Chattahoochee Brick Company Memorial, Greenspace, and Park

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Chattahoochee Brick Company supplied countless bricks for buildings and infrastructure across Atlanta during decades of rapid growth after the Civil War. From its inception in 1885, the company relied exclusively on leased convict labor, forcing primarily African-American men arrested under petty or dubious charges to work under brutal, sometimes fatal, conditions. In 2022, the City of Atlanta acquired this 75-acre site with a purposeful intent—to redevelop it as a public memorial, greenspace, and park to honor the victims of its dark past and to cast new light and foster a place of civic gathering and remembrance. SCAPE, along with MASS Design Group’s Public Memory and Memorials Lab and Toole Design Group, has been selected to lead a thoughtful 16-month planning, design, and public engagement process to guide the transformation of this site on behalf of the City of Atlanta and its residents.

The Chattahoochee Brick Company site is located at the heart of the “Atlanta Reach,” one of the most populated segments of the 125-mile proposed Chattahoochee RiverLands greenway. As part of an integrated design process, the SCAPE team will refine the alignment of the 6-mile Atlanta reach and strengthen connections between the regional trail system and the Chattahoochee Brick Company Memorial, Greenspace, and Park. This collective work advances a crucial step toward the realization of the Chattahoochee RiverLands, reconnecting community, honoring history, and restoring river ecology for future generations.

Learn more:

• Atlanta Department of City Planning website