Transformation Tuesday
March 10 — This week brings news of transformations and celebrations. The Georgia Senate recently recognized Meals on Wheels Atlanta for 60 years of service, and Atlanta Botanical Garden is celebrating its 50th anniversary with SUPER Blooms! – a display of more than 200,000 spring flowers that will blanket the Great Lawn in March and April. More details are below.
🌳 And, after 30 years of service in municipalities across Metro Atlanta, Tucker Parks and Recreation Director Rip Robertson will retire later this month. Learn more about Robertson’s legacy – and plans for Tucker’s parks – in Katie Burkholder’s report.
Plus, the Atlanta Housing Authority has announced the first phase of redevelopment for the Atlanta Civic Center, which made its initial debut in 1968. While the location has remained shuttered since 2014, plans for redevelopment include 148 affordable senior apartments. Scroll down for additional specifics on the building’s history and transformation.
And now for a few headlines:
🗳️ Voters in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District have until 7 p.m. tonight to choose a successor to former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
📉 Georgia companies laid off more than 1,700 workers in the first two months of 2026, according to a February jobs report.
🚗 Lane and shoulder closures have begun for the Georgia 400 toll lane project, the $4.6 billion investment that will add two express lanes in either direction on Georgia 400.
🐠 Central Atlanta Progress and Atlanta Downtown Improvement District will honor Billy Payne and others at their annual meeting and awards celebration tomorrow at the Georgia Aquarium.
🐈 The lives of 20 “community cats” hang in the balance after management at a DeKalb apartment banned volunteer feeders from entering the complex.
🐰 Primp your pet for photos with the Easter Bunny photos and costume contest on March 28 to benefit Meals on Wheels. Book your time slot here.
🕓 Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter.
• ABG @ 50
• Senior housing at ACC
AND
• Rip Robertson to retire
Photo courtesy of Atlanta Botanical Garden
Atlanta Botanical Garden will celebrate 50 years with SUPER Blooms!
🎂 In celebration of this year’s 50th anniversary, the Atlanta Botanical Garden will treat visitors to a display of floral fireworks this spring with tens of thousands of colorful and fragrant bulbs.
ABG has doubled the number of spring bulbs it normally plants for its annual Atlanta Blooms!, and throughout March and April, the grounds will explode with more than 200,000 tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and crocuses.
Dubbed Atlanta SUPER Blooms! for the anniversary, the display will feature huge swaths of nearly 140,000 bulbs blanketing the Great Lawn, the grassy oval in front of the Fuqua Conservatory.
🌷 Learn more about the 50th anniversary here.
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Photo by Melody Harclerode
Spotlight returns to Atlanta Civic Center
PERSPECTIVES IN ARCHITECTURE | BY MELODY HARCLERODE
🏛️ Robert & Company architect Harold Montague designed the Atlanta Civic Center in the New Formalism style that flourished in the U.S. from the 1960s through the early 1970s for projects like the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.
The Atlanta Civic Center is distinguished by its buff brick exterior walls with intricate patterns, classical-inspired arches and colonnades, textured concrete accents to mimic stone, and fountains at the main plaza.
While the property has been shuttered for years, the Atlanta Housing Authority announced the first phase of redevelopment with the construction of 148 affordable senior apartments on the Civic Center property.
⛲ Find out more about the history of the Civic Center in Melody’s latest column.
Photo courtesy of tuckerga.gov
Tucker Parks and Recreation director Rip Robertson to retire
🏞️ After 30 years of service in municipalities across Metro Atlanta, Tucker Parks and Recreation Director Rip Robertson will be retiring later this month.
During his nine years in Tucker, Robertson says he accomplished “quite a bit” about which he is proud. He and other members of the department built out recreation programming for seniors, renovated the Tucker Recreation Center, built a youth basketball program, replaced outdated playgrounds at all the city’s parks, added a new sports complex to Fitzgerald Park and a second municipal pool, and improved the city’s hugely popular youth summer camp.
Robertson’s successor has yet to be named. He says they are in the process of interviewing candidates, and the new director is expected to be announced before his final day.
“I’m excited for that individual,” he said. “That person is coming into a great community with a lot of support. The elected officials and the leadership in the city have been fantastic.”
🛝 Read more about Robertson’s legacy here.
🖋️ Today’s Silver Streak was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
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