Olympic Village
Georgia State University and Georgia Tech (Georgia Institute of Technology) both received a significant boost thanks to the Games.
Their students have been able to take advantage of a range of sporting and leisure facilities built for the 1996 Games. They also had access to new accommodation. Seven apartment-style halls of residence were built to house athletes and officials during the Games and were subsequently given to Georgia Tech. At the time, this increased the university’s accommodation capacity by 70 per cent.
Georgia State University (GSU), meanwhile, took ownership of four new residences after the Games, increasing their capacity by 2,000 units. In 2007, Georgia State came to an agreement to transfer this accommodation block to Georgia Tech, due in part to its proximity to the latter’s campus.
The impact of this new student housing on GSU triggered a broader initiative that begun a transformation of the university from a commuter school to an expansive urban residential campus. Before the Games, GSU had no student dormitories, but today more than 16,000 students live in GSU dorms and residential buildings, an indication of the long-term impact the Games can have on educational institutions.
Elsewhere, Georgia Tech’s sporting credentials received a major upgrade. The university’s Aquatic Centre, now named the McAuley Aquatic Centre, and Alexander Memorial Coliseum were both handed back to the university, having hosted the Olympic aquatics and boxing competitions, respectively.