Placing Public Landmarks - Recessed Porticos in 3 I-Shaped Atlanta Buildings

These still "class up the joint." One now serves as a Y.W.C.A. after almost 70 years as a church. The other two are abandoned for now.



Architecture tourists can learn something from these. But as your know-nothing host, I can only ask questions.



Are there similar buildings in the Atlanta area? What are the precedents for buildings like these?

Where do public landmarks belong?

This quote from Jane Jacobs rings true to me, a partial explanation of why some of our streets are beloved while others are bores.

"Most landmarks and focal points in cities - of which we need more, not fewer - come from the contrast of use radically different from its surroundings, and therefore inherently special-looking, happily located to make some drama and contrast of the inherent difference ... noble buildings ... set within the matrix of the city, instead being sorted out and withdrawn into 'courts of honor'"- Page 228, ”The Death and Life of Great American Cities” - Jane Jacobs, Vintage Books Edition 1991

The 1930 Lizzie Chapel in Inman Park is the least detailed. Though abandoned and surrounded by many of Atlanta's best Victorians, I like it every time.


Broad shoulders, ionic columns in antis, pediment, attic story. I can imagine the life this added on Sundays, and Wednesdays, and for big Saturday weddings in it's heyday.


The arms if the "I" aren't pronounced but there they are. The pilasters suggest another recessed portico.

The 1924 First Associate Reformed Prebyterian Church was re-purposed as the Northeast Intown YWCA in 1991. It's active 7 days a week. (Re-purposed churches from SacredPlaces.org).


Columns in antis, massive entablature, a suggestion of a gable, fine steps for people watching. I think Highland Avenue strollers get a boost every time they pass. I do.


It may be stretching to call it an "I." It's a capital "T" or wobbly "H." Fine work by Surber & Barber Architects and Carter-DeGolian General Contractors kept this building vital and flexible. I wonder what those tall sanctuary windows were like when it was a church. You might be interested in the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for the Virginia-Highlands Historic District.

The 1926 Crum & Forster Building by Atlanta architects, Ed Ivey and Lewis Crook was an office building. It's abandoned, owned by Georgia Tech, and at risk.


The details are Italian rather than Greek but the portico and the "I" are there.


I think this is a fine building but I haven't fallen in love with it. How well does it serve as a public landmark?

Disappointing Before and After in Inman Park

Last week I blogged Lizzie Chapel in Inman Park, this week it suffered a tagging.

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Little Chapel Magic - Calder Loth Presents Palladio

There are places that delight every time, on the first visit or the 100th. When we get a chance to attend a great event in a great space, out of our way.

The invitation read:

"Please join the ICAA the morning of the Shutze Awards Celebration for a lecture with Calder Loth: Palladio and the American Architectural Image.

"The Little Chapel at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church"

Rodney Cook, Calder Loth, and Carl Gable found a comfortable place to chat before the lecture.

Words fail, the Little Chapel is so elaborate, so over the top, so unexpected, so retro, it just doesn't seem very democratic. Isn't it intimidating; isn't it too high highfalutin? Thomas Jefferson didn't think so. He thought such places elevate the human spirit.

I'm with Tom all the way on this. I found the room full of smiles.


There is a tiny Narthex with a checkerboard floor.


It's an easy place to chat; it's cozy. Marble, wood, plaster, and brass seem just right.


From the narthex oval windows frame the chapel.


Here is some of the over-the-topness I was talking about.


Huh?


But folks feel comfortable inside.


The high-backed pews makes us feel comfortable enough to be chatty. But Palladio looks a bit impatient.


The space gathered us into cozy groups after the lecture.


I wasn't the only one who left happy.


The Rachel Willet English memorial window.

McLean Jenkins - J. Neel Reid Prize Winner, 2008

McLean Jenkins won the J. Neel Reid Prize for 2008. Read more about the prize and the winners here.

McLean titled his prize lecture, "Venice: Sketches of the City."



I met McLean for the first time at the Swan Coach House Gallery. McLean is a featured artists in the show "Architects as Artists" running January 10 - February 25.

"Architects as Artists, Artists as Architects" seems to be a theme for Neel Reid Prize winners.


This piece in the Swan Coach House show is from MeLean's Neel Reid Prize work. Architecture fans will recognize the Scuola dei Tiraoro e Battiloro in Venice. Atlantans may recognize the model for the Joseph Rhodes House, the "Pink Palace" on Paces Ferry.


I spoke with McLean on January 30 at his home a few blocks from mine. He was ready for me with portfolio, map of Venice, some favorite books, and a friendly cat.

The map is the very one he carried on his prize trip.

"As a devoted classicist, Neel Reid gained much acclaim in his residential designs by his close adherence to the Palladian style. In fact Reid described his own mixture of classical detail as 'Georgian-Italian.'

"I intend to do a graphic study of Palladio’s church and palace facades in Venice and Vicenza. Through this analysis I will document how Palladio arrived at solutions for his facades through careful consideration of the distance and angle at which his buildings were viewed and approached."

McLean came to architecture after earning a history degree from Davidson. Though his dad is an architect, he was ambivalent about McLean's career choice. In any case McLean earned his Masters in Architecture from UNC-C. After an exhausting 7 years in "college" McLean spent a year teaching English in Europe, connecting to great cities, architecture and art before starting his career. He connected with Venice most of all.

As with most artists I've met, McLean told me he "was always able to draw."


But this book, Cercare Venezia by Renato Pestriniero and Neil Watson, was a major inspiration. From it McLean adopted the "loose" style he used for his prize drawings.


Santa Maria della Salute

Ponte di Rialto


San Giorgio Maggiore

Today at tvsdesign McLean is working on a convention center in Augusta, Ga. - it will be completed later this year.

"tvsdesign's Augusta Convention Center Combines New Facility With Rehab of 100-Year-Old Warehouse"

And he continues to develop his art.

The Value of Hand-Drawing
As a final note, I asked McLean if tvsdesign called on him for his artistic skill. He said occasionally but the best in the firm is Tom Ventulett, the "V" in tvs.

McLean went on:

"the Ventulett Award is an annual in-house competition where we bring in outside jurors from the profession (or related fields) to judge both project and personal work submitted by anyone in the firm. Its intent is to encourage the sort of hand-drawing that has become a sort of lost art over the years of increased reliance on computer imagery. And with the talent we have at the firm, it is a source of inspiration for all of us to pool our collective creative efforts together each year and simply take in the work in a gallery style format. I have managed to win a couple times in recent years."

Thanks to McLean Jenkins, Neel Reid Prize winner 2008

Classical Coverup on North Highland

I'm participating in Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. Thanks to Susan!

It's being renovated for new tenants. In the process they are covering the classical decorative details c. 1920.


I'll be happy when it's occupied again. It was a Wolf Camera most recently but it's been vacant for a while, a hole in a favorite walking street.


But I'm very surprised that they are covering up the decorative details.


I thought designers treasured these things and showed them off.

They don't detail like this anymore except in mansions.


There are doing a nice job of protecting it as far as I can see.


The details didn't shout. You might have "seen" this as you walked by, but probably not.

Did they look interesting enough to study, sketch, or take a picture?

I remember something being there, but not exactly what.


It looks poignant now, framed in 2x4's.


So I thought I'd show you while I could.


I wish I'd been there the day before.


Few will remember it...even tomorrow.


It will still be there though.


As long as it stays dry and nobody knocks a hole in it - not knowing it's there...


...it should be a great rediscovery one day. "

They'll say, "Can you believe somebody covered this up?"

They'll appreciate how the carpenters tried to protect it.


So I don't think it's tragic. They left everything right where it was.


But I'm surprised.


Every owner and designer would make their own choices against time and budget. We might yet love the finished project or at least respect it.

But my first instinct would have been to let the old parts show.


Here are Key Lime Pie and Surin of Thailand just down the street. They left things alone for now.


I guess it depends on the look you are going for.

What do you think?

Thanks to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.