greer’s point of view, it is wonderful that Georgia was recently named the No. 1 state in the country for business.
As much as I have admired and revered the late Martin Luther King Jr., I do not believe we should place his statue on the front lawn of Georgia’s State Capitol.
Several civil rights leaders have come out in support of placing a statue of King on the site that was left vacant when the statue of the controversial Tom Watson was recently moved. On Friday, Jan. 10, leaders of the SCLC joined state legislators calling for placing a statue of King at the front entrance of the State Capitol.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 3, 2014
Morehouse College has received a significant gift — financially and symbolically — from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation.
On Dec. 4, Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson came one vote shy from being elected chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Then 15 days later, his fellow mayors in Gwinnett County ousted him as their representative on the ARC board in one of the most abrupt whiplashes of regional power in recent Atlanta history.
The move is all the more symbolic given that Johnson led the metro area to its greatest moment of cooperation in October 2011 when he chaired the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 3, 2014
Few executives have been more involved in the Atlanta civic scene in the past decade than Phil Kent, the outgoing president and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System Inc.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on December 20, 2013
Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid is restructuring is philanthropic focus — dissolving the Newell Rubbermaid Foundation, which is less than three years old — and realigning its giving efforts to be more in sync with marketing its brands.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on December 20, 2013
The idea for an Atlanta Science Festival was born in February 2011 when three Emory University program directors and friends met for coffee at Starbucks at Emory Village.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on December 13, 2013
The Nature Conservancy in Georgia has a new executive director — Deron Davis — a conservation professional who has been with the organization since 2010.
Just when I feel like giving up on Atlanta, a ray of sunshine gives me hope.
This past week, that ray of sunshine was MARTA — our beleaguered, unappreciated transit agency.
(Thought I needed to have a more uplifting column this week because Mayor Kasim Reed said my last column almost made him cry. More on that below).
Keith Parker, who has been MARTA’s general manager for exactly one year, used his anniversary to give a “State of MARTA” report to community stakeholders on the morning of Friday the 13th. For metro Atlanta, it was a day of good tidings.
By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on December 13, 2013
The Georgia World Congress Center Authority is planning to significantly improve Centennial Olympic Park as it approaches its 20th birthday.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on December 6, 2013
At the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s Dec. 3 annual meeting, it was a day to celebrate both new leaders while honoring the legacy of the past 17 years.
It was the day that 2013 Chamber Chairman Paul Bowers, president and CEO of Georgia Power, happily passed the reigns to Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta Air Lines, who is chairing the Metro Atlanta Chamber in 2014.
A few days ago, I received an email from a reader asking me about the proposed new Atlanta Braves stadium in Cobb County near the intersection of I-285 and I-75.
“Wonder why rapid transit was considered essential for the Turner Field site but not for the new site?” asked David Feltman, a public transit professional born and raised in the Atlanta area and currently working in Charlotte, N.C. “The new site is one of the most congested intersections in the state.”
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on December 6, 2013
Atlanta’s growing prominence as a center for autism research and treatment has received a major financial endorsement — $40 million — from two local foundations.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on November 29, 2013
When retired investment banker Bill McGahan, 51, launched Georgia Works! in early October, he knew the likely candidates for the program would fit the following description:
