[1] During his time in office, Olgiati oversaw the arrival of the interstate highway, the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, and the city's first urban renewal project.

Born Peter Rudolph Olgiati in Gruelti (now part of Gruetli-Laager), Grundy County, Tennessee, he was a first-generation American, his mother being from Switzerland and father being Spanish.

During his time in office he oversaw a massive infrastructure program, much of Chattanooga's Civil Rights Movement, and was accused of partaking in political bossism.

[4] In his first term as Mayor, Olgiati announced his planned "Program of Progress," which would request $100 million in federal grants for the creation and revitalization of Chattanooga infrastructure.

He also oversaw the widening of several downtown roads, conversion of many streets to one-way to help with traffic flow, and the building of a second tunnel through Missionary Ridge.

The "Program of Progress" was also responsible for the modernization and expansion of Chattanooga's Lovell Field airport, which Olgiati called, "one of the best in the South.

Olgiati stressed the fact that Chattanooga was a perfect point for connecting the cities of Atlanta, Nashville, Knoxville, and Birmingham.

[3] Going against the wishes of many local historians, traditionalists, and prominent families, Olgiati used his Golden Gateway Renewal Project to remove the top portion of the ridge to create a bridge.

[2] On February 19, 1960, tensions reached a near boiling point when 30 students from the all-black Howard High School participated in a sit-in protest at a local segregated lunch counter.

Claiming to have ordered the fire department to focus indiscriminately on both the black and white students, Olgiati later stated, "Everybody got wet.

Aiming to oversee a peaceful and stable integration, he created a "'Citizens' Committee' whose responsibility [was] in the direction of mobilizing community-wide support for the maintenance of law and order."