Ponce Park To Become Cultural Focal Point

Emory Morsberger, inspired by the creativity of Renaissance Florence, envisions a world-class intellectual center in the heart of Midtown. "My goal is to create an academic, scientific and cultural focal point in the midst of the great institutions in Atlanta," he said.

Morsberger’s Ponce Park project at the City Hall East Building on Ponce de Leon Avenue will include the Medici Center, a place for innovation in science, health, politics, culture and the arts. The center will be a community where artists, scholars, scientists and visionaries can gather to share ideas and dreams.

Along with Adams and Co. Real Estate Inc., the Morsberger Group acquired the circa-1926 Sears Building on Ponce in 2006 and is scheduled to take occupancy of the 2-million-square-foot structure in early 2009. Already, though, some events, like a recent conference on sustainability, are taking place in space there. The companies will redevelop the building into a mixed-use community of residences, businesses and the Medici Center scheduled to open in 2011.

The Medici Center is to include four academies, which are to work with the city’s universities and medical institutions:

The Academy of Science and Health will have three areas of study – healthy living, care for seniors and those with disabilities, and infectious disease prevention. It will include residences for disabled people and for senior citizens, allowing them to age in place at the center. It will also provide temporary quarters for scholars and researchers visiting the nearby academic and medical centers.

The Academy of Sustainability and Environment will study global warming and other eco-issues and is to use Ponce Place as "living laboratory" of sustainable living with residential, retail and commercial tenants working with the Medici design center to reduce their environmental footprints. The nearby availability of businesses and services to residents will allow them to reduce auto use.

The Academy of Globalism and Cultural Understanding will seek solutions to international conflicts and to improve American competitiveness in the global economy.

The Academy of Arts and Humanities will have resident artists and performers and provide a workshop for creativity and places for performances and exhibitions.

"Atlanta is not really known for very much," Morseberger said. "It has the second largest collegiate student population in the country after Boston. Nobody realizes that. There is a tremendous amount of cultural, academic and scientific wealth here. My goal is to basically create a focal point where it comes together."

Most of the retail and office tenants of Ponce Park will be connected to the center. The center’s location is roughly the geographic center of an arc formed by Emory University, the Carter Center, the MLK Jr.Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Crawford Long Hospital and the Atlanta University Center.

Located on Atlanta’s proposed BeltLine, Ponce Park will have 1,600 residential units and will include a courtyard and park. Located across Ponce from the old Ponce de Leon ballpark, now a comprehensive shopping mall, the project is envisioned as the centerpiece of four historic Atlanta neighborhoods: Virginia-Highland, Poncey- Highland, Inman Park and the Old Fourth Ward.