Tech Square

Tech Square gives Georgia Tech students and faculty a wide range of dining options (Asian, Mediterranean, Mexican, American…). It also is home to a Walmart campus store, 1 of 3 in the country. There is no free parking though (I haven’t been able to find any at least), so unless you have a Georgia Tech parking pass, you’ll have to park on the street and pay the meter.

Tech Square is the Midtown revitalization project that extended Georgia Tech’s campus across the Downtown Connector via the Fifth Street Bridge. I was a student at Tech when Tech Square opened in 2003. It was a big deal to the Tech community then and it’s hard to believe it has been over 10 years since it opened.
Tech Square encompasses 8 city blocks and took $ 380 million to develop. The heart of the development is located at the intersection of Spring St. and 5^th St. This is where the official Georgia Tech bookstore (Barnes & Noble) and the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center are located. Tech Square is also home to Tech’s Scheller College of Business. I was «lucky» enough to take some elective Management courses in my final few semesters at Tech, so I got to enjoy the then state-​of-​the-​art classrooms on this part of campus.
Today, Tech Square is still going strong. It’s a mixture of classrooms, office space, and retail space. There’s the Centergy office building, the Technology Square Research Building, and the Global Learning Center. In 2017, the High Performance Computing Center will open. Ground is expected to be broken in 2015. The HPC building will be 24 stories tall and incorporate the Renaissance-​style façade of the old Crum & Forster building built in 1928. Two-​thirds of the Crum & Forster building were demolished to make way for the HPC center.
Restaurants and cafes at Tech Square include Chuck’s Famous sandwiches, Ray’s Pizza, the Barrelhouse bistro, Moe’s, Starbucks at Barnes & Noble, The Spence, Tin Drum Asiacafe, and one of Atlanta’s newer and nicer ²⁴⁄₇ Waffle Houses (opened Summer 2010). Of all the restaurants, only Tin Drum survived since Tech Square’s opening day.
Retail includes a GameStop and one of the world’s smallest Walmart stores. The «Walmart on Campus» concept opened in August 2013. It’s only about 2,500 square feet and is more like a convenience store than a full-​fledged Walmart. The store’s inventory caters towards Tech students.
Tech Square also hosts events. Flicks on 5^th is a free outdoor film festival which has been held every year since 2006. The annual Taste of Atlanta outdoor fall food festival moved from Atlantic Station to Tech Square in 2009. Tech Square is also a popular place for college football fans to tailgate before Tech home football games, specifically the Fifth Street Bridge.
Aesthetically, Tech Square looked cutting edge and modern when it opened in 2003. The look has held up well over the years, especially with the widening and renovation of the Fifth Street Bridge in 2007. The bridge has plenty of green space and wide sidewalks to match those in the Square. The property feels clean and safe.
The developers of Tech Square made it easily accessible via many modes of transportation. The bridge makes it a pleasant walk for students across the Connector. There are bike friendly lanes and the Tech Trolley makes multiple stops at the Square. The Tech Trolley is free and offers a free ride through Tech campus and to the Midtown MARTA station.
If you want to drive to Tech Square, you’ll have to pay for parking. There are numerous metered street parking spots along both 5^th and Spring. These spots are monitored and strictly enforced by PARKatlanta. Your other two options are either the Centergy parking deck or the Georgia Tech Hotel parking deck. Each deck has a capacity of approximately 1,500 vehicles.
In 2009, four floors of the Centergy deck collapsed. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Many parking decks in the City of Atlanta and all of the parking decks owned by Tech were reinspected shortly after the incident.

Though I was never a student at Tech, Tech Square is a great little portion of Midtown that has some easy perks for both students and locals alike. I don’t spend an inordinate amount of time here, but the times I’ve been in the area things have been nice and easy.
Like many others have commented, the amount of walking space is really great. There are clearly marked spots on the sidewalks where bikes are allowed, which is really nice. W Peachtree can still be a zoo, so its nice to know that you’re good to bike on the sidewalk when you’re in the area.
A few of the restaurants in the area are great as well — Cypress St just around the corner, Barrelhouse, Ray’s Pizza, and a few others I’ve yet to try. There’s a good amount of variety. Also, the B&N with a Starbucks for Tech Students is still a nice thing to have when you’re around and especially during Taste of Atlanta weekend.
Parking can be a bit challenging, but when you’re headed to Barrelhouse or anything on the main strip of 5^th, the parking lot directly across is easy enough.
I dig Tech Square and I’m glad its around.

I started to Tech before Tech Square, and that makes me ever so much more thankful for it. Not only did it make the neighborhood seem so much safer, it gave us a plethora of food choices and a shiny new bookstore. It helped to bridge the gap between Tech and the rest of Atlanta, adding some greenery and nice sidewalks to a once truly-​dreary part of the city. With Technology Square, it doesn’t seem that far of a walk to Staples or Publix or Cypress Street.
Now as an alum I tell the students how lucky they are to have a Waffle House in walking distance. It was nice where there was the nail salon and American Apparel, just so it wasn’t only food, but I guess Great Clips and Game Stop are more exciting for the predominantly male student population.
The area is designed for walking, so parking isn’t great — there’s the lot across 5^th Street from the bookstore at $ 1.50/hr, and the lot attached to the GT Hotel, as well as a few coveted meters (pay with change) along 5^th street. I suggest you try to get one of the pay with credit card meters on the street just north of 5^th.

Lined with wide brick side walks and clean green benches under perfectly sized and shaped dogwood trees, Tech Square is the best part of campus as it desegregates college life and Midtown life in Atlanta.
It offers a relaxing atmosphere where workers can congregate for lunch at one of the six restaurants here, grab coffee at Starbucks, and purchase a bright green cotton shirt from American Apparel or a box of gourmet chocolates from Lexington as a treat for your secretary.
Parking is mostly meter and the city DOES TICKET so just pay the darn thing or make sure you sit near a window and watch your car so you can run out when you see the officer handing out those yellow envelopes like candy.
The other option is in the Georgia Tech parking lot or deck, which gets expensive after about 2 hours.
Tech Square is most popular for students and young professionals for lunch during the week.