Albany State University Atlanta Neighborhoods Paper

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Analysis, Comparison, and Contrast of Druid Hills and Glenwood Park Neighborhoods
Introduction
Joel Hurt and Frederick Olmsted Sr. designed and developed Druid Hills on previously
undeveloped land as a streetcar suburb in the late nineteenth century. On the other hand, led by
Charles Brewer, Green Street Properties Company designed and developed Glenwood Park as a
new urbanist community in the early twenty-first century after the Novare Group Consortium
that had previously acquired the industrial multipurpose land for mixed-use development. The
design of the two neighborhoods is unique given the difference in periodic times of development.
For Druid Hills, the initial intention was to develop a unique, new suburban community with
distinctive landscape features that incorporated parkways, serene parks, streets, and housing units
to cater to the emerging residential and not commercial needs of upper-class citizens of the
growing Atlanta City. Conversely, the main objective of Glenwood Park’s designers and
developers was create a newly-designed urbanist mix of stores, civic buildings, office space, and
housing elements to satisfy commercial and residential needs not present in surrounding
neighborhoods and create diverse employment opportunities.

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Original Design (Master Plan) of Druid Hills

Figure 1: Olmsted Sr.’s Druid Hills Original Design in 18931
In the late 1880s, Atlanta was a growing city when entrepreneur Joel Hurt conceived the
idea of constructing a streetcar suburb on agricultural land between the city of Decatur and

1

Jayne X, Maxwell, "HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY: DRUID HILLS HISTORIC DISTRICT,"
American Memory: Remaining Collections, Last modified September 27, 1987.
https://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/ga/ga0900/ga0978/data/ga0978data.pdf, pp. 11

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Atlanta. Hurt had a vast experience in the development of residential communities owing to his
earlier role in creating the "Inman Park," Atlanta's first suburb.2 Hurt enrolled interested
stockholders and implored them to commit their properties into the Kirkwood Land Company,
leading to the establishment of 1,500 acres of land as the future site of Druid Hills.3 After
acquiring land for the neighborhood that would later become Druid Hills, Hurt contracted
prominent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. in 1890 to develop the preliminary
master plan4. As shown in Figure1, Olmsted Sr.’s plan expanded and refined his design
principles by producing an integrated design that interlaced all parks, parkway, and residential
settings.

Figure 2: Glenwood Park Master Plan5

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2

Laura Starratt, “Frederick Law Olmsted's Atlanta Legacy," Atlanta Studies, last modified March 7, 2019,
https://www.atlantastudies.org/2019/03/07/laura-starratt-frederick-law-olmsteds-atlanta-legacy/.

3

Roth, Darlene. Frederick Law Olmsted's first and last suburbs: Riverside and Druid Hills, Volume 4 of
Workbook seriesth ed. National Association for Olmsted Parks, 1993. Pg. 2

Starratt,”Frederick Law Olmsted's Atlanta Legacy."
Urban Land Institute, "Glenwood Park," ULI Development Case Studies 37, no. 16 (2007), 1-14,
https://casestudies.uli.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/C037016.pdf.

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On the other hand, Glenwood Park is a new urbanist community located two miles from
downtown Atlanta established in the early 2000s. The vibrant traditional, mixed-use
neighborhood development (TND) is situated on a former concrete recycling center. Glenwood
Park's design is architecturally-fascinating and environmentally sustainable.6 In the twentieth
century, the 28-acre site that houses the Glenwood Park was used for numerous industrial
purposes. In early 2000, the Atlanta-based Novare Group, a real estate development consortium
purchased the land after its management realized the site's potential use for mixed-use
development.7 Since the 28-acre piece of land borders 1-20, the real estate development
company projected a large office component, which shared parking with a grocery-anchored
shopping center and multiple condominiums. After Novare's plan failed to materialize due to the
2001 economic downturn, the company sold the land to Green Street Properties, a newly-formed
company led by Charles Brewer.8In a letter that detailed a change from the mixed-used
development to a mixed-use neighborhood, Brewer stated that Glenwood Park would offer a
compelling alternative to individuals disgruntled with choices presented by conventional
development. Figure 2 shows the master plan developed by Green Street Properties to actualize
its dream of establishing a new urbanist community. The master plan shows remarkable
differences with that of Druid Hills as illustrated in Figure 1 as Glenwood Parks incorporates a
commercial/shopping center. Nevertheless, the master plans for both neighborhoods seek to
establish residential units for residents.

6

Congress for New Urbanism, "Glenwood Park," last modified October 13, 2017, https://www.cnu.org/what-wedo/build-great-places/glenwood-park.

7

Congress for New Urbanism, "Glenwood Park.”

8

Ibid.

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Just like Glenwood Park's initial development failed due to the economic challenges
faced by Novare, Inc., progress on Druid Hills’ development stopped in 1893 after Olmsted
designed the initial plan due to the financial struggle of Hurt's Kirkwood Land Company. In
1901, Hurt resumed efforts of reviving the development plans only to find that Olmsted Sr. had
retired and left his work to the Olmsted Brothers Landscape Design Firm that was managed by
his son and step-son9. Nevertheless, the Olmsted Brothers used the Olmsted Sr.'s 1893
preliminary plans to continue Hurt's development initiatives for Druid Hills. Even though the
Green Street Properties made entirely new changes after acquiring the land from Novare, Inc.,
the Olmsted Brothers made final designs using Olmsted Sr.'s initial plan of Ponce de Leon
Avenue and the surrounding systems of parks along the parkway. In 1908, Hurt sold the
Kirkwood Land Company to a consortium managed by Coca-Cola founder Asa G. Candler.10 In
1909, the Candler's consortium organized itself as Druid Hills Corporation and went on to
develop the streetcar suburb infrastructure. However, by the time the Druid Hills Corporation
acquired ownership of developing infrastructure, only ninety acres of Ponce de Leon Parkway's
plan designed by the Olmsted Brothers had been completed.11 Besides, Candler's corporation
came at a ti...


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