History of the Park

Less than two decades ago, Centennial Olympic Park's neighborhood was a run-down part of town. That all began to change on the day Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games CEO Billy Payne gazed out his office window and a brilliant inspiration came to him - to convert a multi-block eyesore into a glorious gathering spot for visitors and residents to enjoy during the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games and for years to come.

Atlanta responded to that vision with tremendous support. The estimated $75 million in development costs came entirely from private-sector donations - contributions in the form of commemorative bricks, funds raised by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and local philanthropic foundation grants.

This community support, coupled with the willingness of the State of Georgia to take the lead in the Park's development and to assume ownership after the Games, transformed a dream into a grand reality - Centennial Olympic Park.

Following the Olympic Games, a large portion of the park was closed and redesigned for daily public use. A gala commemoration weekend in March 1998 introduced the newly landscaped Park and its expanded amenities.

Today, this unique 21-acre park performs a dual mission: it serves as Georgia's lasting legacy of the Centennial Olympic Games and it anchors efforts to revitalize residential and commercial development in Georgia's capital city of Atlanta.

The Georgia World Congress Center Authority has operational responsibility for Centennial Olympic Park, as well as the Georgia Dome and Georgia World Congress Center.

The Park sponsors community-wide free events, including the Fourth of July Celebration, Wednesday Wind Down concert series and Fourth Saturday Family Fun Days. The Park also hosts festivals, fundraisers and private events. These events, in addition to the normal day-to-day traffic, bring an estimated three million visitors to this urban oasis each year.

Did you know?

Approximately 800,000 bricks were used in the construction of the 21-acre Park. Laid end-to-end, lengthwise, the bricks would stretch from New York City to Philadelphia, approximately 100 miles. Laid sideways, the bricks would stretch for 50 miles.
There are roughly 686,000 engraved bricks.
Approximately 10,275,000 letters are engraved on the commemorative bricks in the Park. This is enough letters to spell out the first verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner” more than 20,000 times.
There is more than 30 miles of wire in the Park for lighting and power distribution.
There is more than 11 miles of underground irrigation to service the Park’s three water features.
50 different subcontractors worked on the Park, requiring an estimated 200,000 man-hours to construct. This is the equivalent of one man working full-time for 100 years.
Granite from each of the five continents represented in the Olympic Games is used in the Park.
There are approximately 575 trees, 30,000 shrubs and 330,000 square feet of grass in the Park, enough to cover Turner field three times.
Centennial Olympic Park is the largest downtown park in the country developed in the last 25 years.
The Fountain of Rings is the world's largest interactive fountain utilizing the Olympic symbol of five interconnecting Rings.
Each of the five Olympic Rings is 25 feet in diameter, large enough to comfortably park two cars side-by-side within each Ring.
The entire fountain, from outside Ring edge to outside Ring edge, is 82.5 feet in length.
About 5,000 gallons of water per minute is recycled through the Fountain, enough to fill an average size swimming pool in five minutes. The entire water system is filtered once every 30-minutes.
Water height during normal fountain operation can reach 12 feet. During the Fountain Show, sprays can be anywhere from 15 to 30 feet tall. The computerized Fountain can be programmed with special announcements as well as a variety of water displays including low-pressure, walk-through “water curtains”, fog and misting.
There are 251 submersible color changing light fixtures with 4 bulbs each in clear, amber, blue and red as well as a new digital sound system including 26 three-way, weather resistant speakers with subwoofers
The Fountain’s 251 computer-controlled water jets (125 stream and 126 aeration), 410 fog jets, 1004 lights bulbs and miles of underground water pipes make the Fountain of Rings one of the most sophisticated fountains in the world.