Garden Hills to dedicate a roundabout that defines ‘heart’ of its community at ceremony on Sunday

What was conceived in 2003 as a key element of a concept to define the heart of Buckhead’s Historic Garden Hills neighborhood, will be dedicated on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. as what has to be Atlanta’s most unique and artistic roundabout or traffic circle.

Posed in front of the Garden Hills roundabout are, left to right, Nancy Floyd,
Stephen Macauley and Jim Floyd. The Floyds donated the four sculptures
that adorn the roundabout. Look closely. There is a boy and girl above the
heads of Nancy Floyd and Macauley, a boy with boat between Macauley
and Jim Floyd and a girl lying on the rocks at far right. 

“The roundabout adds a sense of place identity as well as providing traffic calming,” explained Stephen Macauley, the chairman of the Garden Hills Neighborhood Foundation which is spiriting  the Heart of Garden Hills development project.

But this roundabout is so much more because of one Garden Hills family, Jim and Nancy Floyd.

The Floyd’s donated four sculptures of “The Children”, created by Atlanta artist Martin Dawe, which project a sense of family neighborhood as part of the roundabout design.

Dawe, who is well-known nationally and has sculptures in various locations around metro Atlanta, also has works at the Galloway School at Chastain Park and a piece on Buckhead Baseball at Frankie Allen Park, both in Buckhead.

The sculptures of the boy with boat and girl pointing are at the base of the
waterfall feature of the roundabout. The sign tells of "The Children"
sculptures being donated in memory of Christopher Scott Floyd. 

The Foundation, through donations from residents and organizations, paid for the construction of the roundabout. But the Floyds paid to have the sculptures created and donated them in memory of their son Christopher Scott Floyd, who died at the age of 29 on May 19, 2001.

The roundabout, located at the intersection of Rumson and Bolling roads and Brentwood Drive, is not that new. It has been there for a while and has now gone through its second design. The first design simply had plantings. This design has a waterfall and the four sculptures as well as beautiful plantings.

The photo shows the girl sleeping sculpture in the foreground
with the boy and girl sculpture at the top of the photo. 

“We are honoring the Jim Floyd family for their loving generosity in donating the beautiful sculptures of children now placed in memory of their son,” said Lynne Froeba, who this year is president-elect of the Garden Hills Foundation, of which Jim Floyd is president.

The original plan was to hold the dedication earlier this year when the roundabout was first completed. However, the centerpiece of it is the sculpture of two children holding hands and seemingly prancing through the vegetation. It was damaged during installation and had to be sent back to the artist for repairs.

“Without the centerpiece, the whole roundabout is not as beautiful as it will be when everything is in place,” Floyd told BuckheadView early in the fall.

The four sculptures are: a boy with a boat named Nave and a girl point at the water from a rock named Mina (both at the base of the waterfall), a sleeping girl on a rock, named Luna and a boy and the centerpiece girl and boy holding hands, with the names Pax and Cora.

The above photo shows the waterfall feature of the roundabout with
the sculpture of the girl pointing at the water lying on the rocks. 

The sculptures are caste with a special material to make them durable and protect them from weather elements and they are anchored so as to protect them from theft.

Froeba has been hard at work trying to rally the residents within the Garden Hills neighborhood to turn out on Sunday for the short dedication ceremony at 3;30 P.M., which will focus on honoring the Floyds for their donation and service to the community and will last no longer than a half hour.

“I am putting together a little agenda with a few speakers,” Froeba told BuckheadView. “Stephen Macauley, Janey Lowe, Jim Floyd and possibly a few more people will speak on Sunday. I will present the Floyd family with flowers and a live plant for them to plant in their own yard,” she added.

Photo above shows the roundabout looking up Rumson Road toward
Peachtree Road from entering the neighborhood off East Wesley. 

Macauley, who came here from England, is a builder and told BuckheadView he did the first roundabout in Atlanta.

Macauley said this roundabout was truly a result of the various organizations in Garden Hills—The Garden Hills Neighborhood Foundation, Garden Hills Garden Club and Garden Hills Civic Association—all coming together and jointly working to make it happen.

“It really brought the community together,” Macauley said.

The Garden Hills Neighborhood Foundation is the newest of the organizations and was founded primarily to foster the Heart of Garden Hills project, which includes not only the roundabout but also a new pool house and recreation hall for the neighborhood entrance area off East Wesley Drive where the pool, soccer field and playground are located.  

So, this dedication on Sunday represents just the step in bringing to fruition the dreams for creating a renewed Heart of Garden Hills that was first conceived in 2003 and still has a ways to go before it will be completed. There likely are several more dedications to come, but this one is considered a major first step and one to which the community leaders want residents to come out and celebrate.