Atlanta BeltLine visionary Ryan Gravel is bringing his class of Georgia Tech students to Northeast Plaza in Brookhaven next week for “The Ideas Fair,” a public event to learn more about the students’ ideas on how to preserve and promote Buford Highway’s cultural diversity.

Ryan Gravel in his office at Ponce City Market. (Dyana Bagby)

The event will be Tuesday, Nov. 28, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 3363 Buford Hwy. NE, Suites 970-980 in Northeast Plaza. The event is a one night, open house that activates an empty storefront on Buford Highway.

“We all have a role to play in shaping the world we want to live in,” Gravel said in a prepared statement. “Young designers are often trained to tackle complex urban problems as hired technicians, not as storytellers or advocates. This class applies lessons learned from the BeltLine to teach students how to develop bold, creative ideas and get them out of the classroom and into the world.”

Gravel’s Generator Workshop class is the pilot program for his Generator Studio, a new nonprofit urban design think tank.

The Generator Studio collaborated with nonprofit We Love BuHi for the project. We Love BuHi was founded by Brookhaven resident Marian Liou and actively works to highlight the people who live and work on Buford Highway through such programs and events, including as The BuHi Walk with Living Walls.

“The future of Buford Highway is important
to me because it’s my future.”
– Marian Liou,
We Love BuHi founder

The Generator Workshop class challenged students to generate “ideas that no one is asking for but that just might change the world,” according to Gravel. Comprised of 15 graduate and undergraduate students in disciplines ranging from industrial design to city planning, the class was tasked with developing creative but implementable concepts for Buford Highway that preserve and promote the corridor’s cultural diversity.

The resulting proposals—which include ideas for public art, street food, co-working spaces, and closing the digital divide—will be on display at the Ideas Fair.

For more information about Generator Workshop, visit www.generatoratl.org.

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