ATLANTA—As Georgia State University undertakes a massive downtown Atlanta Campus transformation project, it’s also planning to expand community engagement opportunities with the construction of a new plaza adjacent to its Greek Housing complex.
Situated along Edgewood Avenue, the Greek Housing complex has space for only about 130 residents, though each year the university’s student population includes as many as 700 to 1,000 Panthers involved in the 31 Greek organizations active at Georgia State.
Called the Fraternity and Sorority Life Plaza (FSL Plaza, see renderings below), the new greenspace will provide students a larger, dedicated area for recreation and community-building while paying homage to Georgia State’s Greek life history as well as the history of the location.
The project will be completed alongside Georgia State’s $107 million Building Pathways for Success Initiative projects, which aims to create a central campus hub linking the Georgia State Greenway to Hurt Park, along with activating space in the 100 Edgewood Ave. building on the north side of Hurt Park and enhancing nearby Woodruff Park into a central gathering space and landmark for students and visitors.
“Not every fraternity or sorority can have a townhouse in the Greek Housing complex, yet we still want everyone to feel a part of that community,” said Michael L. Sanseviro (Ph.D. ’06), vice president for Student Engagement at Georgia State. “And that’s part of the beauty of the FSL Plaza. It not only expands the Greek Housing community but creates an open space where the other members of the Greek community can connect with that community and be a part of that fraternity and sorority life experience.”
Georgia State’s Greek life community includes eight of the Divine Nine historically Black Greek-letter organizations under the National Pan-Hellenic Council, which was founded in 1930. Of the four Greek life governing bodies, NPHC represents the second largest group of fraternities and sororities at Georgia State, behind the Multicultural Greek Council.
Situated west of the housing complex, which is located in the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Preservation District, the FSL Plaza would replace the building located at 148 Edgewood, as well as a number of parking spaces adjacent to the building. The plaza would feature a grassy lawn and a meandering paved walkway surrounded by four masonry bench seating areas dedicated to each of the councils that govern university Greek life organizations.
Fenced along three sides and open to Edgewood Avenue, the plaza will be a destination within Georgia State’s Piedmont Housing Quad along the GSU Blue Line, a 3.7-mile walking path throughout Georgia State’s Atlanta Campus that connects vital gathering, housing, classroom and research spaces. The entrance will connect via a GSU Blue Line-branded crosswalk to the University Lofts building on the south side of the Edgewood, effectively joining a cluster of three separate student housing facilities that includes Patton Hall on the corner of Edgewood and Piedmont.
The western façade of the Greek Housing building along Edgewood would also pay homage to the building at 148 Edgewood being removed. Constructed in 1926 as an electric substation, the structure has been vacant for more than two decades and would require millions in renovations and modernizations to be suitable for use.
Georgia State plans to commemorate the façade of the structure with a mural on the newly exposed side of the Greek Housing building that depicts 148 Edgewood’s distinct architectural features. The mural would also pay homage to GSU’s Greek life, with the shields of each organization chartered at Georgia State arranged, in chronological order, around the image of the building façade.
“We want the members of Georgia State’s fraternity and sorority communities to feel ownership of the park,” Sanseviro said. “And this is going to be a nice addition to the campus. When you’re in an urban setting, the more greenspaces you have, it just makes it more livable.”
