Show Us Your Dunwoody Village!

Background: Dunwoody grew as a farm community that was attached to Roswell as its "city".  In today's parliance, Dunwoody was a Roswell "suburb". It does not have a city center because it never really was a "city" in its history. Does Dunwoody "need" one city center to define its character? Or is part of Dunwoody's unique character a network of "centers" in various parts of the city, each with its own subculture? Discuss....

Received via email from Jennifer Rao (jenniferrao@hotmail.com) My plans for Dunwoody Village involve the following steps: 1) Update the existing colonial scheme and expand the overlay to include an updated modern farmhouse theme. This would include allowing for the limewashing of the existing orange toned brick to a white or cream color, allowing for updated windows (including metal frames), allowing for wider variety of paint colors on frame instead of just white, yellowish cream, and tan (perhaps following the colors of the Historic Williamsburg line from Benjamin Moore). This would brighten up the shopping area and make it look more modern. Plus allowing for an addition of a modern farmhouse theme honors the fact that Dunwoody began as a farming community and would be in line with the architecture of the Cheek-Spruill House. 2) Widen the sidewalks from the library to the nature center and on the Mt. Vernon side of Dunwoody Village. The best small town areas / village shoppi...

I have included pictures of a retail/restaurant/office district I enjoy visiting in Los Angeles called The Grove. Aspects of The Grove that I like are: Diverse architecture for visual interest. Parking situated away from community areas. Architecture congruent with today's desires. Water features for ambient noise and visual interest. Low to mid-rise buildings; between 1 and 3 stories. I am suggesting that we could ask inspired architects to create a vision for ways to use brick, shingles and trim work (Williamsburg-elements) in conjunction with other textures and features, in a more imaginative layout that is truly consumer and pedestrian-focused. Today's structures are totally vehicle-focused with huge, empty parking lots void of trees, shade, and (in many cases) vehicles. To keep the vision cohesive with neighborhoods nearby, I would suggest it include a mix of housing (condos) and office space in a future development, where residents and workers can walk to food, re...

The City of Dunwoody, and the Dunwoody Village shopping center is at a crossroads.  The Village is an icon of the small town ideal we want to live in.  But it was built in the early 1970s in a commercialized "colonial" style that is causing more problems than solutions. The Future of Dunwoody Village has a list of  requirements to be successful.  Do you have an idea that fits them all?  Post in the comments or send an email to dhaadmin@dunwoodyga.org and we'll start you on a thread of your own. (Edited to add:  it is no longer possible to force posting of images in comments.  If you have a really creative visual idea, contact us at the email address above and we'll work something out.) Dunwoody Village is privately owned.   The largest owner is Regency Centers which is a HUGE developer that owns the "Dunwoody Village" shopping center, Dunwoody Hall (Publix) and Williamsburg (at the intersection of Mt Vernon and Jett Ferry)  Regency,...