ABSTRACT
Architect, United States John Portman’s self-declared mission as an architect was to create an architecture for
people. He combined his skills as entrepreneur, developer, architect, and real estate manager to reinvigorate downtown Atlanta, a city that at the time Portman began his practice in 1953 had not built a high-rise building since 1930. If Portman did little to house Atlanta’s citizens, he was intent on designing better environments for work: functional marketplaces for buying and selling and attractive hotels for tourists, conventioneers, and traveling businessmen. His Atlanta Merchandise Mart (1961) initiated the development of Peachtree Center, where he would continue to build for nearly 40 years. Perceiving the city as fundamentally an economic and social entity, Portman resolved to return the historic agora to modern Atlanta.
