Best Atlanta Neighborhood 2024, 1st round: (6) Summerhill vs. (11) Virginia-Highland

Josh Green

Mon, 12/16/2024 – 16:24

As part of ongoing Best of Atlanta 2024 coverage, Urbanize’s fourth-annual Best Atlanta Neighborhood tournament is kicking off with 16 places vying for the prestige of being called the city’s greatest. (Note: Seeding from 1 to 16 was determined by reader nominations this month—so no pitchforks, please.)

For each Round 1 contest, voting will be open for just 24 hours. Please, let’s keep the tourney fun and positive, as one neighborhood rises above the rest in very public fashion. The eliminations begin now!

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(6) Summerhill

How the Ten 5 Summerhill project’s Georgia Avenue facade turned out on a previously vacant corner. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Another year, another slate of big changes in historic, evolving Summerhill. Most notably, MARTA’s first new transit line in more than two decades—a five-mile bus-rapid transit route actually named for the neighborhood, MARTA Rapid Summerhill—has made progress in fundamentally noticeable ways throughout 2024, with a goal of welcoming its first passengers next year.

Elsewhere, Georgia State University’s planned baseball and softball complex got its ducks in a row this year, where Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium once stood, as another area landmark, the former Ramada Plaza tower, was green-lighted to become affordable senior housing. Meanwhile, the densification of Georgia Avenue continued with 10 stylish townhomes on a previously vacant corner, as other townhome product broke ground on a former church lot. Business as usual in Summerhill.

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(11) Virginia-Highland

Where the Northeast Trail meets the Park Drive Bridge. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

When it comes to urban planning and growth in tony Va-Hi, 2024 could be notable as much for what hasn’t happened as what did. Yes, the neighborhood welcomed an extremely functional stretch of the Beltline this year that provides a much smoother connection to Piedmont Park (woo!). One interesting, large-scale residential project after the next popped up, and the 42-unit Roycraft condo building continued to edge toward sellout status over the Eastside Trail.

Meanwhile, for better or worse, parcels that were integral to Portman Holdings’ blockbuster, cancelled redevelopment plans along Ponce de Leon Avenue officially moved on to Plan B early this year. And speaking of Portman, the developer’s planned mini-city makeover of Amsterdam Walk was scaled back (17 percent smaller, in fact) but could still bring an injection of life to the neighborhood’s western fringes.