Atlanta Through the Archives
Techwood & University Homes
Summary
Techwood Homes is the first federally subsidized public housing project.
On September 30, 1932, Secretary of the Interior Ickes oversaw the ceremonial beginning of the
federal slum clearance program in Atlanta. Slums around University Center and Georgia Tech were to
be cleared and replaced with the nation’s first public housing projects- University and Techwood
Homes. University Homes, as the first public housing project, was an African American-only housing
project, while Techwood Homes was white-only.
Later Clark Howell Homes and John Hope Homes would be constructed near Techwood and University
Homes, respectively.
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Apr 11, 1991
Major Jackson and city officials discuss the fate of Techwood Homes and the impact the Olympics will
have. City Council President Arrington proposes to destroy the homes and replace them with Olympic
Village.
President of Techwood Homes Tenant Association: “Everyone is talking about the land and not the
people of Techwood Homes”
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In 1994, AHA demolished Techwood Homes as part of the Olympic Legacy Program, replacing it with a
private development for mixed incomes. Techwood Homes was replaced by Centennial Place. Centennial
Place was originally named Techwood Homes, a public housing project completed in 1936 for white
families–a sister project to University Homes, which was for Black families. But, as crime and a
systemic lack of investment continued through the 1970s and 1980s, the AHA eventually decided to
demolish the site in 1996. The close proximity to traffic that would drastically increase during the
Olympic Games was an additional pressure put on the city to raze areas that seemed ‘undesirable,’ or
resembling slum areas. Within a year, the city began replacing the old site with a newer addition of
“genteel-looking townhouse clusters called Centennial Place.” Besides the notable difference in
investment levels, Centennial Place changed from Techwood Homes in terms of demographic makeup.
While Techwood homes was designated as a low-income public housing project, Centennial Place’s
makeup is only 40% low-income Atlantans. The AHA chair at the time, Renee Glover, said that this
shift was the key to overcoming Atlanta’s problems of crime and inequality: “The answer is not in
concentrated poverty, but in mixed-income communities.”
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SOURCES:
Stokes, S. (2016, July 19). The ’96 Olympics: Techwood And The New Face Of Public Housing. WABE.
Reeves, Alexis Scott. “Centennial Place -- 100 Times Better.” Atlanta Daily World.
https://www.proquest.com/docview/491789684/20057153A9124C67PQ/1?accountid=11107.
Pictures: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Photograph:%20ga0662&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co%20=hh&st=gallery&sg%20=%20true