Upon opening in 2017, the new Atlanta stadium, which will be home to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and a yet-to-be named MLS team, will feature an edible garden.
“We are still developing the concept,” Scott Jenkins, general manager of the new stadium, told Atlanta Magazine. “We are getting close to finalizing the design, but it will have an area of raised beds and then edible plants in a few other locations around the site. The raised beds will be at the southwest corner of the stadium, and other edibles will be planted alongside Northside Drive.”
According to Jenkins and Lauren Standish, an associate and project manager for HGOR, an Atlanta planning and design firm providing landscape architecture design services for the project, blueberries, two varieties of figs and two apple varieties will be among the food crops.
“The area will be enclosed with a 10ft-high ornamental fence similar to the style located around the stadium,” said Stanish, before adding that the gardens will be irrigated by storm water collected from a storm detention vault.
The idea for the garden, according to Jenkins, originated from a dual strategy to achieve the highest level of LEED certification from the US Green Buildings Council, and as a way to possibly benefit the Westside communities where the stadium is located.
Final decisions have not been made on how the gardens will be managed or what will happen to the produce. However, Jenkins said the Westside “would be our target, whether it’s working with a local school on gardening and healthy food or providing food to a local food program.”
June 19, 2015
