Woodruff Park, Atlanta

If you're out and about in Downtown, this is a nice place to relax, enjoy a cup of tea in the shade, and people watch for a minute. A famous lunchtime spot for locals as well as tourists, it includes several nice and well-kept features such as two fountains, a performance pavilion, several monuments, and a chess court. Bordering the park are beautiful planters with plants and umbrella tables to provide a place where you can sit and enjoy lunch or just chill in the cool breeze.

This is where many GSU students go to relive themselves of the stress of everyday life. Mr. Woodruff, the founder of the Coca-Cola Company, understood very well the central location's importance. City leadership does as well, and historians can view the park as a testimonial to how fervently Atlanta leaders have tried to preserve a vital Downtown.

Known as "Atlanta from the Ashes", the most famous sculpture within the premises depicts a woman releasing a Phoenix, a symbol of Atlanta's rise from the ashes after being burnt to the ground by William T. Sherman's Union armies during the Civil War. A gift of the private Rich Foundation, it was originally located on a viaduct adjacent to the first Rich's Department store on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, but was restored and moved to its current location in 1995.