Host city Atlanta's Olympian plan has been first to be well prepared for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games -- the XXVIth summer Olympiad and the one-hundredth anniversary of the modern Olympics -- and second to create lastingly beautiful and useful venues for "Atlanta 2000" . . . without a financial shortfall after The Olympic Torch moves on.

It is certainly easier said than done for any steering committee not to break the bank, yet Landscape Architects under the direction of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) appear to have had no complaints about the budgets for the functionally and aesthetically spectacular projects LASN has previewed. A study by the University of Georgia, which indicates the Centennial Games are expected to generate $5.1 billion in out-of-state private sector spending for Georgia's economy, shows $2 billion of the total spending will reportedly result from ACOG's preparation for the two-week long event. Hopefully, the balance is met by the estimated two million consumers that the events of July 19 - August 4 attract to the Atlanta area.

Whether or not the Landscape Architects who have designed spectacular venues under the direction of ACOG have created venues that will suit "Atlanta 2000" and the residents of the next century remains to be seen (mostly by the sports fans of the future and by locals after television news crews and other media have packed their cameras and video tape). But, from what LASN has gathered during the production of this issue, the community and the leaders in cities surrounding greater Atlanta have certainly met their immediate goals and deserve laurels for their Olympic undertaking -- all the moreso for using small vendors (many from Atlanta) for 60 percent of their consulting and contracting services.

Hartsford International Airport

Graphic caption: For most visitors, their experience of the Centennial Olympic Games will begin in the air.

Or photo caption? For most visitors to the Centennial Olympic Games, the Olympic experience will begin upon descent to Hartsford International Airport, just minutes outside of downtown Atlanta.

The "jewel" of the Hartsfield International Airport, the newly designed and reconstructed Atrium, reconciles harsh, dramatic architectural features with a soft, family-room environment that will surely delight Olympic travelers and airport businesses for decades to come. Passengers can now meet and greet in this centrally located oasis between the north and south terminals in what is described as a "giant living room of the city" as they flood into Atlanta for the competitions. To complement the grand statement that the Atrium makes, the Department of Aviation has developed and merchandised the Atrium to reflect both the city's international status and its local flavor, featuring the native tastes and talents of the South.

Turner Associates/Architects and Planners, Inc. -- proud to be the architects who also designed Concourse E, the "front door to the world" for the Olympics -- have strived to give visitors to both locations a feeling of "warmth and Southern hospitality" with their dramatic architectural features. According to project leader Turner Associates, "The design grew from a desire to create a central terminal with a strong geometric space filled with rich qualities of light." And, as a crowning touch to the Atrium, a stunning glass dome sweeps a relaxing, natural light across the landscaping of the common seating area.

This common area, lined with planters containing tall, silk ficus trees surrounded by ivy foliage, serves as a peaceful respite for hurried travelers. Living-room-style seating for 100 people is positioned amidst the interior landscaping. According to the consulting Landscape Architect, Edgar Hillsman and Associates, soft-seat benches and small group settings of individual chairs were chosen to create a living room/lobby atmosphere that is "homey and less stressful" than other utilitarian airport lobbies.

Special custom lighting, comfortable seating and custom marble planters set the stage for what Edgar Hillsman describes as "quite a lovely place." Although the airport opted for an interior landscape of large, 18- to 20-foot-tall silk trees, augmented by smaller living plants, Hillsman understands that he was certainly "obliged to find the most cost-effective way to create the look that the clients desired." However, he adds with a chuckle, "all of the visually-close plants are living!"

By infusing progressive architectural treatments and new "concession concepts," the Atrium was the creative economic brainchild of former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and represents the latest effort by airport officials to restore Hartsfield to a more passenger-friendly airport. A total of three stories above and two basement floors are the setting for this grand four-phase development project; an underground train unifies this passenger-friendly airport by transporting visitors from terminal to terminal. Cedric Curtis, AIA, of Turner Associates, praises the giant sixty-foot-tall skylight complemented by several smaller skylights that give the Atrium "a bright, outdoorsy feeling."

As a result, the Hartsfield International Airport Atrium has become a corporate standard for commercial development in the Atlanta market, and visitors from all over the world will certainly enjoy these unique and festive urban spaces. More and more evidence reveals that Landscape Architects have led the relay race to beautify Atlanta for the Games with preparations that will continue to profit the city well after the competitions are over, putting down roots for the growing urban ideal of "Atlanta 2000."

Photo Caption: By far, the most eye-catching point of the Atrium is a two-story, customized, glass tower clock -- with a carillon that will resonate soothing, meditative chimes and songs on the quarter-hour, half-hour and hour. The clock can be programmed to play more than 1,000 songs, including various national anthems and a wide assortment of popular tunes.

Photo Caption: Landscape Architects participated in the eighty ongoing projects and over $170 million that changed the entire interior and exterior appearance of the Hartsfield International Airport.

Photo caption for aerial perspective rendering with line-art buildings: Weather-permitting, visitors on approach to Hartsfield International Airport may get an aerial preview of "The Look of the Games" in Centennial Olympic Park.

"The Look of the Games"

In-person and television viewers of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games will be treated to world-class athletic competition and the beautiful southern landscape of Atlanta, Georgia. Thematically woven in the form of a "quilt of leaves" throughout each and every venue, the official "Look of the Games" coherently symbolizes: the quilt pattern formed by Olympic teams as they gather on the field of the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremonies; the Southern tradition of quiltmaking, an American artform known throughout the world (and recently portrayed on the big screen in "How to Make an American Quilt"); Atlanta's reputation as "The City of Trees"; a laurel for a victorious athlete and an olive branch that universally symbolizes peace.

The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) has worked extremely hard to ensure that all designs and renovations follow the official "look," and has selected landscape contractors like Rentokil, Inc. Tropical Plant Services of Florida to help coordinate the Olympic-sized task of installing the tens of thousands of donated foliage and flowering plants within the quilted landscape. Also appearing on all banners, decorations, signage, programs and uniforms throughout the Games, this official "look" reflects the "harmony, radiance and grace" of the Atlanta landscape and the spirit of the Centennial Games. In an interview with LASN, Cedric Curtis, AIA, of Turner Associates Architects and Planners, Inc. explained how the "Look of the Games" project team's choice of a graphic concept was "designed to demonstrate how [you] can dress up a city and the urban landscape." And indeed, this colorful new wardrobe is transforming Atlanta's busy streets and events into a veritable palette of gold, green, blue, magenta, red and purple that soothes and welcomes one and all.

ACOG turned to Roy Ashley, FASLA, of Atlanta's Roy Ashley & Associates, Inc., to convey the official "Look of the Games" by means of Landscape Architecture at several venues and public places throughout the city. Ashley's vision for presenting the "Quilt of Leaves" incorporates native colors and plant materials that illustrate the traditional South. "Color is the one thing that always catches the eye and builds an atmosphere of excitement," he explains. "We wanted to use flowering plants, shade trees and other materials in a way that conveys a sense of Atlanta's character and makes you feel like you have arrived at an extraordinarily important place." As wildflowers are always an important element in Ashley's designs, the region's rich heritage of wildflowers will introduce spectators to a perhaps surprisingly vivid Southern experience.

Ashley successfully delivered on his challenge to "unify and enliven the views of all Olympic visitors by presenting a cohesive landscape theme." In addition to Olympic venues, a wildflower seeding program has been incorporated along the interstate highway corridor between Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport and downtown Atlanta. Traditional flowering trees like dogwood and magnolia, shade trees like oak, birch and cypress, and flowers like black-eyed Susan, coreopsis, day lilies, cosmos, poppy and Indian blanket will blanket the Olympic venues and streetscapes. Special "feature" plantings of annuals at selected key locations with high visibility, and seasonal color planters with a spirited mix of herbaceous ornamental plants all recognize the selected color scheme.

The task of the Landscape Architects began by developing a palette of visual enhancements which could be applied to the full range of Olympic venue settings. Realizing the tremendous scale and logistics of implementing the unique project, Roy Ashley's team carefully implemented a strategy to maximize the dynamic impact of functional and aesthetic landscape improvements, while meeting budgets and schedule restraints. Some landscape architectural elements will be permanent, while others will be dismantled after the competitions, but all will contribute a vibrant, unified, visual theme to the lasting legacy of the Centennial Olympic Games.

Photo Caption for World of Coca Cola: Using its successful Creative Design Management Process, project manager Turner Associates Architects and Planners, Inc. -- nationally recognized for its design of Atlanta's celebrated World of Coca-Cola -- held workshop sessions with a team of six firms (which included five leading graphic design firms from around the country -- Primo Angeli, Inc. of San Francisco, Copeland Hirthler/Murrell of Atlanta, Favermann Design of Boston, Jones Worley Design, Inc. of Atlanta, and Malcolm Grear Designers, Inc. of Providence), ACOG and various community leaders to develop an "umbrella" visual concept for the look. Photo provided courtesy of the Atlanta Conventions & Visitors Bureau.

SIDEBAR:

Atlanta Botanical Garden To Be Site of Giant Olympic Torch!!

Photo Caption: In honor of the Centennial Olympic Games, the Atlanta Botanical Garden will feature a giant Olympic torch made entirely of annual and perennial plants. The Great Lawn of the Botanical Garden (in front of the Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory) will be the site of the 100-foot floral display. Although it is designed as a "flyover," earth-bound visitors will also be able to enjoy the torch from a viewing platform. VanBloem Gardens, an Atlanta-based wholesale supplier of flower bulbs and other garden plants, will donate the 3,500 white, gold, orange, blue and silver-hued plants: Artemesia 'powis castle,' Lantana 'new gold,' L. 'silver mound,' and L. 'patriot,' and Setcreasea pallida 'purple heart' will personify this living symbol of the Olympic spirit.

Rendering provided courtesy of Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Foresting the City of Trees

As with many large-scale projects with multiple agendas, the planning started well in advance of the event for which it was conceived. Nevertheless, construction -- of more than the track and field facilities -- became a fast-track event of its own. Though TV commercials for oil and gasoline products have programmed viewers to think in terms of breaking barriers in "0 to 60 seconds," the images of foot races that grace many a Greek vase are an apt metaphor for more than the Olympic Marathon, inasmuchas construction of Olympic venues became a race against time.

Armchair adventurers and visitors to the XXVIth Olympiad alike will be amazed to hear the speeds at which the landscaped setting of the Atlanta Games was installed. The term "instant landscape" applies, although some plant material suffered from the blistering pace even before the athletes arrived. Indeed, due to rapidly fluctuating temperatures, some plant material did not survive installation. According to one source, temperature swings from 18- to 80-degrees accompanied the installation and planting establishment period, requiring replanting of some sporting venues and showcase landscapes in the city known as "The City of Trees."

Even without temperature fluctuations, Georgia's "red clay" soil can be troublesome, especially when transplanting trees in early to mid-summer. At the Georgia International Horse Park, for instance, some 750 trees required special planting techniques to ensure that adequate drainage was present so that the trees didn't drown from the water necessary for their survival. In fact, every tree pit that failed the recommended percolation test required a 6-inch-diameter, 2-foot-deep "sump hole" to be dug in the bottom of the planting pit, filled with #57 gravel, and covered with filter cloth and sand. Based on soil testing, soil amendments -- a mix consisting of one-third peat moss and two-thirds native soil and recommended fertilizer rates -- were also necessary to blend with the Georgia red clay. In addition, all trees were also raised three to four inches above finished grade and mulched heavily to further facilitate adequate drainage.

In an attempt to give the plant material a sporting chance to get established, out-of-state designers and contractors worked with local nurseries to minimize plant loss as much as possible. One national plant supplier, Bill Honan, said Shemin Nurseries' Atlanta operation was the consulting supplier for regionally acclimated plant material and suitable hydroseed mixes for projects whose design teams and installation crews came from as far away as Maryland and California. Indeed, the California-headquartered landscape division of Environmental Industries, Inc., Valley Crest Tree Company, was the general contractor for four Atlanta Olympics venues, each with its own special installation requirements like those described above -- Centennial Olympic Park (downtown Atlanta), the Archery & Bicycling Venue (Stone Mountain), the Mountain Biking Venue and the adjacent Equestrian Venue, including an 18-hole golf course (Conyers).

Centennial Olympic Park

Graphic caption: Located at the eastern gateway to the Georgia World Congress Center, the newly constructed Centennial Olympic Park introduces the official landscape quilt theme into downtown Atlanta. A gathering venue in close proximity to the major athletic venues and attractions, the 21-acre park will graciously welcome millions of spectators during the competitions and for years to come -- the foremost landscape legacy of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games.

The centerpiece of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta conveys the cultural heritage of the American South into the park, the living expression of the theme of the landscape as a quilt that ACOG implemented for its "Look of the Games." With the summer 1996 opening of Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta not only commemorates the Games of the XXVIth Olympiad, but it also gains a popular civic emblem and community focal point that local residents will cherish and visitors will remember when they think of the city. In years to come, Centennial Olympic Park will represent Atlanta, much as Central Park symbolizes New York, the Battery epitomizes Charleston, or the formal squares personify Savannah, reflecting Atlanta's natural and topographic beauty as well as its reputation as "The City of Trees."

Indeed, upon unveiling the master plan for Centennial Olympic Park in February of 1995, Governor Miller -- joined by Lieutenant Governor Pierre Howard, House Speaker Thomas B. Murphy, Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell and ACOG President and CEO Bill Payne -- declared, "For two historic weeks in 1996, Centennial Olympic Park will be the world's town center, the place where we gather to welcome our international guests. And after the Games, at no expense to the taxpayer, Georgia will inherit this magnificent park."

From ACOG CEO Billy Payne's original concept of a world-class gathering site for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games to the architect's interpretation of "A Landscape Quilt in the City of Trees," the park will be a legacy that benefits the entire state, its people and businesses in many ways during the games and beyond. As a great urban park, a catalyst for downtown Atlanta, and an enduring legacy, it will benefit the city, its people, and its businesses into the foreseeable future. Centennial Olympic Park will be more than Atlanta's new civic symbol; it will be an internationally recognized benchmark for urban parks in the 21st century. Like all great parks, its layout, its handsome trees and verdant lawn, and particularly its "landscape quilt" theme will reflect the character of its site and the heritage of the larger community.

Conceived as a promising socio-economic venture, Centennial Olympic Park will improve the face of downtown Atlanta forever and will strengthen and sustain the community's renewed interest in its own future. By introducing attractive, usable and well-maintained open space in the heart of the city, downtown Atlanta has become a better place to work, live, and visit, having thereby reinforced its role as the hub of the entire metropolitan area. By developing a long-neglected site, which has been called the "hole in the downtown doughut," Centennial Olympic Park unifies long-isolated destinations like the Coca-Cola World Headquarters and Georgia Tech campus to the north; the Georgia World Congress Center and the Georgia Dome to the west; the hotel and financial district to the east, and CNN Center, Fairlie-Poplar Historic District, Woodruff Park, Underground Atlanta, and Georgia State University to the south. Moreover, Centennial Olympic Park will offer a handscome backdrop to CNN Center, much as Rockefeller Plaza does for NBC News in Midtown Manhattan.

Notably, the park has had the support of the entire community, including government, business, and local residents, all of which have provided the funds for land acquisition and site improvements. "From that grand idea sprang a spirit of cooperation worthy of the Olympic movement," Governor Miller has said. "State government, Mayor Campbell, ACOG, the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and business and community leaders came together, rolled their sleeves up and made the dream of this park a reality" to which the ACOG CEO has added, "Today we see a glowing example of how it is possible for government and the private sector to work together for the common good." Said Payne, "We at ACOG are extremely proud to be a partner in this exciting venture." Appropriately, it will be maintained as a state park.

The rationale for hosting the Summer Olympics has an historic precedent in Atlanta that, in a way, underscores the Olympics as the occasion of another centennial celebration. One hundred years ago, then-new Piedmont Park in Atlanta was the site of the Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895. This highly successful trade fair, which received high attendance and national publicity, symbolized Atlanta's rebirth following Reconstruction and promoted the City's post-Civil War role as a business and distribution center. Like the site of that indulgent Gay Nineties event, Centennial Olympic Park will be a long-term catalyst for new residential and commercial development around its perimeter, further strengthening and enhancing downtown Atlanta. Long after the 1996 Olympic Summer Games have ended, local residents and visitors will stroll through Centennial Olympic Park, proudly remembering that Atlanta hosted the Centennial Olympic Games and knowing that the event marked its coming-of-age as a great international city.

At 21 acres, Centennial Olympic Park is the largest urban park construction project in the U.S. Not surprisingly, a field of nearly 20 firms vied in an extremely competitive process for the contract for design development and implementation. Notably, the winning consultants at EDAW, Inc. augmented their own landscape architectural and urban planning staff by assembling a team of notable landscape and park design experts, many of them from Atlanta: Turner Associates; Sizemore Floyd Architects; The SWA Group (Dallas, TX); Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates, Inc.; Project for Public Spaces (New York, NY); Sussman/Prejza; Lighting Design Alliance (Long Beach, CA); Delon Hampton & Associates; Cecil Chan & Associates; Law Engineering and Environmental Services; Street Smarts; and Transportation Consulting Group.

Head of EDAW Atlanta, project manager Barbara Faga has indicated that in planning and designing the park with a "landscape quilt" theme, the design team first established an overall park plan based on the pattern of existing city streets. Then, it turned those streets into pedestrian promenades which pass through the park, leading to specific destinations and connecting the park to adjacent city blocks. Accordingly, the park has become a cohesive and pleasing whole, tying into -- and reinforcing -- the cityscape around International Boulevard.

After adopting this basic plan, brick pathways were conceived as the "stitching" that connects the pieces of the park's landscape quilt. By linking the different elements of the park to each other -- and joining the park to the surrounding city -- these pathways give greater meaning to ACOG's Brick Program and, by extension, to the sponsors who have purchased individual bricks through the fundraising program. Bounded by the "stitching" of these pathways, each "piece" of land and "patch" of ground was designed individually, depending on location in the park and its relationship to nearby sites. For example, the designers capitalized on the variable appearances of trees with different shapes, leaves, flowers and shade patterns, seasonally reinforcing the patchwork pattern of the park. Likewise the lawns, gardens, and plazas strengthen this patchwork effect on the floor of the park, providing for different activities and various destinations, just as piecemakers fashion scraps into the blocks of a particular quilt pattern.

Amidst this verdant, ever-changing topography is the park's most dramatic, formal "quilt block": Centennial Plaza. Designed as a 100- by 100-meter civic square, this paved plaza commemorates the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games and marks the formal gateway into the park along International Boulevard, where a Court of Flags honors all 23 of the host countries of the modern Games. The symbolic Olympic Rings fountain, operated on a timed sequential display, is the source of water for the park, which spills into a reflecting pool at the north end of Centennial Plaza before weaving its way through the park. (See "Water Features," page ??.) To the south of this signature plaza, a grassy amphitheater provides a location for celebrations during the Games and special events in subsequent years.

Pieced by one hand or by many, quilts are richly interwoven with individual and historical traditions. Like the American quilt, Centennial Olympic Park will capture both the commemorative history of the Centennial Olympic Games and the growing vision of "Atlanta 2000." Its walkways and plazas will be literally paved in memories, furnished with commemorative engraved bricks that helped fund and support the U.S. Olympic teams and the park itself. As a visual identity for the Games of the XXVIth Olympiad, the gathering of athletes and visitors from all around the world in the park will represent a landscape of diverse cultures "stitched together" in warmth and harmony.

Photo caption: As the architectural component of EDAW's project team, Turner Associates designed the Welcome Center and the signature columns located throughout Centennial Park.

Caption: Governor Zell Miller envisioned the urban park as a legacy that would benefit not only Atlanta, but the entire state.

Caption: Centennial Olympic Park will be a place for Atlantans and visitors to enjoy on a daily basis or come together for special events while it acts as a catalyst for business, both downtown and on the perimeter of the city.

Caption: Charged by Governor Zell Miller with developing the park, Georgia World Congress Center Authority Executive Director Dan Graveline has repeatedly emphasized that the master plan is the ultimate long term goal for the park: "Our immediate Phase I goal is to maximize the time and resources available to prepare the park for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games" after which Georgia will retain ownership of the park, a fitting place to stage such events as the Festival of the American South -- a multi-cultural, multi-media expression of Southern life, past and future.

Caption: Bordered by Techwood Drive to the east, Marietta and Luckie streets to the west and Baker Street to the north, the 21-acre Centennial Olympic Park includes a signature plaza with a dramatic Olympic ring fountain marking the park's gateway; two symbolic 100-year-old Georgia oak trees; and pathways of commemorative brick pavers that "stitch" together the pieces of the park's "landscape quilt."

Caption: Georgia World Congress authorities believe Centennial Olympic Park may become Atlanta's most meaningful open space as a catalyst for urban revitalization and as a venue for recreation.

Aerial photograph(s) provided courtesy of EDAW, Inc.

Water color renderings by Barbara Worth Ratner, Ratner Illustrations, provided courtesy of EDAW, Inc.

Paths to Gold

As in every Summer Olympics, television and actual travelers will be treated to a ground-level tour of the host city as the Olympic Marathon wends 26.6 miles through the streets and by-ways of the host city to its finish in the Olympic Stadium. At the Atlanta Games, the Marathon will end in Atlanta Fulton County Stadium -- not far from Athens, sister city to an ancient Greek metropolis where a legendy messenger (having run 26.6 miles non-stop to tell residents about the Athenian victory over the Persians in 490 B.C.) perished of coronary collapse. But the streetside experience of visitors to the Atlanta Games and of the participants in the Marathon promises to be far from pedestrian. In part due to restricted vehicle traffic during the Games, the visitors' experience of Atlanta's streetscapes will be of a bright new city whose ring road demarks ordinary life from Olympian life inside the circle.

As have previous hosts of the Olympics, the host city has resolved traffic circulation conflicts by encouraging downtown businesses to close for the duration of the Games . . . when business as usual temporarily becomes a competing use. Indeed, in order to accommodate mass transportation of visitors to and from the Olympic venues, for the two weeks of the event traffic within Atlanta's perimeter road will be restricted. According to one Atlanta business owner who won't be able conduct any business under those circumstances, the Olympic hiatus represents the first time in decades he has been able to take two weeks off. More than one contributor told LASN that the companies they work for will be closing for at least half of the two-week event and are encouraging employees to take vacation time to attend the Games. Not that Atlantans have had any greater chance of obtaining tickets than other applicants -- the lottery to obtain tickets was absolutely equal. Atlantans without tickets may be going elsewhere, perhaps to watch the Games on TV with their families out of town while tourists populate the city.

Nevertheless, the City of Atlanta's downtown streets and parks are benefiting from the flood of tourists and officials this summer. Distinctive exterior site lighting luminaires and decorative poles will illuminate the entire city during the Centennial Games. The decorative poles consist of tapered and fluted steel shafts with a two-piece clamshell styled cast iron decorative base cover. Designed by a collaboration between Nimrod Long & Associates, Jack Patric & Associates, and Ramon A. Noya, PE and supplied by TrimbleHouse, the traditional "acorn" and "tear-drop" styled luminaires will grace the pathways of: Centennial Park, Woodruff Park, historic Auburn Avenue, Capitol Avenue -- the main throroughfare leading to Olympic Stadium -- as well as the Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Venue in Gainesville and the Georgia International Horse Park, site of the equine and mountain biking competitions, in Conyers.

At the hub of Olympic activity, International Boulevard stretches through the new Centennial Olympic Park. North Park, permanently landscaped by Valley Crest Tree Co., includes the amphitheater and Olympic Ring Fountain; while South Park, temporarily landscaped by Ruppert Landscape Co., embodies the "Olympic Festival," a bustling jamboree of temporary pavilions (including AT&T's Global Village, Bud World, and attractions from General Motors and Swatch -- the "official time" of the Games). Outdoor displays, concessions, merchandising and the Great Lawn characterize the "Festival," most of which will be dismantled after the Games and carried off to the Australian Olympics in 2000. Planting materials (Lagerstroemia indica, Magnolia grandiflora 'greenback,' Ilex crenta 'compacta,' geranium, and lobelia) will convey the official "Look of the Games" here at the festival as well.

Photos courtesy of TrimbleHouse.

Alternate caption/decide: From Hartsfield International Airport, visitors disperse to the perimeter road that encompasses Atlanta and from there to the avenues to the sporting venues, many of which, like local attractions, have been re-done for the occasion. As might be guessed, "paths to gold" like International Boulevard weren't made-over by the stereotypical chain gangs glorified by such movies as "Cool Hand Luke."

Caption: This frieze of a foot race on an amphora, cast and colored in commenoration of the Panathenaic Games (circa 480-470 B.C.), might well glorify the marathon performances -- of both the track and field contests and the fast-tracked construction of Olympic venues. Photo provided courtesy of ACOG.

Ramon Noya, Ramon Lumenance Design designed lighting on Int. Blvd...

For the Pub's Page or a Caption within the streetscapes segment "Paths to Gold": Nationwide enthusiasm for this summer's Games has been building for months, ever since the Olympic Torch left Southern California. An overwhelming mood of excellence and pride continues to blaze its way across the country towards the newly renovated Internatinal Blvd.