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ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION
5/28/03
Aquarium floats downtown hopes
Planners think outside of the fish tank
By TOM SABULIS
It's being portrayed as the fish tank that will save downtown, but plans for the new Georgia Aquarium are floating and changing right up to its big unveiling Thursday.
The only available hint of what the $200 million landmark might finally look like is filed away on the third floor of City Hall in downtown Atlanta. Preliminary designs show a dramatic structure resembling a cruise ship rising to a height of 60 feet, with a canopy reaching toward Centennial Olympic Park.
But that may change by tomorrow, when Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus unveils the closely guarded design for his dream project -- anchored on nine acres of land donated by the Coca-Cola Co. Marcus' nonprofit foundation is paying for the project, which will be privately owned.
The announcement signals the end of 2 1/2 years of backstage dealing by Atlanta's power elite.
From the time Marcus approached then-Gov. Roy Barnes in late 2000 about a location, the project has been marked by major announcements -- enter Atlantic Station, exit Atlantic Station, for example -- and intense secrecy has shrouded all but the broadest details of the project.
Construction began a few weeks ago, and cement mixers and bulldozers continued working at the site Tuesday.
A lineup of heavy hitters, including Gov. Sonny Perdue and Mayor Shirley Franklin, is expected to join Marcus for groundbreaking on the project, which city boosters hope will finally silence the complaint that has dogged Atlanta for decades: There's nothing for visitors to do downtown.
If all goes according to plan, a world-class aquarium, projected to attract 1.2 million to 1.5 million visitors a year, will be the flagship attraction of a megamillion-dollar tourist boulevard that will include a new World of Coca-Cola and Imagine It -- the Children's Museum of Atlanta, which opened earlier this year.
Experts in marine research and exhibition around the nation are watching the Georgia Aquarium with interest.
"There's a lot of excitement about this," said Debra Fassnacht, executive vice president of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, which has drawn 1.6 million to 2 million visitors annually over the last 10 years.
"I know Bernie Marcus is being very ambitious with this, so people want to know what the design will be like," she said. "What kind of animals will they have? Here's a chance to advance the state of the art."
Chris Andrews, executive director of the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston, said the aquarium community hoped the Atlanta facility would break new ground.
"Nationally, and perhaps internationally, aquariums are looking to the Georgia Aquarium to do something spectacular and different and new," Andrews said.
Whatever that is, the aquarium wouldn't have been such a boost for downtown had it been built at Atlantic Station. Developer Jim Jacoby is revitalizing the Midtown area into a $2 billion mini-city.
A 138-acre mixed-use development, Atlantic Station was the home Marcus picked for the aquarium, at Barnes' urging. At least that was the plan in November 2001.
By the following June, Marcus was frustrated by complex legal and financial issues and began seeking alternative sites.
The 20-acre Coca-Cola property, which the beverage giant acquired for its Olympic City entertainment attraction in the 1996 Summer Games, quickly came into play.
In July 2002, Marcus went to visit Coca-Cola CEO Douglas Daft in his New York office.
"I was there to do a huge selling job," Marcus said at the time. "But after five minutes, we were on the same page. When I presented it to Doug, he saw immediately what a great opportunity it would be for Coca-Cola and the city."
For Coke, it meant the company finally could move forward on the relocation of the World of Coca-Cola from its location near Underground Atlanta to the north side of Centennial Olympic Park. Coke had wanted to move the soda-squirting attraction for some time but felt that it couldn't stand alone on such a large chunk of property.
Now the aquarium and the proposed new World of Coca-Cola are expected to share a plaza and parking. The Coke attraction will sit between the aquarium, on the western edge of the property, and the children's museum, at Baker Street and Centennial Olympic Park Drive.
What the aquarium ultimately will look like remained something of a mystery Tuesday.
Jeff Swanagan, the aquarium's executive director, would say only it would be a departure from the norm. "Bernie's vision is that we do something different than most other aquariums," said Swanagan, who has been traveling the country to build his staff.
"It was important to [architect] TVS to get the job," he said, adding this was the Atlanta firm's first aquarium. "They don't think inside a box. They listen. For every idea they come back with three scenarios."
© 2003 Atlanta-Journal Constitution
