Apparently downtown Atlanta’s getting a 20-story Ferris wheel

Which begs the question: Just what will riders look at?
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The wheel in a previous location, not downtown Atlanta

Courtesy SkyView Atlanta

Don’t get me wrong. I love Atlanta. Love Downtown. Have unabashed boosterish tendencies. But when I heard that the Atlanta City Council voted this week to approve installation of a twenty-story Ferris wheel near Centennial Olympic Park, my reaction was simple: WTF?

The 187-foot wheel in question is scheduled to arrive in Atlanta in late May, coming from Pensacola where it’s been for the past year. Before that, as Jason Evans, spokesman for Atlanta Partners LLC, the group behind SkyView Atlanta, pointed out, it was in Paris. “Right across from the Louvre. Which is pretty cool.”

Okay, last summer I rode a Ferris wheel outside the Louvre and it was pretty cool. But, as I noted to Evans, that was in PARIS. Where one had a view of, oh, the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, the Seine. Just what are you going to see from Centennial Olympic Park, which beside being a little dull, is downhill from Peachtree? Presumably Stone Mountain, when it’s not too smoggy. The streetcar construction? AmericasMart?

Evans says the company is confident SkyView Atlanta will be popular, attracting a sizable percentage of the 1.5 million folks who visit the World of Coke and Georgia Aquarium.

The wheel is slated to arrive late this month. It will be installed in a parking lot adjacent to the Tabernacle and should be operational by mid June. Tickets will be in the $12-14 range for adults and less for kids.

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