Party at the Beacham Series Cover House

The 2010 Beacham Series Magazine deserved it's kickoff party last Thursday. Your fortunate host was there to enjoy a fine Atlanta evening. Here is the cover house as it lit up at dusk.


Bunch of bloggers.

Left to right: Pamela, I'm in the blue shirt, then Niki McNeill of SingleBubblePop, Dana Jones - thegreatdanaj, Blayne Beacham of This Photographer's Life, Kate Abney of Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles. James from Limestone & Boxwoods was there too but camera shy. Those Atlanta bloggers who weren't there are hereby placed on secret probation.

The pool was party central. It felt very nice down there, many comfortable places for sitting or standing, good circulation for mingling.


The beautiful balcony overlooks the backyard.


Folks took advantage of the views. What do you call those columns that appear to be bundles of rods wrapped together?


People gravitated toward comfortable places. Standing is Harrison Design Associates principal, Rick Hatch.


Harrison Design Associates designed and redesigned the house. Here is Bill Harrison himself talking with Beacham agent, Anne Powers. Anne and I grew up together. We had an unexpected and touching reunion at the party. Anne said that the "little kids" we were in High Point are still very much with us.


This is a stunning view from the pool. Two curvy chimneys flank a magnificent oriel window. The pool house roof grounds what might otherwise be an intimidating wall.


This is a nice place.


On the right is Cristi Holcombe of Charm Home. You can see how Blayne, Nikki, Cristi, the pool house and the great house make me look thin.


My impressions? This is a big house, done to a "T" if you know I mean. What struck me most was the comfort in the spaces. The interior spaces are extensive, impressively sized and detailed but they never made me feel small.

The entrance facade and courtyard conceal the bigness, the flanking garages seemed to embrace me, I felt very good there. The big windows and shallow pitched roof mitigate the bigness, made it human scaled I think.

The backyard faces the full 3 stories of the house. Balconies, shelters, stairways, and the pool house break up the great mass. There are many inviting, sheltering places on the back. They make yard comfortable and invite you into the house.

From A Patter Language: 160. BUILDING EDGE

"Crenelate the edge of buildings with places that invite people to stop. Make places that have depth and a covering, places to sit, lean, and walk, especially at those points along the perimeter which look onto interesting outdoor life."

Inside, well, it takes a pro to present the inside in pictures. Blayne's listing pictures are the best substitute to being there.

My very favorite indoor space? The downstairs kitchen is the headquarters for a family space where children and their parents can pleasantly run amok.

Many thanks to Beacham And Company Realtors and the the gracious homeowners for a wonderful evening. Thanks to Greg Palmer of Harrison Design Associates for these up-lit columns in antis on the pool house.


Bravo and thanks again.

The Clough: Best Stair in Atlanta? Best Roof Garden?

125. STAIR SEATS ". . . we know that paths and larger public gathering places need a definite shape and a degree of enclosure, with people looking into them, not out of them...Stairs around the edge do it just perfectly...Wherever there is action in a place, the spots which are the most inviting, are those high enough to give people a vantage point, and low enough to put them in action." A Pattern Language

I climbed the Clough on Wednesday, the brand new 220,000 square foot G. Wayne Claugh Undergraduate Learning Commons at Georgia Tech. I like it, you may too. It's for people. It jumps.


Facility programming by Perry Dean Rogers Architects with Houser Walker Architecture. Bohlin Cywinski Jackson designed it. They also did Tech's "Nano" building, and many Apple stores.
220,000 sq. ft.- 2,100 total seats, 41 classrooms, Two 300-plus seat, auditoria Group study rooms.


Natural light permeates all 5 floors. But the best place may be the West Gallery.


The best stair in Atlanta? "Wherever there is action in a place, the spots which are the most inviting, are those high enough to give people a vantage point, and low enough to put them in action." This is a fun place, a theater that can activate our mundane chores.

Up to the roof.


Lightning rods.


This is the roof, a garden growing wild (172. GARDEN GROWING WILD). The path connects cozy sitting niches...


...and leads to this view of Midtown.


The north facade.

For my fellow Tech alums: the Clough adjoins the library on the West and occupies the hill, the old library parking lot, and a bit of the EE parking lot. You can't drive through there any more. Skyles is on the other side in this picture.

You should visit if you get the chance.

"87.63% Unattractive" - Kinder Baumgardner

Kinder was describing his take on Atlanta's downtown connector.

Central Atlanta Progress, and the Midtown Alliance hope to change that and they are making plans.

Kinder Baumgardner is Principal and Director of SWA Houston. He spoke last night at Georgia Tech. As planner dialed to "11" he presented breathtaking ideas to engage the public and excite the stakeholders.

"Push your client to do something great."

Your humble architecture tourist has expended big chunks of his life on the downtown connector. But I've never connected the connector with "beauty" until last night, listening to Mr. Baumgardner.



Did you know there was such a thing as a "I-75/85 Connector Transformation" project? Well there is; it even has a Facebook page: "Atlanta Connector Project."

"Museum of Freeway Art" a 5 mile linear museum.

Let's look at a few layers:


Left: the "green" layer. The connector corridor is a huge swath of land and there is room for trees and vertical gardens, a lot of room.
Center: the "lighting" layer.
Right: the "art" layer. The blue circles are art centers we already have.

"Art Tourists Spend More Money. It's a demographic to cultivate."


Folk Art Park is smack on top of the connector right now.


After a few more layers, I felt a bit hopeful.


I was thinking about the 5th Street Bridge which covers a bit of the connector. It demonstates how often-competing stakeholders can partner to do something great.


Students, professors, Midtown Alliance, and Central Atlanta Progress folks got an eyeful and an earful.

You can learn more in this brief presentation.

Find out about the Georgia Tech School of Architecture lecture series. They are free and challenging. The next one is on Wednesday, September 14, 2011 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM featuring Jeff Sheppard.

Inman Park's Fun Figure Fence

We cruised through Atlanta's Inman Park today and took some pictures of a great fence belonging to a corner bungalow.



So few designs are fun:


Who lives here? What's it like inside? It's a lot bigger than it looks.


I think a circa 1920's bungalow (might be older) should look it age. The hydrangeas have done their color duty and but continue their work in form, texture, and fading.


But I'm easy to please. This is just one detail on one house on a street you might not even find.

Thanks,
Terry

We want to live at Habersham Gardens

Habersham Gardens is a full service garden center near our place. It's just off Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta. If you are in the neighborhood, you'll enjoy a visit. We want to live there.

Why? Well, it's colorful.



It's an architecture and site plan that appeals us. It wasn't originally built as a garden center. It's in a series of single story huts, sheds, porches, and shacks joined by gravel paths and arbors. Here, green meets blue.



Blue and orange.



Mottled red, 2 greens, bright blue door, curvy fence top, stuck-on white finials.



This little building is one a series connected sheds, partly enclosed and part cool hangout. The empty door and window frames look good.



There is an overgrown path. Where does it lead?



To the garden theater, just in case we want to put on a show or a wedding.



We love gravel paths, drives, and yards. You can't tell from the pictures but Habersham's paths are crushed terracotta mixed with deep blue glass pebbles. It's a great effect.



The garden center got us feeling colorful and eclectic. We had to try it ourself. So we bought this inexpensive outdoor rug for our porch. We'll see how that turns out.



We have few more pictures in the slide show, full screen is nice.





As long as you are in the neighborhood, you should visit Flora Dora and Antiques and Beyond.

Steve Nygren's "Artist Talk" at Serenbe

What a Saturday: Steve Nygren showed us around Serenbe.


If you've been around Atlanta much, you'll recognize Steve. He's giving an incidental thumbs up.

It was actually an artist talk from the man who has the whole concept in his head. We got a walking tour, a house tour, a neighborhood tour, a new urbanism tour, a government relations tour, and a land use planning tour, a TND tour, a sustainability tour, a form based code/transect tour and more.

Steve even showed us his kitchen and introduced his dog. That's what we give our highest awards for.


For me the day started with a carpool meet-up at Glenwood Park with some Young ICA&A folks. That's Clay Rokicki in the baseball hat and Capella Kincheloe in the straw hat. You know who they are, right?

The Young Institute of Classical Architecture and Art (Young ICA & A) put the event together. If you join the ICA & A, you'll find out about events like this. So join already!

We rendezvoused at Serenbe's Blue Eyed Daisy Bakeshop and Steve took it from there.

Here is Steve discussing using porches instead of lawn chemicals.



Then we went for a walk, taking advantage of the Omegas. Ask me about Omega design some time.


This the Serenbe real estate office, a mighty nice room. This is where we started our talk and walk...


To a southern vernacular single family. This shape is etched my brain from childhood drives in Randolph County with my parents.


A shady hill-side balcony in the live-work building.


Steve led us down some stairs to a gravel courtyard with arbors and fountain hiding 30 geothermal wells. It's by Ryan Gainey.


We followed Steve another few steps to a shady gravel path that linked Omegas.


We couldn't see houses from the path but we soon emerged on a street of single families.


Steve told about porch requirements, yard requirements, streetlight requirements, and the composting garbage concierge. It seemed like a lot of requirements.

But Steve's explanation of the concepts helped us grok the details. This was an artist's talk after all.


We took another path through the woods to the dog trot house. I'd be happy with the steps, even one step like these.

We'd only seen a tiny bit of Serenbe but it was plenty to get us thinking.


If you'd like to play "Where's Waldo," find

• Alec Michaelide and Ken Lemm from Land Plus
  
• Charles Heydt from Pak Heydt
  
• Mike Morgan from Land Matters
  
• A host of architects from Historical Concepts
  

Thanks to Steve, the Young ICA&A, Colleen O'Keeffe from Historical Concepts, and fellow tourists, what a pleasure.

So Join the ICA&A.

Before I leave I want to mention folks I've met via my blog who have Serenbe connections: Peter Block designed the Serenbe Stables. Lance Carlson and Marc Mosley of Carlson & Mosley Architects worked with Ryan Gainey on Serenbe landscapes. Designer and blogger Claire Watkins just happened to be visiting Serenbe.