Margaret Mitchell Square, (sculpture).

Margaret Mitchell Square, (sculpture).

Synder, Kit-Yin, sculptor.

Benson, Robert, engineer.

Robert and Company, engineering firm.

Margaret Mitchell Square, (sculpture).

Margaret Mitchell Memorial, (sculpture).

1985-1986. Installed 1986.

Digital Reference:

Stainless steel wire and black granite.

Overall site: approx. 77 x 42 x 37 ft.

A triangular landscaped plaza with antebellum references. Included are four columns (made of chicken wire) placed atop black granite steps that serve as benches. The columns are intended to evoke "Gone with the Wind" plantation Tara. The columns are set before a black granite wall, down which water cascades. In front of the columns, set on pavers, are four interconnected arches, set in a square formation. Each arch is mounted upon a square block of black granite. A low square border of black granite surrounds the arches.

Homage -- Mitchell, Margaret

Occupation -- Writer -- Novelist

Literature -- Mitchell -- Gone With the Wind

Architecture -- Detail -- Column

Outdoor Sculpture -- Georgia -- Atlanta

Administered by City of Atlanta, Department of Parks, Recreation, & Cultural Affairs, Bureau of Cultural Affairs, 675 Ponce de Leon Avenue, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30308

Located Margaret Mitchell Square, Peachtree & Forsyth Streets, Atlanta, Georgia

The landscaped setting honors Atlanta author Margaret Mitchell, and was planned in conjunction with the 50th anniversary celebration of the publication of her book "Gone With The Wind." The work was commissioned by the City of Atlanta for $100,000; the design approved by the Atlanta Urban Design Commission. The park is the third and final phase of the Fairlie-Poplar redevelopment project. The firm of Robert and Company did the engineering plan for the park, with Robert Benson as the project manager. The granite was supplied by the Cold Spring Granite Company. The waterfall, an addition made after the City Council arts committee encouraged the artist to modify her design, has been problematic, with wind shears from adjacent skyscrapers causing pedestrians to get wet. A plaque at entrance to park on the Forsyth Street side reads: MARGARET MITCHELL SQUARE/1985.

IAS files contain: newspaper article from either the Atlanta Journal or Constitution, Feb. 17, 1984, and 1985; newspaper article from The Atlanta Journal/The Atlanta Constitution, Nov. 22, 1993, pg. C1, C4; and Public Art Information Report on the sculpture from the Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Georgia, Atlanta survey, 1993.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 22, 1993, pg. C4.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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