Public-Private Partnership with Keep Atlanta Beautiful and Fulton County Will Revitalize ‘The Front Door to the County’

“As part of our continued efforts to address the many capital needs of our Fulton County facilities, I am thrilled with our partnership with Keep Atlanta Beautiful to improve and beautify our water garden.  This Public/Private partnership will bring great improvements to our main government center’s “front door” for our many visitors and employees for years to come,” said Vice Chairman Liz Hausmann, District 1.

“I am pleased to work with Keep Atlanta Beautiful on this important project. The structure was built as a fountain and needs to be maintained because we don't want it to create health or environmental issues,” said Commissioner Joan P. Garner, District 4, which includes the Government Center. “It is important to me that Fulton County create our water garden into a more inviting public space that will make Fulton County and the government district more welcoming to visitors and residents. I am glad to be part of the energy and excitement that defines downtown Atlanta."

Friedberg, a recipient of the American Society of Landscape Architects’ medal – the highest honor for a landscape architect – has also designed other noteworthy public spaces, such as Pershing Park in Washington D.C., the 67th Street Playground in New York, and Peavey Plaza in Minneapolis.

In conjunction with modernization of the water garden, a $2 million streetscape improvement project will address the surrounding sidewalks that lead to the government center, redevelop the edges of the building to meet the current Special Public Interest (SPI) overlay requirements, and establish a cohesive streetscape connecting the Fulton County Government building to the greater urban fabric of the area.

This partnership comes at an exciting time, when more than $3 billion is being invested in the overall improvement of the area around the Fulton County Government Center, including the $1.4 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium; the $60.2 million makeover of Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive; and the substantial investments in Georgia State University, Atlanta Underground, Centennial Olympic Park, and Turner Field, to name a few.

“We are excited to work with the county and our partners Integral-Gude, HGOR, and Astra Group on this unique architectural space in our great city,” said Brent Brown, Chairman of Keep Atlanta Beautiful.  The revitalization of this Water Garden/Streetscape into a welcoming and relevant space will benefit the county, city, and surrounding neighborhood for years to come. This project is in keeping with the goals of Keep Atlanta Beautiful, which seeks to maintain welcoming, beautiful public spaces, improving the quality of life for all.”

Keep Atlanta Beautiful, Inc. and Fulton County are partnering on a $3.4 million project to enhance the Fulton County Government Center on Pryor Street. The one-of-a-kind project, in the heart of Atlanta’s Government District, will update the 26-year-old water garden and improve the surrounding streetscape. 

The Center’s water garden, which opened in 1989, and was designed by world-renowned landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg, will undergo a $1.4 million modernization preserving the original architectural integrity of the garden, improving the pedestrian circulation, and enhancing the beauty of the landscape with the using of native, adapted, and aquatic plants. The vision of the project is to create a more welcoming front door to the county that greets the thousands of Fulton County employees, residents and visitors every year.