Fulton Government Center to get $3.4 million renovation

May 25,2016

Keep Atlanta Beautiful, Inc. and Fulton County are partnering on a $3.4 million project to enhance the Fulton County Government Center on Pryor Street in Downtown. The project will update the 26-year-old water garden and improve the surrounding streetscape.

The center’s water garden, which opened in 1989 and designed by world-renowned landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg, will undergo a $1.4 million modernization. The original architectural integrity of the garden will be preserved while improving pedestrian circulation, and enhancing the landscape with the using of native, adapted, and aquatic plants. The vision of the project is to create a more welcoming front door to the county that greets the thousands of Fulton County employees, residents and visitors every year.

“I am pleased to work with Keep Atlanta Beautiful on this important project. The structure was built as a fountain and needs to be maintained because we don’t want it to create health or environmental issues,” said Dist. 4 Commissioner Joan P. Garner. “It is important to me that Fulton County create our water garden into a more inviting public space that will make Fulton County and the government district more welcoming to visitors and residents. I am glad to be part of the energy and excitement that defines downtown Atlanta.”

In conjunction with modernization of the water garden, a $2 million streetscape improvement project will address the surrounding sidewalks that lead to the government center, redevelop the edges of the building to meet the current Special Public Interest (SPI) overlay requirements, and establish a cohesive streetscape connecting the Fulton County Government building with the surrounding area.

“We are excited to work with the county and our partners Integral Group, HGOR, and Astra Group on this unique architectural space in our great city,” said Brent Brown, Chairman of Keep Atlanta Beautiful. The revitalization of this Water Garden/Streetscape into a welcoming and relevant space will benefit the county, city, and surrounding neighborhood for years to come. This project is in keeping with the goals of Keep Atlanta Beautiful, which seeks to maintain welcoming, beautiful public spaces, improving the quality of life for all.”