McDaniel Glenn

Description:

The McDaniel Glenn Housing Project is only a half-mile south of the Capitol of the State of Georgia, but is in one of the most depressed areas of Atlanta. Much of that depression can be contributed to the design and policy of the housing authority when this original housing complex was constructed. Thankfully times have changed, thinking has changed, and HOPE VI is now the positive way of building our cities. McDaniel Glenn was fortunate enough to secure funding for its redevelopment.

TSW was retained by Columbia Residential, the partner developer with Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) to design a master plan, develop typical street sections and re-zoning for this 44 acre scattered site all within a highly New Urbanist framework for the McDaniel Glenn project. To that end TSW has created a master plan for 203 fee-simple units (townhouse and single-family), approximately 1,000 multifamily units, and on the ground floor nearly 20,000 square feet of mixed-Use space. Allowing this amount of residential concentration comfortably required designing new parks, both small pocket parks and grand lawns, and even reweaving new streets where historic streets had been abandoned. In all blocks parking is either hidden by the buildings allowing front doors and eyes-on-the-street to be the public façade or is accommodated by ample on-street parking.
Because this is a significant redevelopment and more than mere infill, each of the street sections could be tailored to calm traffic and provide safe places for children and elderly to walk and bike.

The vision of this McDaniel Glenn project is for it to be a mixed-income, mixed-use extension of the historic surrounding context where singles and families can find the house of their choosing in a safe neighborhood. Neighborhood leaders, local non-profits, the City of Atlanta, the AHA, the developer and the designers have come together forging a plan that will lead to economic and social success and revitalization of this central area.