Photo by Barry Williams via Getty Images

Ledbetter, Carly. “Why Atlanta Is The Big American City You’ve Been Missing Out On.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 5 Apr. 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

In her article, “Why Atlanta Is The Big American City You’ve Been Missing Out On“, Carly Ledbetter, from Huffington Post, argues that Atlanta is “one of the most amazing cities in America”. She starts off by addressing some misconceptions that people may have when they think of this city and then she quickly dismisses them. Then rest of the article is her list of twenty things about Atlanta that make it an “amazing city”. These include things like the tourist attractions, popular restaurants, art, music, the sports team, and historical landmarks. She also provides a graphic of some sort for each reason on the list, whether it is a picture or a GIF. The intended audience for this article could be someone that has never been to Atlanta, tourists, and potential residents of Atlanta. Based on most of the reasons she provided, the intended audience could also be for people in the 15-25 age group. Her purpose is to inform, but also persuade someone that has never been Atlanta to come. This would be a helpful resource for someone that is doing research on how the city of Atlanta is portrayed and advertised in a digital built environment and what biases there are towards the city.

Panoramic from carrollmorgan.com

Severson, Kim. “Stars Flock to Atlanta, Reshaping a Center of Black Culture.” Nytimes.com. The New York Times Company, 25 Nov. 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

In her article “Stars Flock to Atlanta, Reshaping a Center of Black Culture”, Kim Severson, from The New York Times, claims that Atlanta “is emerging as an epicenter of the black glitterati”. To support her claim she begins with talking about the Soul Train Awards being hosted in the Fox Theater and how “a few years ago, the city probably would not have been able to pull off such a show”. She provides statements from Stephen Hill, an executive vice President for BET where he gives his opinion of Atlanta. He says that ” it’s so ripe with African American flavor and talent”. He also says “Atlanta is home to our core audience” and “Atlanta is our New York, our LA”.

Then Severson gives examples of successful black people in the industry who have homes or business in Atlanta such ass, Tyler Perry, Sean Combs, Ce L Green, Ludacris, and Gladys Knight.

She explains the Entertainment Industry Investment Act passed in 2008, “which gives qualified productions a 20 percent tax break” and “producers who embed the Georgia promotional logo in the titles or credits can take another 10 percent off the tax bill”.

Next, she discusses the “decade of migration of black [stars] from the North”. Some of the reasons behind this is cheaper living and lower production costs. Severson provides a statement from Warrington Hudlin, president of the Black Filmmaker Foundation in New York, where he claims that” Atlanta is becoming the black Hollywood” and that “because many black filmmakers are working on tighter budgets than white filmmakers, they need to save money and Georgia helps them do that”. Another benefit of them living in Atlanta is less paparazzi.

The intended audience for this article is people in the film industry. The purpose of her article is to convince them to consider Atlanta as a place to conduct their businesses and do movies in this city .It is also to inform them of some of the pros of living in Atlanta as a person in the film, television and entertainment industry.

This would be a helpful source for someone doing research on how the built environment of Atlanta influences certain races to live there based on the types of careers that they have and how much they are willing to spend to live here.

From http://endcrawl.com (Click to learn more about the tax incentive)

Moore, Christine. ““Atlanta Is the New Hollywood”: Influx of Film and TV Production Boosts Economy, Attracts Actors.” ArtsATL.com. N.p., 04 June 2013. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

In her article, “Atlanta is the new Hollywood : Influx of film and TV production boosts economy, attracts actors”, Christine Moore, claims that Atlanta’s film industry is growing and becoming the new Hollywood.

She starts by giving a little bit of background about the careers of, Scott Poythress and Claire Bronson, two actors that are from the Atlanta area. She states that back in 2007, they moved from Decatur to Los Angles “in pursuit of more auditions, better roles, and bigger opportunities”. Two years later they moved back to the “metro Atlanta” area, and Moore tells why. She discusses how Atlanta became more inviting to people in the film and media production industry, due to the “well-publicized tax credits that Georgia started offering in 2008”. Then she explains how the tax credit works. When “movie, television, and digital entertainment companies” work and hire within the state of Georgia, they “can receive up to 30 percent in tax breaks “. She continues her article by discussing some of the “new local studios slated for construction” and “new major production facilities” in Atlanta. They include, “a 400,000-square-foot complex in Gwinnett County with 12 sound stages, to be built by Jacoby Development, and a 288-acre development in Fayette County by Pinewood Shepperton, the British studio that’s home to the James Bond franchise”.

Then she goes into talking about how the economy has benefited from the new facilities. According to the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office, “Georgia-based productions generated $3.1 billion for the state economy in fiscal 2012, up 29 percent from the year before”. She also talks about how Atlanta-based actors are benefited, because they do not have to leave town for work.

The intended audience for this article could be actors, film production companies, aspiring actors, film students, and anyone else in the film industry. This article will be helpful to someone doing research on the how the built environment of Atlanta affects the entertainment industry or how it benefits the economy. It could be useful to a film student in Atlanta with concerns about finding work after college or an aspiring actor in Atlanta who is trying to decide if they should relocate or stay in Atlanta.

This display is not visible when you first walk into the lobby. It is located near the restrooms. When you first walk in, you have to go towards the back where the sign for the restrooms are and turn left. This is Johnny Mercer and Friends. The small words beside the picture of man with the microphone give more information about the history behind the people in the display.

These are drawing from the “Many Faces of the Messiah Jones” collection by Michael Roman. They are located up the stairs on the second floor, to the left. They are near the doors that lead to the theater.

This display is located in the back of the lobby. When you first walk into the lobby, you have to walk past the stairs and turn left to find it. It shows historical moments of the Rialto. There are also recent photos on the wall from only a few years ago.

This wall is located in the front of the lobby. When you first walk into the lobby, it is on the right. This is the Rialto Patrons. They are the ones that donated to the Rialto center. Some of the panels on the wall have only one name and some have more than one. The names by themselves are bigger patrons, like the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation.

This is the music that was playing in the Lobby of the Rialto Center. It sounds like Jazz music. It was easy to hear because there was not many people in the lobby when I recorded it. There were only three people there and they were not really talkning so the recording does not have much background noise, just the music.

The Rialto Center for the Arts, located at 80 Forsyth St NW in Atlanta, and operated by Georgia State University, was first opened in 1916 and was originally a movie theater. In 1962, the building was torn down and rebuilt, staying open until 1989, when it was closed due to the economy. In 1994, the Rialto went under construction as was reopened in 1996 and is now run by Georgia State University.

When I first walked into the lobby, the first thing that I noticed was the carpet (see below). It looked burgundy or red with curved lines that looked gold or yellow.

Based on the carpet, I assumed the rest of the lobby would be pretty elegant and nice looking.

I walked further into the lobby, towards the wall straight ahead of me sat in one of the chairs, observing the lobby. The main thing that heard was music playing. It sounded like jazz and it seemed like it was not near where I was. By looking around, I found out it was coming from a speaker on the other side of the lobby.

There was a lot of open space in the lobby on both sides. Most of the lighting was natural light from the windows. I did not see many people, maybe two. I figured it was not very busy around the time that I was there, which was 12 pm. I assumed the open space would be convenient for large crowds on the nights that there are shows.

The left side of the lobby. This picture was taken from in front of the history display area.

When I looked at the wall behind me I saw a collection of artwork called “The Many Faces of Messiah Jones” by Michael Roman. It was drawings in black and white. I assumed the black and white colors scheme was a theme throughout the collection. As I walked around the lobby, I noticed more drawings from the collections. There were even a few of them upstairs near the doors of the theater. These are some of the ones I saw on the first floor of the lobby:

Here are the drawings from the second floor:

Another thing that I saw on the first floor of the lobby was an area that looked like a history display for the Rialto. It was not visible when I first walked into the lobby. It was in the back of the lobby, hidden by the stairs leading up to the second floor. In this area, there were posters, pictures , and some artifacts. There were also a few chairs and a small table. I assumed it was for soemone to sit and look around at the walls of the area. One word that I kept seeing when I was looking at the display, was “Landmark”. It made me think that the atmosphere of the Rialto was supposed to kind of historical. The fact that I kept seeing this word made me feel like it was important. I also noticed that all of the people in the posters and pictures looked different. They seemed to be from different backgrounds and cultures. It very diverse, with not only race, but also gender. I thought that the display was interesting but it seemed like it was hidden because it was not visible to me when I first walked in.

Near the front of the lobby on the right side, there was a curved wall, made out of wood, with glass panels on it. On the panels are the names of the Rialto Patrons. There were several names on the wall panels. Some of the names that were on a panel alone and some were shared with other names. I assumed that the names with their own panels donated the most to the Rialto. The wall was near the front of the lobby and visible as soon as I walked in. I assumed that the wall was important to the owners of the Rialto center and that they wanted to show appreciation to the patrons.

Rialto Patrons wall