We went on our first walking tour today in HON1000. During our HIST2110 class, we made a map out of the stops we made along the way. Our tour initially was intended for us to see the Civic Center and the neighborhood known as Buttermilk Bottoms. The Civic Center was built in the 1960s and tore down many residential neighborhoods in the process of its construction as an effort to eliminate the predominately black neighborhood that was present along Auburn Avenue. Along the way to the Civic Center, we stopped first at the Citizens Trust building, where Joe pointed out how this building was also constructed in the 1960s. At this time, the government was trying to transform this area into a less pedestrian-friendly area and more of a corporate business section. The next stop was a very tiny park we found– I forget the name– that we dubbed the “Sad Little Park”. From there we stopped next at the Georgia Power building and noted the grassy area surrounding the building, which Joe said was an effort to make the city feel more suburban. When we finally made it to the Civic Center, we couldn’t really see much of it since it was fenced off, but we got the general 1960s architecture feel from the outside. We also stopped off at this small building next to it, which used to be a center for science and technology. As we talked about the altering cityscape of Atlanta, Joe taught us about John Portman, who is responsible for the design of the majority of the city, including the Marriott in downtown. Joe especially likes what he refers to as the “hamster tunnels”, the glass bridges connecting these large buildings, so we headed over to the Marriott to check them out. We walked around the lobby and just gawked at the amazing architectural design of various floors and their flowing design. My personal favorite part of the hotel were the giant sculptures out front that were stylized, abstract representations of those gargoyle-like lions that guard most older buildings. Being a sculpture geek, that was definitely my favorite part of the tour, even though it was pretty irrelevant to the whole purpose of it.