Lost at the M. Rich & Bros. Co. Building and Found

I go to events so I can see the buildings. It was high time I visited 
the M. Rich & Bros. Co. Building.

It is a legendary place, home to Rich's Department Store until 1924. C4 Atlanta gave me the perfect excuse.

You'll get your chance on February 2, more on that below.

This is the south water tower. You'll want to read about it in Jeff Clemmons new book Rich's: A Southern Institution.

I was not prepared.

It was way cooler and way bigger than I thought. The architectural firm of Bruce and Morgan remodeled and enlarged this 1882 building 1906. It fronts on Whitehall Street (now Peachtree Street). It's actually 3 buildings shaped like a T-bone with another entrance on Hunter Street (now Martin Luthor King). Four street names gave me a headache.

The event was C4 Atlanta's "TechsmARTs - Using Twitter" presented by Stuart Shapiro from Binders.

C4 Atlanta is a non-profit that helps artists to not starve. They say it better: "(We ) ...build a foundation of research, technology and education for a sustainable, creative economy in the Atlanta region."


Lert to right: Stuart Shapiro is the social media guy and more (@BindersArt) at Binders, Joe Winter is Chief Technology Officer at C4 Atlanta, Jessyca Holland is Executive Director at C4 (@c4atlanta).

 
C4 Atlanta is an early tenant at the re-purposed Rich Building, You know: offices, incubator, gallery, restaurant, a place to attract creatives.


I got there early and roamed.


I took this from the meeting room looking into an "incubator / small office / shared spaces in the middle" kind of place. It felt great there, old and solid with natural light.


The other early birds worked in the meeting room while I got lost. The floating horizontal white window art thingies do a nice job of breaking up the volume.


You'd need a hard heart not to love the ceiling.


Deja vu alert. THIS is a department store stairway. I'd seen pictures of this. I made a wrong turn that turned out right.


I looked out and spotted the balcony, common bond, brick arches galore, and massive sills. Is this 1882 or 1906?


Dark bricks poked out around the windows, a very rugged look.

 
Brick sills made me think this was the newest of the 3 buildings, still more than 100 years old.

It was time for the meeting and I found my way back.


Jessyca gestured the C4 hand signals and introduced Stuart who layed the tweet on us.

Thanks to C4 and Stuart: great information and great people in a great space.

I'm planning to party here on 2013-02-02. You can too and you should.

Dashboard Co-op will present their 2013 artists in  "boom city - 12 Artists // One Floor" on Saturday, February 2, 2013, 7pm - midnight. I've been to these. Art, food, drink, music, often dance, and all the cool kids will be there. Park in the Underground Atlanta Parking Deck.

See you there?
@TerryKearns