Georgia Tech plans to appeal ruling denying demolition permit for Crum & Forster building

Just to keep everybody up to date, I did hear back from John Carter, president of the Georgia Tech Foundation about whether his organization will keep trying to get a permit to demolish the historic Crum & Forster building.

In a 3-0 vote last month, the City of Atlanta’s Board of Zoning Adjustment upheld a decision by the Bureau of Planning that denied Georgia Tech’s request to demolish the building at 771 Spring St.

“Yes, we plan to appeal,” Carter wrote me in an email last week (sorry to be so late posting this). ”Georgia Tech is still evaluating all its options for expansion of Technology Square, which includes the 771 Spring Street property.”

The Georgia Tech Foundation, with guidance from the city, did take steps to secure the building from the elements or vandals so that there would not be demolition by neglect.

That doesn’t mean the building will be protected in the longrun, especially if Georgia Tech is successful in its appeal.

But Carter also did not say demolition would be a foregone conclusion.

“The current economic conditions make it difficult to make decisions on long term commitments and priorities relative to the current financial resources available to Tech and the uncertainty of those resources in the future,” he said. “At this point we need to keep all the options open, which includes appealing the recent
denial of our appeal.”