In early September, seven oversized letters went back up on 14th Street. The "MIDTOWN" sign first appeared outside Colony Square in 2016 and was retired during that property's redevelopment. After a seven-year break it returned at a new spot: a freshly sodded lawn between Peachtree and West Peachtree Streets that Midtown Alliance calls Midtown Green.
On October 13, a little over a month later, the Midtown Development Review Committee took up a proposal for One Atlantic Center. The plan would turn nearly a third of the tower's 1.3-acre lawn into a driveway, a drop-off court and a walled patio for tenants only. That lawn sits at 14th and West Peachtree, the street that forms Midtown Green's western edge.
So the block is getting a new public lawn and may lose part of an old private one. The new lawn is temporary by design, and the old one has been there since the late 1980s. For anyone who lives within walking distance, how much open green 14th Street keeps over the next few years will be decided by a fundraising campaign at one end of the block and a design review at the other.
What's on the new lawn right now
According to Midtown Alliance, Midtown Green opened to the public in September 2026. It's open daily from sunrise to sunset. Getting the site ready took a lot of work. Crews brought in 785 dump-truck loads of dirt to level what Midtown Alliance itself calls a former eyesore and an abandoned site. They then laid Bermuda sod along with a grass and wildflower mix that still needs time to fill in, and installed irrigation.
The interim setup is simple on purpose:
- A multi-use lawn with walking paths around the perimeter
- Picnic tables and lawn games
- Portable restrooms
- Prepped parking for food trucks
- The MIDTOWN letters on a concrete pad on the north side, facing 14th Street
On the western edge of the site, the former Opus Place sales center is becoming the headquarters for Midtown Alliance's supplemental public safety and maintenance teams.
Ansley Whipple, a project manager at Midtown Alliance, described the letters' job on the new site in the Midtown Alliance announcement:
"These seven giant letters give Midtown Green a playful sense of identity and invite people to pause, connect and make a memory."
Why the lawn is a placeholder
The sod is meant to be temporary. The Midtown Improvement District closed on the roughly four-acre 98 14th Street site on May 19, 2025. Midtown Alliance is handling design and public space for it. The purchase was financed by SouthState, and Midtown Alliance says no other Community Improvement District in Georgia has taken on a project like it.
The lawn lets the public use the land while long-range design, engineering, cost planning and fundraising go on in the background. The concept for the finished project comes from Field Operations, the firm behind New York's High Line, with Thomas Phifer and Partners as architect. It calls for:
- Immersive art
- A pavilion and outdoor performance venue
- A restaurant and café
- A community building with public restrooms
- Flexible gathering spaces for use from morning through evening
Costs and a timeline haven't been set. Midtown Alliance says it will finish design and engineering while getting ready to launch a capital campaign, and it calls "Midtown Green" a working title that may change. Its own page describes the site as one of the last undeveloped parcels of this size in Midtown, with more than 44,500 workers, residents, students and visitors within a seven-minute walk.
So the lawn neighbors are using this fall is the first stage of something much bigger, and nobody knows yet when the next stage will start. For now, the public open space on this block is a grass field, a set of letters, and an events calendar.
The older lawn at the other end of the block
One Atlantic Center's lawn has a much longer history. Midtown Alliance's recap of the October meeting says the 1.3-acre greenspace on the north side of the tower, at 1201 West Peachtree Street, has existed since the late 1980s.
The proposal would add a new curb cut on West Peachtree leading to an "auto court" with a porte-cochère for drop-offs and temporary parking. East of that would be an outdoor patio for building tenants, enclosed by walls and landscaping. Nothing would change on the building's other three sides. Together, the driveway and patio would take up nearly one-third of the existing lawn.
Here's how the two sites compare as of late October 2026:
| Midtown Green, 98 14th Street | One Atlantic Center lawn, 1201 West Peachtree | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | Roughly four-acre site | 1.3-acre greenspace |
| Lawn since | September 2026 | Late 1980s |
| Setting | Public site bought by the Midtown Improvement District | Grounds of the One Atlantic Center tower |
| Current status | Open daily, sunrise to sunset | Under design review |
| What's proposed | Permanent civic park, cost and timeline not yet set | Auto court and tenant-only patio on nearly a third of the lawn |
The committee didn't approve the plan as submitted. It acknowledged that the auto court would be useful and said it liked the porte-cochère design. It also asked for revisions:
- Change the driveway geometry and keep a continuous concrete sidewalk across it, with at least 10 feet of clear walking space
- Add bike racks or a bike corral
- Replace the proposed 8-foot-6-inch opaque patio walls with something more see-through, such as glass, open railings or louvers with low shrubs
- Confirm compliance with load limits on a MARTA easement and keep pedestrian routes continuous
The bike lane that links them
The driveway request runs into another project already underway on this block. Midtown Alliance's project page, updated in August, says construction started in March 2026 on a one-way protected bike lane along West Peachtree from Linden Avenue to 14th Street. The lane uses a repurposed travel lane and some parking, and the work also covers resurfacing, bus stops, signals and ADA upgrades. An extension from 14th to 17th Street is planned, with construction procurement expected in Q4 2026. No completion date has been published.
The lane will run along the eastern edge of West Peachtree. A new One Atlantic Center driveway would cross it, which is why the committee's first request was to line up the driveway's turning movements with the lane and keep the sidewalk level across the curb cut. In practice, the redesign of this one corner is being shaped by the new bike lane, the 10-foot sidewalk standard and the public lawn across the street, all of which are newer than the tower's original lawn.
How the review works, and when it comes back
The Midtown Development Review Committee doesn't issue permits. It sends formal recommendations to the City of Atlanta Office of Planning on Special Administrative Permit applications. Its page lists [email protected] as the address for public comments. The One Atlantic Center team was expected to return in November with revisions, and the committee's calendar shows its next meeting on November 10, 2026.
The committee has handled a similar question nearby recently. In September, it reviewed a plan to enclose about 550 square feet of patio at Crest on Peachtree, 710 Peachtree Street. It recommended an operable system above a barrier no taller than 42 inches, so diners can still eat in the open air when the weather is good. The pattern in both reviews is that outdoor space at street level gets close attention, even when it's privately owned.
The rest of the season on 14th Street
The free fall program at Midtown Green is almost over. The Pilates series and the last Lunch on the Green, on October 22, have both passed, and so has the October 25 artisan market. Here's what's left, along with the review date:
- Thursday, October 29, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The final Cardio Dance session with Dawn Peck in the Moves on the Green series.
- Tuesday, November 10. The Midtown Development Review Committee meets, and the One Atlantic Center revisions are expected.
- Sunday, November 22, noon to 6 p.m. Midtown Artisan Market at Midtown Green, advertised with 20 to 30 local vendors, food, family activities and lawn games.
- Sunday, December 13, noon to 6 p.m. The last artisan market on the 2026 calendar.
If you want a second market on a Saturday morning, Piedmont Park's Green Market runs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on November 7, 14 and 21 and December 5. Its season ends the second weekend in December. Event listings can change, so check the Midtown Green page before you go.
Changes like a new public lawn, a shrinking private one and a bike lane can shape what a nearby condo or townhome is worth over time. If you own near 14th Street and want to talk about what this block could mean for your home's value, Lauren Bowling is glad to go through the numbers with you. Book a Consultation whenever you're ready.
