Krog Street Market and the Krog Street Tunnel sit together in front of you, one of Atlanta's most beloved urban spaces and one of the most photographed places in the city. The tunnel carries Krog Street under the railroad tracks and the BeltLine corridor, and its concrete walls have been a legal graffiti canvas since at least the 1990s — an ever-changing, constantly evolving artwork created by hundreds of artists over decades, layered on top of each other in an accretion of paint that is itself a kind of urban archaeology. The artwork in the tunnel shifts continuously; on any given day you will see murals painted over murals, tags overlapping with elaborate compositions, political messages and portraits and pure abstraction.
The adjacent Krog Street Market was created in a former industrial complex and opened in 2014 as a food hall and event space, housing some of Atlanta's most popular restaurants and bars in a raw, brick-and-timber setting. On weekend evenings the market and the plaza outside it are packed with Atlanta's young professional class, the same demographic that has driven demand for the BeltLine's trail and for the apartments that have risen along it. Walk through the tunnel.
Look at every layer. The city writes itself on these walls.