Born of civil disobedience, historic Freedom Park is the people’s once again.
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}

DETAILS

LocationAtlanta, Georgia, United States
ClientFreedom Park Conservancy
SERVICE:
Size130 acres

“More than 30 years after Atlanta’s Freedom Park emerged from successful grassroots efforts to block a highway expansion, the need for a new vision for the park’s future has arisen. Seeking to unify constituent desires around economic viability alongside ecological value, some 70 potential initiatives were identified and prioritized according to ease of implementation, duration, and cost. Told in a compelling narrative, the People’s Plan exemplifies the imperative goals we need to achieve if we are truly to move forward as socially equitable communities.”

– 2021 ASLA National Awards Jury

In the late 20th century, Atlanta faced a critical juncture as a proposed highway threatened to tear through seven urban communities. From this crisis emerged a powerful grassroots movement whose victory not only halted the highway but birthed Freedom Park, a 130-acre green space stretching over 2.5 miles.

For years, Freedom Park existed as a patchwork of disconnected green spaces, its full potential unrealized. The Freedom Park Conservancy initiated a master planning process to transform this infrastructural “scar tissue” into “connective tissue” linking the community. The challenge: honor the park’s legacy of civic action while meeting the evolving needs of a diverse, multigenerational constituency.

Through virtual platforms, interactive tools, and targeted outreach, a true “People’s Plan” was created, identifying over 70 potential projects rooted in three guiding principles: Assembly, Education, and Connection. The final framework acknowledges Freedom Park’s position as a nexus of civil rights history, connecting Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthplace with the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library via the John Lewis Freedom Parkway.

By interweaving local, national, and international significance, the park tells a uniquely American story of resilience and progress. Freedom Park stands as a living testament to hard-won victories and the ongoing pursuit of equality and justice.

Winner, 2021 Honor Award – Analysis and Planning, ASLA National

Related Projects

Xingfa Quarry Park

Just north of Beijing, between the Great Wall and Yanqi Lake, the Xingfa Cement Plant once fueled China’s construction boom, operating for over two decades before its 2015 closure under the National Air Quality Action Plan. Today, an adjacent quarry that once provided raw materials has been remediated as a 107.5-hectare terraced park that anchors an accompanyi...

Changchun Tractor Factory Renovation

Once-industrial site re-imagined as a commercial complex with eye-catching public spaces.

For this site, which was once an industrial tractor factory that epitomized Changchun’s thriving industrial past, SWA provided conceptual design through implementation to transform the former of Changchun Tractor Factory into an eye-catching public realm that fulfi...

Nickerson Gardens Playground

Originally designed in 1955 by architect Paul Revere Williams, Nickerson Gardens is a 1,066-unit apartment complex in Watts, South Los Angeles — the largest social housing project west of the Mississippi. Core to Williams’ vision was an emphasis on shared open space, but its central playground, neglected for years, fell into a state of disrepair. In collaborat...

Paveletskaya Plaza

Situated along Moscow’s Ring Road and adjacent to the legendary Paveletsky Station transportation hub, the park at Paveletskaya Plaza will both cover and reveal the new bustling underground retail facility below while also serving as a landmark destination for residents and visitors alike.

The extraordinary retail and architectural vision for Paveletska...

Hermann Park

Hermann Park is one of Houston’s great civic resources containing a significant urban forest and many public venues. It is the flagship of the Houston Park system, serving the recreation needs of the City’s diverse population of some four million and welcoming over six million visitors a year. However, like many urban parks in America, much of Hermann Park has...

Fernwood Avenue Park

The Fernwood Avenue Park represents a significant opportunity for the city to enhance the water quality and availability of groundwater for residents, while also offering public amenities. Equipped with four detention basins that capture water onsite and from the street, the project plays an important role in the community as a stormwater infiltration site. Th...

Peanut Plaza

Reclaiming private land for public use, one of Washington D.C.’s most dangerous intersections has been targeted for vast improvements. The project kicked off with the demolition of a Wendy’s restaurant on site and implemented new road alignments to ease traffic congestion. SWA worked with NoMa community groups and the Department of Transportation on the new vi...

Terry Hershey Park

The park design includes a one-mile hike and bike trail system, a pedestrian underpass linking the park to an existing trail system, bridges over the creek, and automobile parking. Gabions were used as an environmentally friendly means of slope retention in a floodway and as a tool for creating places for people to enjoy the wooded environment. Sinuous banks a...