For most of the past decade, 98 14th Street was a fence. The lot sits between Peachtree and West Peachtree, across from the Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta, and construction fencing lined its 14th Street frontage for nearly ten years. In September 2026 the fence came down. A temporary lawn opened to the public, sunrise to sunset, every day.
The site has a long record of ambitious plans. The plain version is the first one anyone can actually use. Midtown Alliance says the cost and timeline for the permanent park are "still being determined." So the lawn may be here for a while. The free events on it this fall also do a second job: they are how Midtown Alliance is collecting ideas for what gets built next.
Twenty Years of Renderings, One Lawn
The four acres have been promised to Atlanta several times:
- 2005. A Santiago Calatrava concert hall for the Atlanta Symphony Center was unveiled for the site. The Great Recession ended it.
- Early 2014. A group of New York City investors proposed a three-tower concept.
- 2016. That plan became No. 2 Opus Place, a 74-story, $300 million condo tower. It was to have two pools, an IMAX screening room and a 40th-floor golf simulator.
- 2018. The project held a groundbreaking with dynamite. The tower was later scaled back and delayed again and again.
- Fall 2023. The site went into foreclosure.
- May 19, 2025. The Midtown Improvement District closed on the property for $46 million. It paid with district cash reserves and tax-exempt general-obligation bonds financed by SouthState.
The district that bought the lot is a self-taxing group of commercial property owners. Midtown Alliance runs it, and it normally spends its money on infrastructure, security and similar work. Midtown Alliance says no other Community Improvement District in Georgia has taken on a project like this.
What 785 Truckloads Bought
The Opus project left a real hole. Its excavation work cut into the site, and Midtown Alliance officials said filling it would take "substantial dirt." Midtown Alliance puts the figure at 785 truckloads. Crews spent months cleaning up the abandoned site, grading it and laying sod through early summer 2026.
The interim plan was modest on purpose. It called for leveling the ground, planting a multi-use lawn, adding walking paths around the edge, some lighting, and a protected mid-block crosswalk on 14th Street. Urbanize Atlanta called this a "hold phase": a usable placeholder while the permanent design moves ahead.
Getting there is easy. The lawn is one block south of the Arts Center MARTA station and has bike racks on site. The closest parking is the Promenade Parking deck, with entrances on both 14th and 15th streets. Midtown Alliance counts more than 44,500 workers, residents, students and visitors within a seven-minute walk.
The Fall Calendar Is Also the Survey
Midtown Alliance built the fall lineup around the three times of day the permanent park is designed for: the lunch hour, after work, and a weekend afternoon. The events are free. Visitors can also meet the project team, see the long-term plans and give their own ideas for the site.
| Program | Remaining dates | Hours | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunch on the Green | Thursday, Oct. 8 and Thursday, Oct. 22 | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Rotating food trucks, local vendors, live music, lawn games |
| Moves on the Green | Thursdays, Oct. 8, 15, 22 and 29 | 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. | Free cardio dance with veteran instructor Dawn Peck; bring a mat and water |
| Midtown Artisan Market | Sunday, Oct. 25; Sunday, Nov. 22; Sunday, Dec. 13 | Noon to 6 p.m. | 20 to 30 artisan vendors, food, family activities |
Midtown Alliance asks for an RSVP through Eventbrite for the Thursday workouts. The September Pilates sessions with JETSET are finished. October is cardio dance. On October 8, both Thursday events fall on the same day, at lunch and again after work.
The public input started well before the sod. More than 6,000 Atlantans gave ideas through Midtown Alliance's earlier engagement campaigns, and those ideas helped shape the concept unveiled in April. The fall events continue that process in person, on the actual ground.
A Block North, a Street That Used to Stop
The lawn has a companion change one block up. For years, 15th Street ended at West Peachtree Street, beside the AMLI Arts Center and Hanover Midtown apartment towers. That made it harder to reach the Arts Center station from parts of Spring Street, where hundreds of new homes have opened in recent years at buildings such as Mira at Midtown Union.
On August 31, 2026, the 15th Street extension opened to traffic. It runs two blocks west from West Peachtree, through Spring Street to Williams Street. Midtown Alliance called it an "extremely rare" example of a new street added to an established grid in a dense urban setting. The new road was built on what used to be two empty lots.
For people on foot or on a bike, the layout matters most:
- West Peachtree to Spring: three lanes, with one lane each way plus left-turn lanes at both one-way streets.
- West of Spring to Williams: one through lane in each direction.
- Both sides, full length: 10-foot sidewalks, 5-foot bike lanes at sidewalk level, and a 5-foot strip for trees and street furniture. The bike lanes connect directly to the Arts Center station.
The street took longer than planned. The contractor, Reeves Young, got notice to proceed on March 18, 2024, under an 18-month contract. Crews then hit rock nobody expected between Williams and Spring, and the schedule was extended while engineers worked out a fix. Together, the lawn and the street close two long-standing dead ends in Midtown's north end. From Spring Street, the walk to the station now runs straight along 15th, and the lawn's market and workouts are one block south of the station.
What the Permanent Park Promises, and What Remains Unwritten
The long-term design comes from Field Operations, the firm behind New York's High Line, Tongva Park in Santa Monica and Taopu Central Park in Shanghai. The team also includes architect Thomas Phifer and Partners, engineering firm Gresham Smith, the experience strategists DVDL, Fluidity Design for water features, and cultural historian Karcheik Sims-Alvarado. Sarah Astheimer leads the design team. She presented the concept at Midtown Alliance's 2026 Annual Meeting in April.
The plan includes:
- immersive art
- a pavilion inspired by the magnolia
- a terraced outdoor performance space for up to 800 people
- a restaurant and café
- a community building with public restrooms
- flexible gathering areas
Midtown Alliance describes a full day in the park: morning yoga on the lawn, lunch at the café while children play nearby, and evening performances. The fall calendar already covers a smaller version of that day, with food trucks at lunch, a workout after work and a market on Sunday afternoon.
"A cultural destination without walls. Open, accessible, and always evolving."
That is how Midtown Alliance CEO Kevin Green described the plan to Rough Draft Atlanta when the concept was unveiled.
No construction start date has been set. Midtown Alliance still has to finish the final design, engineering and cost planning, and it is preparing a capital campaign. Even the name "Midtown Green" is a working title that could change. Urbanize Atlanta has described the fundraising as a "multi-year" effort. Until it is complete, the four acres stay as they are now: a grass lawn open sunrise to sunset and a calendar of free events that runs through the December 13 artisan market.
At Sonny Jones, we follow changes like the opening of 14th Street and the new 15th Street link block by block, because they change how a Midtown address works day to day. If you are weighing a home within walking distance of Arts Center station, or thinking about how these changes affect a property you already own, we would welcome the chance to talk it through. Request a private consultation.
