Date of Award

Spring 5-30-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master in Interior Architecture

Department

Interior Architecture

First Advisor

Markus Berger

Second Advisor

Heinrich Hermann

Third Advisor

Liliane Wong

Abstract

In the opening ceremony of the Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games of 1996, millions of people watched Muhammad Ali as a cultural icon carried the Olympic flame torch to light the cauldron. He was shaking from his Parkinson’s, and it was an emotional moment for many people. Atlanta Cauldron Tower was designed by a pioneer contemporary artist, Siah Armajani, who produced a monolithic uninhabited sculpture you cannot climb. The tower of 106ft is still prominent when we look back to the historic photographs today.

However, the tower lost the context it relied upon along with the partial demolition of Centennial Stadium in 1997, when it was moved to the current isolated location on Hank Aaron Drive, on the edge of a bleak parking lot.

As a valued artifact of historic heritage, does the collapse of the context declares the death of the iconic architecture? This architecture is not permanently lost, but it is already dead from social significance. The collapse of its context and its removal robs the Atlanta Cauldron Tower of its symbolic meaning. By proposing ABSTRACT the relocation to the Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta, the thesis will explore a way to rehost an architecture object that has lost context, while reactivating the city’s memory in the process.

The proposal will create a meaningful gateway stretching from the endpoint of Andrew Young International Blvd for the Centennial Olympic Park. The proposed move will establish visual contact between the tower and the city onlookers in many ways.

The design strategy treats the south part of the park as a whole. An elevated food court will connect the Atlanta Cauldron Tower and then embrace the amphitheater to create a continuous horizontal visiting path for visitors. People will have a chance for the first time in history to climb the tower and bridge through the proposed circulation. The project will save the valued Olympic heritage and carry urban memory forward.

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