Artists: 2009 Telephone Factory Art Show Atlanta

I'm participating in Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. Thanks to Susan! This used to be a telephone factory and it was built to last. Now it's an art, design, and coolness factory. Once a year we get a look inside. Design fans, you'll want to see the a few pictures of a French style collection in the postscript.

Fun art...


In this beautiful industrial building:


In lofts like this:


I did the Telephone Factory Art Show on Sunday. (I did the Fulton Cotton and Bag Mill tour on Saturday). Mark your calendar for next year: First weekend in December, great loft buildings, great lofts, great art, great people, great time.

Demone Phelps


Bradley Wade




By Matthew Mayes: end of hall Zen View


Matthew Mayes:


Artist / photographer Susan Poindexter showed photographs printed on a variety of fabrics. Recognize Rhodes Hall?


by Susan Poindexter:


By Mary Klein, a founder of the Telephone Factory Art Show


Alex Leopold


by Alex Leopold


Clay artist Gwen Fryar


by Gwen Fryar


Clay artist Lori Buff


Sir Fred Gear and his polar bear band


Jennifer Henley


by Jennifer Henley


Thanks so much.
Terry

P.S. A few design pix from Caryn Grossman - cg creative interiors to compliment Claire Watkins Interior Design's High Gloss Blue post. You need to click the pictures and make them bigger so you can see the details.











Thanks to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.

Shining beautiful winter light on Atlanta's architecture

This little blue house has emerged from the Kudzu and glows in the low December sunlight.

Though I'm a warm weather person and I certainly enjoy our usually lush southern landscape, I take great pleasure in winter light. It makes winter tolerable.

Overgrown Kudzu and well intended but overgrown landscaping hide our great houses. The low angled summer sun lights the buildings, changes the shadows and reveals new details.

Back the the little blue vernacular house. You'll never find it. If I turned around, you'd see the skyline view and know where it is. I'll let it stay hidden.

Not everyone likes Atlanta's Federal Reserve Building on Peachtree at 10th. I do.


It's our own modest Taj Mahal. It's Georgia marble (42,000 pieces) covered facades glow in Atlanta's winter sunlight like a light bulb. The rest of mid-town seems dull in comparison. A government bank, in marble should be overwhelmingly authoritarian. I don't feel that. There won't be any street-level stores but there is a nice lawn. The "Dump" next door has a metal fence for goodness sake. I prefer the Fed's eagle, columns, and benches.

I enjoy but dread the appeals court building downtown. The Federal Reserve is a welcome pleasure from every direction. Every new building in Midtown makes it look even better.

Reynolds Stewart, Stewart & Associates with Robert A.M. Stern Architects. Doesn't it remind you a little of the Mansion in Buckhead, another Stern building?

Dog in blue tape

At the Telephone Factory lofts. This dog is taller than me, done totally in 2 brands (2 hues) of blue painters tape.

Two Atlanta Tours September 15-16: "O4W Tour" and "NATURE into URBANISM"

It's a weekend of too much for architecture tourists, too much art too.

And I tell ya': It makes me cranky when the stuff I enjoy happens at the same time. I may just stay home and take a nap, watch some football, or both.

The 2012 O4W Tour of homes is Sunday, September 16. It's just one day 12 am-4 pm. The tour features All kinds of places: 5 houses, a loft, a condo, Prince Hall and a rooftop on Freedom Parkway. It costs $20 at the Irwin Street Market Ticket Booth which opens at 10.

The ‘NATURE into URBANISM’ Tour & Design Event is new to me. It kicks off with a reception that includes films and exhibits on Saturday, September 15 from 6 pm - 9 am. The tours are Sunday, September 16 11 am – 4pm. Tickets are $5 and you should get them online. This includes a tour of the Robert Cain design: "Rain Shine House" in Decatur. Every architecture tourist wants to see that.

How are we going to work this thing out?

Delightful Dancing in a wonderful Dump: Noelle Stiles at Mint

Noelle Stiles danced Saturday night at Mint Gallery presented by Dance Truck and Mint in the Old 4th Ward.



"MINT Gallery and Dance Truck team up to present Portland dancemaker Noelle Stiles! Noelle Stiles makes her debut in the SE at MINT Gallery, with a multi-media performance designed for Dance Truck." from the Mint Blog.


Mint is in the industrial heart of the Old 4th Ward, smack on the west side of the Beltline. It's just south of Atlanta's Virginia Cotton Docks. You wouldn't know it's there, between Jack's Pizza and Studioplex.


View Larger Map
There is no heavy industry there anymore. The area features arts, artisans, entertainment, hospitality. I presume that even Sampson Street will shed is low rent soon and the artists will move elsewhere if they haven't already.


For now the setting remains industrial, dumpy, a bit dangerous, non-commercial, not a destination for most. The crowds are young, seeking something edgy; they are infallibly polite (to this old man), committed to Atlanta's art scene, and ready to enjoy themselves in the process.


Noelle Stiles' stage was a small flat-bed. Her work, "Here Begins a Region of Eclipse," seemed to be about the world between sleeping and waking.


There was sound and silence.


She danced with swimming elephants and without.


I'm with the crowd on the concrete in the dark. I don't think we all know what to make of the dance. But we do share a magic moment; we connect without speaking.


It was over in 20 minutes.

It's better than watching TV on Saturday night.


Here is Malina Rodriguez, the force behind Dance Truck. She's explaining that after a Dance Truck performance, people dance! Malina is one of the folks who make non-commercial art happen in Atlanta. I'm delighted to know her just a bit, to run into her from time to time.

After music, dance, a bit of magic, I headed into the gallery.


Mint trades in energetic art.


Art pieces on art walls.


My eye kept returning the the pyramids in desert colors.


I can't resist graphic fish shapes.

Sampson Street, Atlanta Continued

Tiny peach duplex, green roof, chunky dentils, and tasty column details.



This expands my tour of Sampson Street started with my "Virginia Cotton Docks - Sampson Street, Atlanta" post. Sampson will never be in any guide book, just an interesting little street made for folks like me.

Here is the map:


View Larger Map

Irwin Street is more or less the dividing line between the Old Fourth Ward and Inman Park. It parallels a railroad centered industrial / warehouse corridor. It's been "urban poineered" and the Beltline Project may pump it more even more.

We're looking west on Irwin Street from the southern end of Sampson Street. The tower is the local landmark. The diagonal street just the the left of the tower is Atlanta's famous Auburn Avenue, the axis of the King Historic District.



The Studioplex Lofts is a massive former warehouse at the corner of Irwin, Sampson, and Auburn. It's now live/work. They chopped out the center to make a sunlit corridor.



The north end of Sampson Street dead ends into Highland Avenue.



Looking south down Sampson. To the left you can see the new-gentry condo building that hosts the P'cheen Restaurant. This used to be a scrap metal yard. This part of Highland is booming with a new urban scene.



I don't know for sure but the tiny lots suggest a history of mill houses.



Here are two modern versions of the skinny house.



The Irwin Street Market always makes me smile.



Sampson Street isn't a destination but if you are in the neighborhood, don't miss it.

Meet some of Atlanta's modern archtiects

We met a bunch of Atlanta's modern architects at Modern Atlanta 10. If you read to the bottom, you'll find the horse lamp. This is an LED chandelier:


In the order of my picture taking.

This is Johnna Barrett of Barrett Design International, LLC. She designed "Spring Creek" which was on the tour.


We met Peter S.K. Yeung, A.I.A at the Eames Demetrios event. He was a fan (and architecture tourist) just like us.


Here are husband wife architects, Jose Tavel and Cara Cummins of Tac Studios. They designed the tour's Harris/Carroll residence shown in the picture. In the small world category: they live and work next door to my son.


We met architect John Bencich of Square Feet Studios (center) whose "Bencich Residence" was on the tour. On the right is builder Robert Soens of Pinnacle Custom Builders (right). Robert has done a number of modern houses including Decatur's RainShine House and the tour's Harris/Carroll residence.


Vivian Bencich is Principal, Interior Designer at Square Feet Studios. They designed the footbridge over the railroad at White Provision, one of the my very favorite structures in Atlanta.


In the center is architect Bryan Russell of Dencity Design who the did the

Liotta Residence on the tour. (If you are getting all modern'ed out, see the Dencity house at Alys Beach.) On the left is Clair Bannerman host of "Our Coastal Art Scene with Claire Bannerman" on 30-A Radio. On the right is Kara Thomas, designer with Habachy Designs who worked on the Liotta house.

This is architect, Joseph Dreher, responsible for the new "bridge" and major renovations of the tour's Wollaert Residence. Joe is an alumni of Peter Block Architects.


I'd like to thank my fellow Sunday Docents Christy Nixon, Rochelle Cole, Caitlin Henry, and to Matt-Dahlhauser from Cablik Enterprises, builder of the Liotta Residence. And thanks to the the owners who allowed us to spend a wonderful day enjoying their house.


I'd like to say hello to fell docent Allan Price, architect at Pieper O'Brien Herr Architects. Wish I'd gotten a picture.

Terry

I promised a horse lamp: