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.

Gargoyles and 2 Centenarians in Downtown Atlanta

The view north from SunTrust Plaza features three of Atlanta's 100 year old buildings. I'm sure Portman and Associates made this little observation platform just for architecture tourists.

On Wednesday I took a few pictures of the Imperial Hotel and Sacred Heart Catholic Church. 


This is the view from the SunTrust sculpture garden toward the Sacred Heart Catholic Church's gargoyles. The twin towers are 137' tall.

Orientation.


I was standing under the leftmost arrowhead. Left is south, right is north. This photo looks to the west.


The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Atlanta 1897 by Walter T. Downing (1865-1918), Imperial Hotel 1910 by Edward E Dougherty (1876-1943), Atlanta First United Methodist Church 1903 Willis Franklin Denny (1874-1905)


I don't know the name of the sculpture. I call it "4 big, big-haired beauties kneeling inside a wreath." (Thanks to Travis Taylor who id'ed the sculpture as "The Rites of Spring". More on Travis' blog "Wonderlust Atlanta.")


 
This is a great view (but not a great picture), looking south from Peachtree at Ivan Allen. Sacred Heart's red tower is stunning but you only have until the light changes to see it. My vantage point was just beyond the leafless trees.

Once I started looking I just let it go an enjoyed the view.


The foreground / background mix of styles and colors is what I enjoy most. ..."radically different from its surroundings, and therefore inherently special-looking, happily located to make some drama and contrast.." Jane Jacobs.



Those rich red towers are stunning.


The longer I looked the more I enjoyed the view.


But I didn't have much time left on the parking meter.


One last look at Edward E Dougherty's brickwork Wow. You can't see this unless you stop and look.

SunTrust Plaza isn't on your way but you should go anyway. If you work there, please invite me up for a view.

Prince Hall was a man. Prince Hall Masonic Building is on Auburn Avenue

I never thought I'd see inside of Prince Hall Masonic Building on Auburn Avenue. I've been driving by for decades. It always caught my eye just two blocks west of Ebenezer Baptist Church. And I always thought it was Prince Hall, as in a "hall" named prince. Really! I had no idea until a few weeks ago. Was I the last person to find out?

 This building contained the headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. worked here.

On the Old Fourth Ward Tour of Homes tour map it was just "300 Auburn Avenue," a modest caption for an important place. Thanks to the tour I can show you a little bit of the inside. 

Prince Hall Mosaic Building, 1937, designed by Charles Hopson and Ross Howard.

First: Prince Hall was a person.
"Prince Hall (c.1735 – December 7, 1807),was an African American noted as a tireless abolitionist, for his leadership in the free black community in Boston, and as the founder of Prince Hall Masonry. - Wikipedia

A bit about the building.


There's a daylight terrace level, two office floors, the masonic lodge is on the 3rd floor.


You enter the building proper from Auburn Avenue. This is the lobby / stair tower / elevator lobby looking out to the  main entrance on Auburn Avenue.


Though empty now the first floor was SCLC Heaquarters until 2007. Dr. Martin Luther King's office was in this space, roughly where these folks are standing. For security reasons Dr. King's office didn't have a window. Vann Hall (dark blue shirt) gave the SCLC tour. He worked there back in the day.





Sweet Auburn.

The second floor housed working offices. We didn't tour there.

I wasn't prepared for third floor, for the masonic lodge.



It has terrific proportions, arched ceiling, clerestory windows, classical detailing. But it's not precious, not fragile. Folks have been meeting there for decades and you could sense that.


This is a space that makes people feel important, my favorite kind of room.

Enjoy this 360 look:



What are these things:


I don't know what you call these rectangles with indented corners but they required interesting brickwork.


The motif  repeats inside the lodge.

Charles H. Hopson (1865 - 1941)
"an important regional architect in Nova Scotia, was born in Reading, England and served an architectural apprenticeship there with Joseph Greenaway from 1880...appears to have left Nova Scotia in early 1903 and moved to Selma, Alabama...he later practised in Pensacola, Fla. and in Atlanta, Georgia." - Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada 1850 - 1950

Prince Hall Masonic Building is the 4th Hopson design that I know of in Atlanta. All are favorites of mine.


Rock Springs Presbyterian Church is the design highlight of Piedmont Avenue. don't you think?


The St. Paul's Presbyterian Church steeple on Ponce de Leon has brickwork galore.


Peachtree Christian Church is an Atlanta Landmark, and that's just the outside.

Steeplejacks do windows in Decatur

There no getting abound water damage, even a hundred feet up. This is First Baptist Church, Decatur by Ivey and Crook Job #513, commissioned in 1948.

Man sided windows.

I drive by twice a week It's big church south of the Dekalb Courthouse. I like it better up close than at a distance. It's more chunky than delicate. The second "layer" of the steeple is a Buck Crook trademark, a temple by itself.


They've been repairing water damage since spring. See "Classical rot managment in Decatur. Where does the water want to go?"


This week they did windows, 3 big and one small.


The new windows look modern from the backside, the inward facing side.


Looks like stick-on muntins. You can see old trim parts on the left.


Workaday steeplejacking.


Let's have a cheer for modern lifts.










I was too busy to watch for long and anyway it makes me a bit woozy. The men worked safely but my brain imagined falling.


They were done in a day.


It's a good look.