(PORTMANS PARADOX) With atriums as their private mini-centers, buildings no longer depend on specific locations. They can be anywhere. And if they can be anywhere, why should they be downtown? At first the atrium seemed to help rehabilitate and stabilize Atlanta's downtown, but it actually accelerated its demise. That was Portman's Paradox. The rediscovery of downtown quickly degenerated into a proliferation of quasi downtowns that together destroyed the essence of center. Koolhaas, Rem (1996) "Atlanta: A Reading" in S,M,L,XL, O.M.A, Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau. New York: The Montecelli Press, p. 843. (LENOX) Lenox is equally popular for Saturday shopping, Friday night dinner and movies, Sunday lunches and promenades, and a free weekday health spa for power walking up and down the mall. Few people can describe its exterior, but most can give detailed directions within the mall, using changing shop fronts and temporary mall displays as landmarks in its perpetually reconstructing environment. Richard Dagenhart (1994) "Visible and Invisible Cities" in Jordi Bernado and Ramon Prat ATLANTA, Barcelona: ACTAR
...Atlanta...Invisible...Accident...Random...Slogans...Testing Ground...Cities within Cities...Flows...Places...Quotes... Background
Cities Within Cities
LENOX was the first, although it began in 1959 as an open air mall with only two branch department stores, a few shops and a grocery store. Today Lenox is a MALL CITY. A precursor of the mega mall , like the Mall of America or West Edmonton Mall.
John Portman, the architect and developer, invented the modern ATRIUM building in his City Within a City -- PEACHTREE CENTER -- in downtown Atlanta. The Hyatt Regency Hotel, built in 1968, is now known as the origin of PORTMAN'S PARADOX, now developed to its ultimate in the Marriot Marquis.
RAVINIA is an office park, but it is more. Centered on a private garden -- a ravine in acadia -- it becomes a self contained City Within a City, just like Peachtree Center. The garden is an atrium -- internal and private. Peachtree Center's pedestrian BRIDGES become winding paths through the private garden. 
These Cities Within Cities are liminal spaces. They are thresholds to ever changing buildings, spaces, and events. In Atlanta, Cities Within Cities are continuous experiments, almost becoming urban art forms.
Atlanta Essay
Georgia Tech Campus ... Fox ... Portman ... Public Spaces ... Chicken ... Billboards ... Varsity ... Atlanta Essay ... Gorillas ... Stone ... Dreams & Crossroads ... Symphony ... Links ... Neat Stuff
