On New Years Day, my friends Patti and Tom treated me to a visit to the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta. This aquarium, which is the world’s largest, has brought more than six million people downtown since its opening in 2005. Built on what had been a long-empty parcel of land in a neglected end of downtown, the aquarium became a catalyst for economic growth in Atlanta’s city center. Since its opening, the downtown has seen an explosion of development, including high rise condominium towers, new shops and restaurants, and gleaming new office towers. Some 75 additional mixed use projects are slated to be completed in Atlanta’s central business district by 2010 and employers are returning to the downtown every day. It is such an impressive, jaw-dropping facility that I just had to share some photos of it:

After visiting the touch pools, where I touched a shark, we walked through the River Scout Gallery. This area of the aquarium focuses on riverine environments and the exhibit simulates being under a river, looking up. It was a bizarre experience to be surrounded by water, with giant longnose gar fish swimming over my head:


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