Abstract (300 words maximum)
Monday morning, again. Walking into the cold, isolated transit hub reflects your internal emotion of dragging your feet back to work. All to do it again the next day. The routine of walking past architectural marvels like Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the Marquis Hotel just to walk into a cold and distant transit hub displays two drastic priorities of the architectural fabric in Atlanta. The largest transit hub for MARTA within Atlanta is Five Points, which contains all four train lines currently in use today. According to Downtown Atlanta’s Master Plan published in 2017, “In 2015, close to 1.2 million people used Downtown MARTA rail stations each month, with almost 500,000 using Five Points alone,” which is more than the total population of Atlanta at the time of the 2010 census, which was a reported 420,003 people. This signifies the importance of Five Points as a MARTA transit hub within the city of Atlanta. According to a study analyzing the feasibility of commercial to residential within the Five Point station area done in 2024, the building stock by use in 2023 contained 75% office buildings, 18% hotel buildings, and 7% residential buildings. Even though most of the buildings in the area are office buildings, there has been an increase in mixed-use projects being approved, like Centennial Yards, multiple projects near the Beltline, and others. With the research already done and to be done, this design research project will explore successful mixed-use transit hubs in the US, Asia, and Europe to propose a redeveloped Five Points station that elevates the notion of what a transit hub can look like, using examples like Shinjuku Station and Dongdaemun Design Plaza as a baseline. This research argues that transit hubs should serve as mixed-use areas to create 24/7 vibrant streets, with this paper demonstrating the importance of transit hubs to the downtown core of Atlanta.
Use of AI Disclaimer
no
Academic department under which the project should be listed
CACM – Architecture
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Ehsan Sheikholharam Mashhadi
Transit Hubs as Mixed-Use Areas: Architectural Solutions for 24/7 Vibrant Streets
Monday morning, again. Walking into the cold, isolated transit hub reflects your internal emotion of dragging your feet back to work. All to do it again the next day. The routine of walking past architectural marvels like Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the Marquis Hotel just to walk into a cold and distant transit hub displays two drastic priorities of the architectural fabric in Atlanta. The largest transit hub for MARTA within Atlanta is Five Points, which contains all four train lines currently in use today. According to Downtown Atlanta’s Master Plan published in 2017, “In 2015, close to 1.2 million people used Downtown MARTA rail stations each month, with almost 500,000 using Five Points alone,” which is more than the total population of Atlanta at the time of the 2010 census, which was a reported 420,003 people. This signifies the importance of Five Points as a MARTA transit hub within the city of Atlanta. According to a study analyzing the feasibility of commercial to residential within the Five Point station area done in 2024, the building stock by use in 2023 contained 75% office buildings, 18% hotel buildings, and 7% residential buildings. Even though most of the buildings in the area are office buildings, there has been an increase in mixed-use projects being approved, like Centennial Yards, multiple projects near the Beltline, and others. With the research already done and to be done, this design research project will explore successful mixed-use transit hubs in the US, Asia, and Europe to propose a redeveloped Five Points station that elevates the notion of what a transit hub can look like, using examples like Shinjuku Station and Dongdaemun Design Plaza as a baseline. This research argues that transit hubs should serve as mixed-use areas to create 24/7 vibrant streets, with this paper demonstrating the importance of transit hubs to the downtown core of Atlanta.