In early June, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed threw out the first Frisbee to commemorate the opening of Piedmont Commons, a new part of Piedmont Park off Monroe Drive. The Piedmont Commons include paved paths with wooden bridges, connections to other paths and trails, a small multi-purpose field and an entrance to the park from Monroe Drive near the intersection of Monroe and Piedmont Avenue.
“The Commons were added for a couple reasons,” Piedmont Park Conservancy member and Grady parent John Webster said. “The main reason though, was so that people in neighborhoods surrounding Ansley Mall, and farther up Piedmont Avenue could have easier and more convenient access to the park.”
The Grady cross-country team has incorporated the new space into the routes they run during practice.
“I’m glad to see that we have more space to move around in and run in,” Jeff Cramer, cross-country coach and physics teacher, said. “I would have preferred a softer running surface, but what they’ve put in will work fine.”
This new part of the park is a part of the “Breaking New Ground” project introduced by the Piedmont Park Conservancy four years ago. The project’s larger additions included an interactive fountain, public pool, 30,000 square feet of new plazas and patios, an expanded dog park, bocce courts and greenspace, new sports fields, renovation of the Saturn Playground (now the Mayor’s Grove playground), and the Piedmont Commons area. There were also smaller sections, such as basketball courts, three miles of new paths and trails, and 1,000 new trees planted. All of the projects have been completed within the past four years.
The Conservancy held a hard-hat tour of the new land on which the Piedmont Commons and surrounding areas would be built in 2011 for more than 250 people.
“There was clearly interest in the project, as more than 250 people showed up for the tour,” Webster said. “The only problem was that the predicted cost was more than $2 million.”
The Conservancy was eventually able to meet the cost thanks to donations from neighborhood and corporate fundraising, as well as a $1 million grant from the Kendeda Foundation, which promotes community and equity in the natural world. The Kendeda Foundation has also given grants to educational foundations and the American Public Media.
The first work done on the projects was the expansion and renovation of the dog park, which was soon followed by the construction of the public pool and bocce courts. The Piedmont Commons was the last phase of in the project.
Despite all the time and work put into the project, there are still a few problems.
“While we had enough money to complete the project, that was all we received,” Webster said. “We did not receive enough money to continue to maintain all this new land. The park expanded by 40 percent. That’s more than 40 acres that we now have to maintain.”
The Piedmont Commons have been well received by the public so far, with the new entrance attracting a lot of foot traffic. The new trails that lead to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens have also been popular.
“I think the space will be used a lot,” Cramer said. “When the beltline is extended back there, it’ll get even more traffic. The space back there used to be a sort of run down area, and now it looks great.”
