Heather's House Portraits of Cabbagetown

You should consider commissioning Heather to do a house you love.

Full disclosure #1: Heather McPherson is Sam's daughter. Sam McPherson is my friend, my daughter's too. Katherine and I are especially devoted to Sam as only music students can be devoted to a favorite teacher.



So of course I went to Heather's first solo show at Get This Gallery last Saturday. I've followed Heather and enjoyed her work for a couple of years. If you are an in-town architecture tourist, you've probably seen her work. She's getting somewhere.


Here's Heather, coat on her arm next to my tall son, getting a lot of attention at her opening.


Full disclosure #2: I was and I am touched by her house portraits, plywood cut to shape, drawn and painted. The houses are all in Cabbagetown.


But they are familiar to anyone from a Southern mill-town, including High Point where I grew up.

Full disclosure #3: I am impossibly sentimental. Heather's houses made me remember.


My mom preferred the clothesline even after she got a dryer.


This summer I searched for my grandfather's house in High Point. I couldn't find it. It may be gone and the neighborhood isn't so hot now.

If Heather could have painted it's portrait, maybe his great great grands could know him a bit better.



Cabbagetown is a going concern, a real community in a house museum.



Folks put their yard waste on the curb every week.



This end of the house has some stories to tell.



You can do color in Cabbagetown.



Heather shows them as they are today, modern living in a century old setting.



Not all evolution is elevating.


It's uncanny to see them this way. The real houses are shoulder to shoulder with their neighbors. Cut out and separated, these could be anywhere in the rural south.


But this is how they look. Heather's paintings ring true to me.

Full Disclosure #4: You should consider commissioning Heather to do a house you love before it's gone. Architect: This would be an extraordinary gift for your clients.

Contact Lloyd Benjamin at Get This This Gallery. See Heather's work there on 11th Street across the from Six Feet Under.

It preserved more of its original "1914" appearance

1148 North Highland is for sale. Even with 11 foot ceilings, it's probably a goner. I'm feeling a bit sad and sentimental about it.


This house has probably been deteriorating for most of the time I've lived here.


And that has left it in a certain condition, don't you think?

I've driven past 100's, maybe a thousand times. I never notice it yet always notice it.



The neglect preserved more of its original "1914" appearance than others in the neighborhood, no add-ons, no preservation, no landscaping, no TLC.


The Bradford Pear smothers it the summer. Even if you are looking, you can't really see it.

Very handsome I think.


You can see the two front doors. It was split in half to make duplex. Who knows when.


It's impressive but the tarp isn't a good sign.


My kind of trucks.


I didn't notice the chimney until I processed the pictures on my computer.


In Virginia Highlands and most of Morningside "extra large lot" means .26 acres.


Indeed a quarter acre gives you some breathing room.



So I'm feeling a bit sad and sentimental about this one.

It's iconic. You can find these - even in this condition - almost anywhere. It's so familiar.

If they tear it down, I guess there are plenty more bungalows.

If they fix it up all authentic and everything, will it really be as authentic as it is today?

If you are in the neighborhood, have a look. And make sure to drive up Highland Terrace.


Treat yourself one of the neighborhoods great views, almost a zen view. It works for me every time.

Thanks to Patti Hinkle at Pretty Old Houses for encouraging me to have a look.

Pretty Good Week: Old Music, Bobby, Lions, Squirrels, Meadows, Parade, Now Painting, Demolition, Occupy Atlanta

After a Yeah Burger lunch with our old friend Jim Olson, JoAnn and I did some cruising to finish the week.

You have to look up to find the lions in bow ties at Trinity and Pryor. I don't think "bow tie" is the proper architectural term. Can you help me out on that?


We saw lions at The Westside Foundry too.


JoAnn loves the boulders in the Oakland Gate Meadow. The proposed "Capital Gateway Park" will run from here along Martin Luther King all the way to the capital. But we hope they don't tear down Daddy D'z BBQ in the process.


The meadow is right outside the gate.


The week started last Friday night with a eclectic Oktoberfest party at Melvin Gallery in the Virginia Cotton Docks. We met the awesome "Now Painter" Janssen Robinson who painted to the tune of our buds, the Muleskinner McQueen Trio. Little kids danced in person and cows danced on video. It was a fun for the whole family and a heck of a night in the Old 4th Ward.


I heard more old-time music on Saturday, I'm talking medieval French love songs from Asteria Musica at Agnes Scott College. I blogged it at "Asteria soundchecks Château de Germolles."


The new tenants moved into our rustic Morningside charmer.


We enjoyed some brick painting on Zimmer.


No week is complete for Architecture Tourists without some good old fashioned demolition. These are the remains of Building 6 at Emory's Briarcliff Campus. They tore down buildings 7 and 8 too. We could hear the crunching from our front porch. These will not be missed.


It was a particularly good Tuesday. Bloggers and many others celebrated at the Beacham & Company, Realtors® "Beacham Series” release party at a McAlpine-Tankersley house. Wahoo. I blogged it at "Bobby's Big, Big Door and More at the Beacham Party."


The recycling truck trashed our circle again. What are we going to do?


Gordon visited. This is one of his favorite houses in Atlanta. It's one of ours too. "It's ironic ... humble is always the most expensive thing you can do." - Bobby McAlpine


On Thrusday I visited Occupy Atlanta at Woodruff Park.


What do you know, the Georgia State Homecoming Parade came through. The band marched down right down Broad Street.

I love a parade.

Bobby's Big, Big Door and More at the Beacham Party

I mean the Bobby McAlpine door (McAlpine Tankersley Architecture) at the Beacham & Company, REALTORS^® "Beacham Series” release party Tuesday night.

The Architecture Tourist Lutyens Lovers SIG thought the party was just for us. This is exactly what we like to do on Tuesday night.



Kyle Studivent, builder and blogger at "The well Composed Home," and I walked outside to have a look. It was just one of the smile-generators in the house. Makes moving a grand piano easier I'm sure but I think it's the wit.

Here is the whole composition.


It's a beauty you won't see in a real estate ad. This is the view from the parking court. For Kyle and me it was a piece of heaven.

The parking court was so good, I had to photograph the electric meter, you gotta have one, even in a McAlpine house.


Mmm, mmm, mmm. Those zigs and zags, cornices and gutters, lentils and shutters. Just yummy. Remember, this the service side of the house where the basketball goal is, trashcans too but I didn't see them.

Here is the driveway.


Nice driveway no? The house is right up there.


This is the front porch. But compared to the porch on my little house, this needs a fancy French name. I didn't realize these were shutters until I got up close. The front door is behind me. The great room is though those French doors. You can see the porch from the inside in the video at the bottom.


The foyer is small and cozy. I'm looking down from the 2nd floor. I think the foyer has the highest charm/square-foot ratio I've ever experienced.

Many mansions whack you upside the head with their foyer. Know what I mean?

This foyer says, "We are not giants, we're just folks who want you to feel comfortable in our house."

But the foyer is not just a foyer.


It's in the middle of a long upstairs enfilade from the children's wing, through the great room, to the master. It's a box seat with a balcony for observing the flow of folks through the house.


James told me that a McAlpine signature is a mirror on a window. Here you go: this is looking into the master bath, the mirror hanging above the sink in the center window.


There was so much to look at. I'd turn the chairs so I could look at the detials.


By this time the crowd was shoulder to shoulder inside. Kyle showed me this detail.

Most of us the bloggers got there early. Kyle - Well Composed Home, James - Limestone and Boxwoods, Blayne - This Photographer's Life (Architecture + Interior Design), John - Clickscape John also does a heroic job at the Midtown Archive, Holly, our hero and heroine, was there from Things That Inspire, Niki from Single Bubble Pop. Rodolofo doesn't exactly blog but he tweets @CastroDesignATL and Facebooks and is a best architect friend to bloggers.


Kyle, James, and Blayne had a moment in the keeping room before the multitudes arrived.

I don't want to embarrass anyone but Helen, Capella, Ally, Claire, Angela, Travis: This will go your permanent record unless you bring an written excuse. Cristi is excused, she sent Billy and he did run the party and we heard that the baby is really, really cute.

Finally, a little video of the great room before the crowd arrived.



Thanks so much so much to Blayne, Glennis and all the folks at Beacham & Company, REALTORS^® and to Bobby and to Bruce and Lisa. Thanks to the bloggers who have been so nice to me, who've shown me so much.