Atlanta: The City of the Future

Early civilizations were the first to design and engineer societies and architectural marvels that withstood time and inspired their predecessors. The History Channel challenged today’s top architects and engineers to do the same in ‘City of the Future: A Design and Engineering Challenge’.

After winning the regional competition, BNIM, participating with team EDAW/Praxis/BNIM/Metcalf & Eddy, was named the winner of the national competition for the City of the Future: A Design + Engineering Challenge. This national contest challenged teams to create models of what some of the nation’s prominent urban centers could look like in 100 years. The competition focused on Atlanta, San Francisco and Washington, DC. Eight design firms in each city competed regionally for first prize.

Like many other U.S. cities, Atlanta faces particularly daunting environmental challenges, including a chronic shortage of potable water. The city maintains more than 1,900 miles of pipes to collect, combine with wastewater, treat and move stormwater downstream. Climate change, growth and sprawling impervious surfaces continue to degrade the outmoded, costly system. The vision by EDAW/Praxis/BNIM/Metcalf & Eddy turns Atlanta in 2108 into a region repopulated with forests, which serve as the city’s lungs, filtering stormwater and purifying the air. Water is Atlanta’s most precious resource, and future water management and the integration of natural systems became the driving force in the team’s design. The team envisioned the use of wetlands and sewer tunnels to capture, cleanse and store water, making the city drought-resistant.