Avondale Estates

I've always thought of Avondale Estates as one of the pieces of a puzzle which, if completed, could easily compete with the City of Atlanta as the center of urban gravity in the region.  Decatur, Avondale Estates, and Scottdale all contain enough good urbanism to use as the foundation of an extremely livable and well functioning city.  If Emory University ever realizes as an institution that it's attached to a vibrant urban area, and allocates its campus design resources accordingly, this complete urban area could be extended to the north.

And further, if Avondale Estates were able  to influence the  redevelopment of Avondale Mall along the lines of Greenstreet Property's Glenwood Park development, this aggregate of solid urban design and good neighborhoods could be pushed to the south, into the deteriorated remains of 1950's sprawl extending along the arterial roads paralleling and intersecting I-20.

Avondale Estates was a 1924 planned community built by the wealthy entrepeneur George Francis Willis.  It was formerly the town of Ingleside, which he purchased lock stock and barrel.  In 1928 the
population in Avondale Estates was 750, and it was a trolley stop along the rail which extended to Stone Mountain.  It had a lake, swimming pools, tennis courts, a school, and its own dairies.
The business strip was built in the form of an Alpine Village.

One of the things which makes Avondale Estates have a great deal of potential is that it actually has two rapid transit (heavy passenger rail) stops, the Avondale Station and Kensington Station.  Its easy proximity to Decatur makes it fit into the regional picture much better than other similar planned communities, which are often isolated auto-dependent bedroom communities with residencies, recreational facilities, but little else.

In closing this post I'd like to reiterate that the long term prospects for maximizing Avondale Estate's potential is in the hands of its residents.  If the residents are able to approach the redevelopment of the commercial areas to the south not just  in terms of fighting negative consequences (the fight against Walmart) but putting forth a plan which facilitates a mixed use zone of good urbanism, then Avondale Estates could be one of the more satisfying and livable places not just in the Atlanta region, but in the entire Southeast.

Click here for my Avondale Estates photo album.

Comments

[DecaturGuy]

Actually, the City of Decatur has already started the process by annexing the huge parking lot at the Avondale MARTA station and is developing as mixed use. Already, old warehouses up and down College Ave. are redeveloping into mixed use projects. Soon, after the MARTA project, I can forsee more redevelopment up the ugly 1950's commercial strip in Avondale and redevelopent of the historic downtown. Things are happening. In 5-10 years, this will look completely different.

[Larry Felton Johnson]

That sounds very good. In many ways Decatur is far ahead of most other parts of the area in sane deveopment practices. The notable things about the Columbia/Avondale lot are the fact that it abuts Avondale Estates (if my mental map is correct the back edge of the mall parking lot is very near Avondale High) and the Crowley Cemetery (which may be a bit pathologically odd, but really begs to be the focal point of a civic monument).

[Dave]

A Glenwood Park-style project at the old mall site would be a great addition to that area, esp. with MARTA's plans to start enhanced bus service along Memorial Dr.

BTW is the Wal-Mart officially dead yet? I know they were denied by the city of Avondale Estates but I remember reading about some possibility of them trying to get a permit through DeKalb County.

[DecaturGuy]

I think that Wal-Mart will try to go through Dekalb County's process now. It will be much more likely that Wal-Mart will still have a store there, but it will be incorporated into more of a mixed use development ... probably similar to the project on Moreland south of Little 5 Points.

I would prefer a Glenwood Park style development myself, but anything would be better than a suburban style Wal-Mart with its acres of parking out front. Hopefully, a compromise will develop. If Wal-Mart's argument is true, that it will help bring development to the area, then it should have no problem with incorporating mixed use development.

[Larry Felton Johnson]

If Dekalb County can negotiate something similar to Sembler's Edgewood Retail district, then it would definitely be an improvement over the current situation. The more that project builds out, the more encouraging it looks from my perspective.

The quality of the outcome, if the county really takes charge of the process, will depend on the knowledge base Dekalb County has on urban design issues (at the time the Sembler development was starting the City of Atlanta
already had some sharp people in the planning department), how flexible Wal-mart is, and how willing the Avondale folks are to accept a better plan that still involves Wal-mart.