copper tops

The townhomes, seen reflected in a window, circa early 2007. The townhomes now.

Last week Forbes listed Atlanta as the third most-empty city in America, behind Vegas and Detroit. The article cited foreclosure and overbuilding as reasons for the city's inclusion. I went out and tried to photograph all the signs, the ads calling for renters and buyers. Their weren't many.

Gevito's closed and Dugan's is under renovation, but Ponce is still the same. Little growth, little progression. Plexus on Ponce, also known as the Copper Top Apartments, is one of the few blatant examples of the housing crisis. I photographed them when they were going up two years ago. They still sit empty, although two have been sold and the available ones have been reduced to somewhere around half a million.

The mass vacant structures: Element at Atlantic Station, Glenn Auburn on Boulevard, the hordes of townhouses along Dekalb Ave. and condos on Peachtree. Element is auctioning off some of its spaces for roughly half of what they originally asked. Their are about 6,000 unsold condos intown.

The smaller buildings around Ponce seem to be surviving, albeit many have dropped rent. I have no clue who would pay $500,000 to live across from an abandoned building with views of Dekalb County in the background, but I hope some developer is paying attention.