Woodruff Park Celebrates New Amenities Thanks to Southwest Airlines Heart of the Community Support

November 3,2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                                         

Media Contact: Paige Sullivan, Central Atlanta Progress
(404) 658-5981 | PSullivan@AtlantaDowntown.com

Downtown Atlanta’s Woodruff Park Celebrates New Amenities

Thanks to Southwest Airlines Heart of the Community Support

South end of park now boasts new Game Cart, new furniture, and more

ATLANTA – On November 2, Woodruff Park celebrated the outcomes of its Southwest Airlines Heart of the Community grant, including the debut of new amenities that enliven the southwest end of the park.

In April 2016, Central Atlanta Progress (CAP), Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV), and Project for Public Spaces announced a joint effort to maximize Woodruff Park’s unique potential to become a popular and exciting Downtown gathering place. A catalytic grant from the Southwest Airlines Heart of the Community program, valued at $200,000 including monetary and technical support, enabled Central Atlanta Progress to implement its plan to improve perceptions, increase park usage, and enliven this key public space in the “heart” of Downtown Atlanta with the help of the people who work, study, live in, and care about Downtown.

With guidance from Project for Public Spaces throughout the placemaking process, CAP engaged park stakeholders—from Downtown residents, students and office workers to neighboring businesses and the local government—to build consensus for improvement priorities. Together, stakeholders reached the conclusion that the southwest end of the park stood to benefit from reinvigorated staffing, programming, and capital improvements.

Thanks to the support of Southwest Airlines, this section of the park now includes movable tables, chairs and umbrellas, planters, and updated landscaping, all of which align with the park’s new logo and visual identity system developed by local firm My Friend’s Nephew.

The Atlanta Downtown Improvement District also provided additional staffing support to maintain the park’s day to day operations and programming by hiring Ansley Whipple, the Woodruff Park Project Manager, this spring. Since coming aboard, Whipple has revitalized the park’s free community programs and community partnerships, from the Summer in Woodruff series to the popular Solar Eclipse Party co-hosted with the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System.

The focal point of park improvements is the Woodruff Park Game Cart, a brightly-colored mobile activity kiosk filled with recreational supplies, from chess sets and board games to whiffle ball and Frisbees. Park staff, recreation interns, and local volunteers maintain the Game Cart’s inventory and assist park visitors with checking out supplies to be used in the gaming area on the gazebo or on the park’s main lawn.

“Thanks to Southwest’s generous Heart of the Community grant, we were able to utilize community feedback to bring ideas to the park that can be enjoyed by everyone,” said A.J. Robinson, President of Central Atlanta Progress. “We believe that these park improvements, including the Game Cart, will generate a hub of positive activity that adds vibrancy to this iconic Downtown greenspace.”

Thanks to the collaborative efforts of CAP, Project for Public Spaces and the support of Southwest Airlines, Woodruff is poised to be an even more active public space for the Downtown community, offering everyone—from office workers to students to families—the opportunity to enjoy the center city’s urban oasis.

Woodruff Park Game Cart At-a-Glance Schedule*:

Woodruff Park is located at 91 Peachtree St NW

• Tuesday, 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
• Wednesday - Saturday, 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

*Schedule is subject to change due to staffing, weather, and park closures.

To learn more about Woodruff Park, the Southwest Airlines Heart of the Community grant, the Game Cart, and programming in the park, visit www.WoodruffPark.com.

Follow Woodruff Park online at Facebook.com/WoodruffPark and @WoodruffPark on Instagram.

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About Central Atlanta Progress / Atlanta Downtown Improvement District: Central Atlanta Progress, Inc., is a Downtown business association with approximately 240 members. Its mission is to champion a vibrant community with strong leadership and sustainable infrastructure that is safe, livable, diverse, economically viable, accessible, clean, hospitable and entertaining. The Atlanta Downtown Improvement District is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, charitable corporation created by CAP to make Downtown safer, cleaner and more hospitable.

About Woodruff Park: Originally known as Central City Park in the 1970s, Woodruff Park was created through a generous donation from Robert W. Woodruff, former president of The Coca-Cola Company.  Through a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (ADID) maintains stewardship of Woodruff Park. ADID is responsible for the park’s daily upkeep and programming, as well as securing and implementing funding for future development. The park offers visitors a variety of recreation stations and facilities scattered throughout its beautifully manicured six acres.

About Southwest Airlines Co.: In its 47th year of service, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) continues to differentiate itself from other air carriers with exemplary Customer Service delivered by more than 55,000 Employees to a Customer base topping 115 million passengers annually, in recent years. Southwest became the nation’s largest domestic air carrier in 2003 and maintains that ranking based on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s most recent reporting of domestic originating passengers boarded. During peak travel seasons, Southwest operates more than 4,000 weekday departures among a network of 99 destinations in the United States and nine additional countries. Service to Turks & Caicos is expected to begin Nov. 5, 2017. Southwest has announced its intention to sell tickets in 2018 for service to Hawaii, subject to requisite governmental approvals.Media Contacts:

Visit the Southwest Newsroom at swamedia.com for multi-media assets and other Company news

Media Relations Team: 214-792-4847, option 1

About Project for Public Spaces: Project for Public Spaces is a nonprofit planning, design and educational organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities. Its pioneering Placemaking approach helps citizens transform their public spaces into vital places that highlight local assets, spur rejuvenation and serve common needs. PPS was founded in 1975 to apply and expand on the work of William (Holly) Whyte, the author of The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Since then, the organization has completed projects in over 3000 communities in 43 countries and all 50 US states and are the premier center for best practices, information and resources on Placemaking.