Free: Thursday Aprl 26 Robert Craig, author of The Architecture of Francis Palmer Smith

I'll be there.

Georgia Tech Professor / Author Robert Craig will speak about his new book, The Architecture of Francis Palmer Smith, Atlanta's Scholar Architect. It's an architecture tourist 5-fer: It's free, it's about one of Georgia's great architects, it's by one of Georgia's great architectural historians, it's in one of Atlanta's great structures.


One of the rose windows at The Cathedral of St. Philip site of the Dr. Craig's talk.

Thursday, April 26 at 6:30pm
Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta, GA


You've seen St. Philip's so many times but you've never been inside, right? Now is the time.


Now is the time.


Francis Palmer Smith also designed Druid Hills Presbyterian Church and much more.

"Francis Palmer Smith was the principal designer of Atlanta-based Pringle and Smith, one of the leading firms of the early twentieth-century South. Smith was an academic eclectic who created traditional, history-based architecture grounded in the teachings of the École des Beaux-Arts. As The Architecture of Francis Palmer Smith shows, Smith was central to the establishment of the Beaux-Arts perspective in the South through his academic and professional career." - Amazon.com

Even University of Georgia fans should admire Francis Palmer Smith's connections to Georgia Tech. How appropriate that a Georgia Tech professor should write the book.

"After studying with Paul Philippe Cret at the University of Pennsylvania, Smith moved to Atlanta in 1909 to head the new architecture program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He would go on to train some of the South’s most significant architects, including Philip Trammell Shutze, Flippen Burge, Preston Stevens, Ed Ivey, and Lewis E. Crook Jr." - Amazon.com

Professor Emeritus Robert Craig Ph.D. (History of Architecture & Urban Development), Cornell University has taught at Georgia Tech since 1973. He's the author of one of favorites, Atlanta Architecture: Art Deco to Modern Classic, 1929-1959. Dr. Craig is a major contributor to the architecture sections of the new Georgia Encyclopedia.

See you there. OK?

This Church Caused My Bloggers' Block

When I can get 3 or 4 coherent sentences together, I've got a blog post. There's no shortage of ideas, inspiration, motivation, it's the coherence, the focus that troubles me. I lost it "Sunday week."

I was rocking The Phoenix Flies for 2012, gathering enough pictures for a month of posts.


Things were going well. We'd finished 2/3's of the Downtown Progressive Organ Recital. I was surprised and delighted to find a John August Swanson exhibit at Central Presbyterian. Imagine that: un-ironic, contemporary religious art. Let's hope Earl Scruggs is enjoying this band right now.


Yes, things were going quite well. We were headed to a place I'd never been, Trinity Methodist (W. T. Downing 1911), the third capitol church. It's the one kitty-cornered towards the southwest from the Georgia's state capital building.


Old and new City Hall to the north, traffic court to the west, expressway gulch to the south, it's a serious sight. It doesn't seem very big in all that space.


We were about to hear Trinity's great theater organ, the refurbished 100 year old Austin.


We anticipated the organ and those giant stained glass windows.


This is where I lost it. Churches impress, Trinity was no exception. It's brick, minimal, with a greenish-yellow light. There was a smell of age. I don't think it was love at first sight.

This is where my brain has been stuck for 10 days, not in a bad way, not in a good way, just stuck.


This is the east window, it's big but my impression was slender, vertical, yellow/green, the motif - slender lampposts.


The north and south window elements are wider.


The symbolic elements are compact and elevated. I couldn't take them all in. Has anyone photographed them for the record?


The pipes blend with the brick rather than "pop" with a bright shiny finish. It's line and texture in monochrome, windows too. The old woodwork is what "pops." The pews are 1856, from the old church that burned. Sherman slept his troops on these pews.


Organist Bruce Wynn told is a bit about the church and organ.

You can see some of the brick and wood details.

The brick tricked me: my brain felt more outside than inside.


The view from the chancel. The choir loft is small, Bruce said it was intended for 2 quartets.


Theater organs are voiced differently than church organs, it was certainly different to my ears. We were happy to hear Bruce demonstrate.


We walked inside the wind box / air box / air chest. When Bruce turned on the air, the box went air tight and you couldn't open the door.

It is a 100 year-old example of handmade functional woodworking. It's not furniture but it is beautiful.


There is a bit of fresh wiring.


"Austin developed the Universal Air Chest System" "During the second world war the company contributed gliders to the war effort."

That wasn't all.


The pipe room extends behind the sanctuary into this room where Bruce can play from a second console.


This hexagonal, balconied room is a tiny Victorian chapel surrounded by a kitchen and Sunday school rooms. It took my be surprise.

I'll let it go there. I hope this cures my bloggers' block. I may have to return to the scene.

Thanks to the Atlanta Preservation Center and to the Atlanta Chapter — American Guild of Organists.

Philip Shutze's roof-top picnic grounds has a faulty tower.

Architecture Tourists like you and me take advantage of every opportunity.

I had to go to my bone doc to see this. Looking north from the 19th floor of the Emory Midtown Hospital, I could see the Emily Winship Woodruff Maternity Center at Crawford Long Hospital by Philip Trammell Shutze et al 1945.



Now that you know it's there, keep your eye out for the "temple on the roof" and the two flat-top towers.

It's mostly hidden but you can spot the roof from many places in Midtown.


The view is pretty good from the top floor of the parking deck.

Architecture Tourists always park on the top floor, right?


It's nice to see details 9 stories up.


Here is the view through the window glare.

In 1945, I don't think the architects intended for anyone to see this view.


There are picnic tables up there.

I've been there. I lost my work ID near the hospital and someone turned it in. Hospital Security was on the top floor so that's were I went to pick it up.

I was up there before they built the 19 story building. There were rocking chairs and a truly extraordinary view south towards downtown Atlanta.


The west tower has Flemish bond all the way up. I admire the designers and the masons. The crisp corners make a difference to the eye from miles away.


I like the idea that these decorative towers, had a practical purpose. I don't know the purpose - probably heating / cooling / ventilation - but I can imagine the conversations between designers, engineers, and budgeteers.


What is the story with the faulty east tower?


I hope they have their top people working on it.


Actually it's just a reflection. Thanks to "Anonymous" for the tip. I looked like hole to me so I returned for another picture.

Let's review: Emory Midtown Hospital, formerly Crawford Long, the best architecture views in town, for a hospital. I'll also award a prize to Atlanta Medical Center's maternity floor for the best view of Atlanta's downtown.


View to the northwest and Georgia Tech.


Look east from the parking lot. The awesome W. W. Orr Doctors' Building (1930) and the hospital Lobby frame some of the last bits of the old commercial charm on Peachtree.


The Art Deco Orr Building is one of my very favorite Atlanta Buildings. It's so elegant, it rewards every time.

To clad Vuiton in Onyx call Michael Ra at Front Inc.

Michael Ra's and Front Inc's specialty is skinning, skinning buildings that is.

Think of all the "starchitects" out there and all those crazy buildings. Somebody has to figure out the skin: How to engineer it, keep the water out, keep it from falling off in hurricanes and earthquakes, how to manufacture it, how to install it, how to maintain it, how to build it on budget on time.

You have to clean the windows and it's very dusty in the UAE.

What if the architect wants Onyx? Call Front Inc.


Lvmn Paradise Building in Osaka by Kengo Kuma + Associates. Photo from Flickr courtesy of Hiromitsu Morimoto.


Michael Ra visited the Georgia Tech College of Architecture this week.

He explained how they did the onyx: Take a sheet of Onyx; clad both sides in glass; slice the onyx in half so that you end of with 2 panels of onyx faced glass. Of course. Why didn't I think of that?


At least the onyx is flat. What if you need curves?

Or curved glass, or glass panels.


In any case you have to design it so it can be manufactured and installed.


You've got to test it. This is the glass "ceiling" for the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum in San Antonio.

I asked Michael how he came to be a skinner. He said that Illinois Institute of Technology is strong in the engineering aspect of architecture. He must have had a knack. One of his instructors hired him right out of school.


He seemed to enjoyed the challenge that resulted in drawings like these as much as he enjoyed finished project.


Isn't specialization limiting? Doesn't is stifle creativity? For Michael, it doesn't seem so. In fact I'm pretty sure that he loves what he's doing.

And if your clients include Richard Meier, Renzo Piano, Frank Ghery and a host of others around the world, how boring can it be?

I was most amused during the Q&A. Folks asked about his firm's "agenda" was it about sustainability, conservation, being green. Micheal said his firm was young and their agenda is "getting it built."

Thanks to Micheal Ra, to Georgia Tech, and to Assistant professor Tristan Al-Haddad and to Professor George Johnson, chair of the School of Architecture for making me feel at home.

Gold Pink Blue Beaux-Arts at Druid Hills Baptist

Is there anything like this anywhere else in Atlanta? Thanks to Jim Wright, Mimi and Graham Walker for giving us a look inside this extraordinary place, Druid Hills Baptist Church.









If you've ever driven Ponce de Leon - and who hasn't - this stands at the Ponce's highest point on one of Atlanta's great corners. It's a breathtaking, blonde brick, beaux-art beauty.



I'm a major bore about this: It's more fun living here when we learn more about the people and great places in our own backyard. In that spirit I approached Jim Wright at the church and gathered a group of architecture tourists.



Atlanta contractor, preservationist, writer, Wright Marshall wrote this about the church:

"Edward Bennett Dougherty and Arthur Neal Robinson are two architects that have largely been forgotten in their native city...the two men designed one of Atlanta’s most impressive landmarks: the First Church of Christ, Scientist. Both men would design later churches that are similar to this Peachtree landmark...The Druid Hills Baptist Church (Dedicated July 1928) was designed by Dougherty and has many similarities. In 1923 Robinson designed the Second Church of Christ, Scientist in Cincinnati that also resembles the earlier Atlanta church."

Both are unforgettable. Top: Druid Hills Baptist, bottom: First Church of Christ, Scientist.



So where is all this gold, pink and blue?





Up there.





Up there.





Up there.









The main level is rusticated, it's fancy around the horseshoe balcony.





See what I mean: plain below, fancy above.









A church discussion covers a lot of ground and a lot of Atlanta history.



This was just one room in this huge church. We slipped out to the portico.









It's at the highest point on Ponce so there is a good view.





How many times have I driven by without looking closely?







I've only scratched the surface of this huge church.



Thanks to our hosts, Jim, Mimi, Graham, and all of the Druid Hills Baptist community. Thanks to fellow tourists Warren Williams, Bobby Mays, Syd Janney, Don Janney, Eileen Drennen, Terry Stevick, Emily Wert, Bill Barber, and Wright Marshal - the more eyes we have the more we can see. I hope we can do it again soon.











Read Wright Marshall on Clem Ford in Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles.



They continued steadfastly : a history of Druid Hills Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia by Harry Shaw, Jeanne Osborne Shaw, Ga.) Druid Hills Baptist Church (Atlanta)