For the past two years, we’ve brought you Art on the Atlanta BeltLine and residents have enthusiastically embraced the temporary public art exhibit. Even though we’re currently in between exhibitions, the art continues on the open walking trails of the Atlanta BeltLine. In 2011, Professor Tristan Al-Haddad of the Georgia Tech School of Architecture approached us with an enticing proposal for community gathering spaces (we do love to promote a sense of community!). The structures set the bar of constructing intriguing “architectural interventions” that invited the surrounding neighbors and beyond to come out and explore the Atlanta BeltLine trail.

The Georgia Tech sculpture at Dekalb Avenue and Airline Street on the Atlanta BeltLine's eastside. Credit: Christopher T. Martin

This special design build project extends beyond just one professor. Al-Haddad incorporated the relationship between surface and structure into one of his studio courses, resulting in a collaboration between a host of senior architecture students.

One of the goals of these structures is to span distances up up to 30 feet in length. Credit: Christpoher T. Martin

Students were encouraged to combine their individual research with that of their team in the pursuit of the digital and physical “design and construction of a collection of full-scale pavilions.” Al-Haddad placed special emphasis on feasible, appropriate, and safe designs on works that spanned a long scale (the works average 30 feet long by 20 feet wide by 15 feet tall).

Georgia Tech sculpture on the Atlanta BeltLine's westside next to Gordon White Park. Credit: Christopher T. Martin

In the spirit of sustainability, the Georgia Tech architecture students sourced all of their lumber locally through donations from the Southern Lumber Manufacturers Association and an assortment of Georgia wood providers. Field trips throughout the semester afforded students the chance to get out of the classroom for first-hand views of managed forests, engineered wood product plants, and solid timber milling operations.

You can see this piece where the corridor crosses through an old railroad tunnel under Ralph David Abernathy. Credit: Christopher T. Martin

Students also utilized the latest in production technology in their Digital Fabrication Laboratory using both CNC and traditional fabrication equipment.

This Georgia Tech sculpture is on the Atlanta BeltLine's northeast section behind Ansley Mall. Credit: Christopher T. Martin

You can see these architectural works in three different sections of the Atlanta BeltLine walking trail – where the corridor crosses under Ralph David Abernathy between Langhorn and Cascade Roads; where the trail deadends into DeKalb Avenue at Airline Street; and behind Ansley Mall off of Monroe Drive.

We give these students an A+.

Both high tech and traditional fabrication methods were used in the creation of this works of art.