TOUR # 1 (WALKING TOUR)
Atlanta BeltLine Tour (Northeast Section)
Atlanta, GA
Cost: $50.00, Limited to 20 people
The tour will start at Ponce City Market (PCM) and finish at Krog Street Market.
The 1.5-mile walk will take a maximum of two hours and will cover the northeast section of the Atlanta BeltLine that connects Old Fourth Ward and Inman Park neighborhoods. The Atlanta BeltLine began in 2005 and when completed will connect over forty neighborhoods over its 22-mile circuit. The original project which includes a light rail system was the result of Ryan Gravel’s thesis project at GA Tech. It remains one of the largest urban projects in the United States and like the New York Highline reimagines a derelict railway corridor as a new piece of post-industrial infrastructure that links neighborhoods and creates a catalyst for new development.
The walking tour will include visiting a series of architectural projects such as the Ponce City Market (S9 Architecture and Choate + Hertlein Architects), 619 Ponce + Scout Living Hotel (Handel Architects), Fourth Ward Offices (Tom Kundig, Seattle), the Forth Hotel and Overline Apartments (Morris Adjmi, New York), and Junction Krog District (Portman Holdings). The tour will start at new Scout Living Hotel (639 Glen Iris Dr NE, Atlanta, GA 30308) and end at Junction Krog District (667 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30312).
Tour Guide: Michael J. Carroll
Michael J. Carroll is a professor of architecture at Kennesaw State University. Prior to his appointment in 2009, he was an assistant professor at Syracuse University and adjunct professor at McGill University. He is founding partner of Atelier BUILD, a design/build firm based in Montreal, which was awarded the Canadian Professional Prix de Rome of Architecture. The work of Atelier BUILD has been published and exhibited in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and Italy. His research focuses on innovative materials within the context of architectural design. He is the founder and director of MAT_LAB at Kennesaw State University (KSU), a materials library, lab, and exhibition space. Professor Carroll’s recent project ALT/ATL imagines alternate futures for Atlanta. The work of his design students which included readings and visions for Atlanta was recently exhibited at he Atlanta Design Festival in October 2025. Professor Carroll has directed tours for architecture students that have included: New York City, Barcelona, Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.
Tour #2 (Walking Tour)
Midtown and Arts Center Tour
Cost: $25, limited to 20 people
Approximate distance: 1.6 miles total
This tour, centering on the Woodruff Arts Center, Colony Square, and Piedmont Park, showcases how the influential forces of Modernism, the Arts, and the city’s urban renewal program shaped the development of Midtown Atlanta. We will meet in the plaza outside the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) and the Perkins + Will office, and tour the award-winning, innovative LEED Platinum building. We will then walk through Colony Square, the site of where the first mixed-use buildings in the Southeast were built, as well as where the city’s earliest post-urban renewal concepts such as transit-oriented development and pedestrian-friendly streets were implemented. We will pass though the gates of Piedmont Park to visit the Noguchi Playscape – the only built example of Isamu Noguchi’s playground designs in the United States. The tour will close at the Woodruff Arts Complex, where visitors will have access to the special exhibition at the High Museum, “I am not a designer,” a celebration and retrospective of the works of Isamu Noguchi.