Three options for the 'Gulch'

July 11,2012

The gaping hole in Atlanta's patchwork downtown could be filled with verdant green space and new roads that surround a sprawling passenger terminal to serve a busy network of buses, rail and streetcars.

Almost two decades after planners first offered up a proposal to overhaul the "Gulch," a group of developers will unveil three "conceptual drawings" today that show possible designs to turn the sunken tangle of parking spaces, vacant lots and rail lines into a key transit center. Far from set in stone, they are a starting point for the months of planning that's to come.

It's an important step in the lengthy effort to develop a "multimodal passenger terminal" that would anchor the area. Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc. and Atlanta firms Cousins Properties Inc. and The Integral Group LLC hope the project can pull together buses, trains, light rail and streetcars into a central stop.