Midtown Atlanta has changed a lot in two decades. It’s about to change even more

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Walking through Midtown hasn’t always included crazy traffic and thousands of students. There hasn’t always been so much hustle and bustle.

“It wasn’t a place as a young person that I would spend a lot of time,” said Blair Meeks as he watched countless cars, buses and scooters drive by.

The scooters, foot traffic and open spaces are a lot to take in for someone like Meeks, who grew up with an entirely different idea of Midtown.

“I would never have imagined something like this here,” he said.

Meeks works for Georgia Tech, a catalyst behind the Midtown resurgence.

“We knew if we created the right environment, that we would have these collaborative spaces,” he said.

The first two phases of Georgia Tech’s revitalization of Midtown constructed numerous science and academic buildings, including the Scheller College of Business.

Now, the area known as Tech Square has renderings for Phase 3.

“This is going to be a tremendously exciting addition,” Meeks said.

That addition, right now a pile of dirt, will house part of ‘Scheller’ and the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering program, the latter moving from the main campus.

“There’s not a lot of room on the other side where we are,” Meeks admitted.

The new building will also feature indoor/outdoor common space and more space for businesses, something that’s worked out well for the first two phases.

“I think even some of the early planners might be surprised at just how successful it has been,” Meeks said.

Phase 3 isn’t expected to be complete until 2026, but even so, it’s never too early to start thinking about Phase 4.

“Well, we’ll just have to wait and see,” Meeks said.

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