DRC Votes to Oppose Demolition

Maria Saporta's AJC article lists the highlights from last night's DRC meeting.

Like every other neighborhood meeting at which Tech has presented its case, board and audience members expressed strong opposition to the proposed Crum & Forster demolition. Georgia Tech students, faculty, and alumni spoke eloquently and passionately, urging the Georgia Tech Foundation to save the historical building.

Notably, the director of Georgia Tech's architecture program, Ellen Dunham Jones, offered the resources of her school to help the GTF find other alternatives. Aaron Fowler, the Graduate President of Tech's student government, also urged the GTF to consider adaptive reuse, a core component of Tech's City Planning curriculum. I hope the irony of this isn't lost on anyone: the GTF's mission is to "assist the Georgia Institute of Technology in its role as a leading educational and research institution". When two leaders of that institute must use a public forum to urge the GTF to stop "assisting", something is very wrong! By not being open about their requirements for the space, the GTF is embarrassing itself, alienating the Midtown community and diminishing the academic reputation of the institute its mission it is to protect.

So the DRC will recommend to Atlanta's Planning Board not to issue the demolition permit. Will that recommendation be enough to save the Crum & Forster?