Rick Anderson said I should see the Prickett Chapel

Last Wednesday I found myself following the security guard's truck. I was looking for the open air chapel and I was lost.

The day before I'd asked landscape architect Richard Anderson what I should see. He said, "The chapel at Westminster." So There I was.

It's the Barbara Johnson Prickett Chapel at Westminster-School Atlanta. If you aren't from Atlanta, Westminster is among the most pretentious private schools in Atlanta. The campus is wooded, hilly, and beautiful.

The security gaurd led me to the driveway of the president's house and there was the chapel, modest and picturesque.


It's new, dedicated April 19, 2010, but the building technology is ancient.


Just 4 rows of pews.


It's open air.


It doesn't impress with size or decorative details. It's the stones.




It's the stones.


You can see it all in a few minutes. But the longer you look, the more you see.


Slow down and linger.


Look up to see the scissor beams. The ceiling reveals its age, needs another 100 years of patina.


Look up to see the inscriptions.


The roof slate is all shadow grids and diagonals.


Smooth, variegated, rough beveled edges, craftsmanship galore.


They built it in New York, and shipped it to Atlanta for reassembly.
"The chapel consists of eight arches made from Adirondack granite and a twenty-seven foot granite tower located at the rear of the building. Originally commissioned to Terry Lamphere, the Westminster Chapel was primarily carved by Alan M. Webster Jr and Curt vonSchilgen. All stone is granite from the Adirondack region in upstate New York."


The tower door is in shadows. Make sure to give it a good look.


Look closely.


Thanks to Rick for the suggestion. Thanks to the kind Westminster guard for showing me the way.

Nota bene:  Rick Anderson did the landscape design pro bono. He didn't ask me to blog it. My impression:  I didn't "notice" the landscape. Chapel and landscape seemed like one integrated thing.

2nd Stop: Paces Ferry UMC - APC Sacred Spaces Tour

I began my Saturday at the Paces Ferry United Methodist Church for the Atlanta Preservation Center's first "Sacred Spaces" tour.


Paces Ferry Road is home to the Governors Mansion and many of Atlanta finest homes. A church on "Paces" should be big.


I guess this wasn't so in 1896. On a hilltop on Paces Ferry at Mr. Paron it remains a quiet place in the woods. It's a scene you might find anywhere in the Appalachian foothills. It shares the Architecture Tourist award for "Buckhead's small and lovable churches" with New Hope AME Church on Arden Road.


A familiar shape.


It has never burned. They take extraordinary care with candles. A wedding party that insisted on candles hired a fire truck to stand by in the parking lot.


I'm an architecture optimist: beauty doesn't require billions. If you build something beautiful and lovable, people will try to keep it forever.


No surprises inside, exactly what we'd expect, exactly what we'd want.




The Pleasant Hill Cemetery is older than the building, older than the congregation itself.


Union soldiers remain buried here.


Wm Brown donated the property to the church.


You can unwind and remember on this hill.


Thanks to lay minister, Steven Unti, Kristin Puckett, and to the Paces Ferry congregation for their hospitality.


They'd be happy to see you on any Sunday.

The Fish Abides - a Buckhead Cruise

Morningside to Oglethorpe to Brookhaven to Buckhead to Midtown today.


The only monumental sculpture in Atlanta is oblivious to the abandoned cranes over the Streets of Buckhead. Mega-developments come and go. The fish abides at the Atlanta Fish Market.


I started my errands in Morningside / Lenox Park where folks are fluffing this polychrome roofed beauty. The sun was just right this morning. Get over there soon, it will be in the shade for the next 8 months. See how deep the windows look in the stone?


Tile, stone, shingle, columns, craftsman windows, dormers, balanced but asymmetrical, a curvy drive, close to Crook and Shutze houses, this one is so worthy.


The corner of Peachtree at Piedmont is the heart of Buckhead. Not a nice vista though. Skyscrapers are impressive but rarely lovable. The straight, down-sloping Piedmont Road to the south just can't be pretty. At least Peachtree curves.

I always look for Peachtree Road UMC. It struggles mightily to improve the view for those of us stuck in traffic.


It's a huge place broken into handsome digestible parts.


I took a jag down Shadowlawn to see if Jackson Fine Art looked open. Well, I didn't have time and the Fish called. I took another jag down N Fulton.

This is a teardown. I couldn't get a picture of the side, it goes deep on the lot. That's what caught my eye initially. It rocks. Who did it? Business or home?


A Buckhead lesson for Non-Atlantans: Peachtree Road - commercial. North and west of Peachtree - home of the gentry and beautiful homes. South of Peachtree - former bungalow neighborhood trending commercial and funky.

This bungalow is next door to the teardown above. It's now a hair salon with a wonderful red door. Would you guess that it's few blocks from high-rise luxury?


I headed south on Peachtree to Collier Road. There are a handful of beautiful pre-depression apartments across the street from Piedmont Hospital.

It was a nice place for a party after the Shutze Awards, a nice place for anything except a big family. Thanks Jonathan.


In broad daylight, you can see that this is what modern traditional apartments hope to look like. Imagine the light in those sunrooms.


I headed south again to the bank at Peachtree Circle. I checked parking at Rhodes Hall for Clay Rokicki's "J. Neel Reid Prize Lecture" tonight.

Look, they are working on The Temple.


I hope everything is OK up there.


See you at Rhodes Hall Tonight.