The lot on 14th Street between Peachtree and West Peachtree Streets has been vacant for nearly 40 years. Now, Midtown Alliance is developing the open space into a park shaped by the community’s wish list.
At the Museum of Design Atlanta on Jan. 27, community members could provide input on the plan for the future public space. The Design Lab was the latest of many efforts by Midtown Alliance to gather community feedback on the future public space at 98 14th Street, including the 2025 Midtown Community Survey.
More than 3,800 survey respondents shared their visions for the future public space at 98 14th Street, prioritizing art, food and beverage, event programming, amenities, green space and a water feature.
According to Midtown Alliance, 89 percent of respondents to the 2022 Midtown Community Survey want more parks and open spaces in Midtown. But that doesn’t mean the park on 14th Street will be a replica of spaces that already exist in the district.
“This space is meant to be very differentiated from anything else that you can already do in the region,” said Brian Carr, Midtown Alliance Director of Marketing & Communications. “We don’t want to recreate what you can do in Piedmont Park or in Colony Square.”
“What we were able to do was take [the survey results] and begin to synthesize down that people really were looking for this to become a place that is active use, meaning that there would be activities at all hours of the day,” Carr said.
That might look like visiting the space for yoga in the morning, lunch at a cafe in the afternoon and a concert in the evening.
Midtown Alliance acquired the land in May 2025. The Midtown Improvement District provided funding for the $46 million purchase.
This is the third time the property has changed hands in the past 20 years. 98 14th Street was also the site of the proposed Atlanta Symphony Center concert hall in 2005, before the project was cancelled in 2008. Then, in 2017, developers broke ground on Opus Place, a luxury condo development that also failed.
Midtown Alliance selected the design firm Field Operations from nearly 50 design teams that submitted proposals to lead the project. The project will develop private land for public use, avoiding much of the bureaucratic red tape that comes with developing public land.
By the spring, Field Operations will have completed draft renderings and a cost estimate for the project. The design will be informed by the community input from surveys and events like the Design Lab.
“If we did this right, then we’ve got a bunch of different people that have different interests in Midtown, different locations where they spend time,” Carr said. “[We] have a broad cross section of people that are gonna be [at the Design Lab], from workers to residents, maybe some visitors, some civic enthusiasts… That’s gonna be a great amalgamation of voices here that could be potential future visitors and users of the space.”
Fred and Elaine Priesmeyer, longtime residents of Midtown, walked their dog in the vacant site 15 years ago, when there were shade trees and grass between the skyscrapers on either side. They remembered an experimental grape vineyard that had grown in the space for about a year.
Cindy Asbill, a resident of Stone Mountain, Ga., regularly visits Atlanta to shop and spend time in places like the future park on 14th Street. Asbill is interested in the possibility of both outdoor and indoor spaces for activities year-round, naming meditation, sports, pop-up events, festivals, workshops, yoga and time in nature as some possible uses for the park.
Midtown resident Melissa Uppelschloten attended the Design Lab to give her input on the space for the first time.
“I love Atlanta, and I just want to continue to see it evolve, and the third spaces are just so… it’s so important that everyone feels welcome there,” she said.
Ebony Scherbarth stopped into the Design Lab wanting to learn more about the project. Scherbarth, a recent graduate of Kennesaw State University, hopes to move to Atlanta by the end of the year and is interested in the potential of a third space that would allow her to be in nature and sketch or draw.
On a board that prompts guests to write a sticky note to complete the thought, “In this park, I hope I can hear…” Scherbarth wrote “live music.” Beneath “In this park, I hope I can do…” she wrote “people-watching.”
Carr pointed out an interactive installation that asked guests to respond to the prompt “That’s So Atlanta!” in categories like food, nature, art, music and history.
“How do we make sure that this stays really authentic to Atlanta as a place? How does this make it so that it couldn’t be just imported into another city and be sort of, you know, plopped in there without really having contact?” Carr said.
The exhibit’s central signage reads, “This space should feel like it belongs in Atlanta and nowhere else.”
For now, site cleanup is already underway as part of Midtown Alliance’s plan for interim improvements. A lawn for public events will be usable by summer 2026 as Midtown Alliance kicks off a multi-year fundraising campaign.
