National I-house is getting a modern T-Bone in Decatur

You can find these in every county in Georgia, probably nearly every county in the USA. This one is in the MAK District of Decatur, near a boatload of Leilia Ross Wilburn houses, very good company.


Here is another in Brookhaven, recently torn down.


Here is the Lambright House, Freedmen’s Grove from Vanishing South Georgia.

It's a "National I-house." according to pp. 96-97 of The Field Guild to American Houses, a skinny house 2 rooms wide and one room deep.


It's just skirts my errand route. Today I did a little detour to check it out. So many of these dignified houses rot away on roadsides. It's familiar all-American shape sits on a lot with plenty of breathing room.


But how can a tiny house suit a modern family in a first class neighborhood?

Something is going back in the back. The sign for Lightroom Architects (...specializes in the modern renovation of existing residences) is a dead giveaway. Some thing is going on back there and it doesn't look vernacular.


Let's check the other side.


Uh-huh. I like that the new wing isn't continuous with the siding of the I-house. The I-house maintains it shape.


Looks like the wing T-Bones into a big room at the back. The "porte-cochere roof overhang thing" suggests the width and height of "T" room.


Here is the south side.


I have turned this over to the Architecture Tourist Vernacular / Modern Special Interest Group for weekly inspections.

Congratulations to Lightroom and to the fortunate owners.

Attention: Lovers of The Ansley Glass House by bldgs, the office Atlanta architects Brian Bell and David Yocum.

The Crystal Palace Costco at Town Brookhaven

Town Brookhaven is a-building. It's a new urban, mixed use development on Peachtree Road by Sembler between the Brookhaven MARTA station and Oglethorpe University. It's in a wide open, level stretch of road, past the bustle of Buckhead and before the strip centers of Doraville.

They are building a most beautiful Costco there.


I'm guessing that all of structure will show. I hope so. I've never seen so much white steel.


It's big and sits in a typical big box parking lot. I hope the setting will improve as Town Brookhaven builds out.

The roof curves from end to end. It's light and full of air yet solidly on the ground.


I am not a natural shopper but if you can get me in the door, I'll just be happy admiring the filigree of the roof trusses.


The straightforward shapes of the loading dock makes the steel dance even more.


The beauty of this building is clear from early on. The builders enjoy it every day. That's rare. Many structures look terrible until the last details are complete.


Why install the light fixtures so early? Not a problem with me, they have a nice look.


Find out more about the original Crystal Palace.

Dignity on Peachtree

This may be the most dignified address on Peachtree Street, the H.M. Patterson & Son-Oglethorpe Hill Chapel, a funeral home. It's the Greek Revival sister of Philip Shutze's Spring Hill at 1oth and Spring Street. Both are wonderful. I prefer Oglethorpe Hill.



It's human scaled and approachable, formal and reverent.



The 3 separate masses that front Peachtree Street conceal how big it is. See the chapel's arched windows (below)?

It sits on a large, level immaculate lot just north of Oglethorpe University. There are 2 gardens featured in Gardenwalks in the Southeast By Marina Harrison, Lucy D. Rosenfeld. You can see one in the foreground.



The lantern.


Who was the architect?



I've been to one funeral here, for Mike Pinkerton, a good friend who died too young. The chapel and other interiors are even more dignified than the exteriors, fit for their solemn purpose.

Architecture tourists will never tire of Oglethorpe Hill and can enjoy the pink Granite Collegiate Gothic architecture at Oglethorpe University and the Brookhaven Historic District, Silver Lake (a hidden jewel if you can find it), the beautiful setting of Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, and the more modern but elegant Saint Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church in the same trip.