End of the Groovy Oval Brise Soleil?

It's 103 Fort Street and it's coming down, ovals and all. You should drive by but don't hold me responsible for bad dreams.


Parcel Number 14 004600100120, 12 apartments built 1952, total square footage 5,824, lot 0.2865 acres.
Sold 2012-01-13 for $1,190,000. There are a couple more similar apartments next door. I think Georgia State will build athletic fields here.



Nobody drives here, nobody but architecture tourists and a few folks heading north from the King District. You didn't really want to be here. It was a place of not so nice things.

I start at the Candler Building downtown and drive east on John Wesley Dobbs, duck under the connector and viola.


A few weeks ago I noticed the silt fence then an article by Jon Carnright (@JonCarnright) in Curbed Atlanta."GSU's Tale of Two Aged Downtown Properties".

"Not so lucky are the Auburn Place Apartments, which have always had the misfortune of directly facing the Connector on Fort Street. Georgia State University will soon be taking down the 1952 buildings to construct recreational fields. Similar to the old Ramada, they're notable for a gee-whiz architectural accent, in this case a screen of groovy ovals." Jon Carnright, Curbed


It's been one of those abandoned urban blight places.

"The prevalent crime wasn’t lost on police, who made 1,572 calls to the three Fort Street apartments over four years." WSB Atlanta gets tough on eyesore structures


They going to document it.

"In addition to documenting the buildings by establishing a permanent archival photographic record, GSU agreed to develop a historic context report for the Auburn Place Apartments. GSU contracted with Brockington and Associates, Inc., a cultural resources management firm, to produce Photo Documentation and Historical Context of the Auburn Place Apartments (on our website in two parts - 89 and 91 Fort Street; 103 Fort Street). The context documents the history of the Auburn Place Apartments, placing these apartment buildings in the broader history of apartment complex development in the Old Fourth Ward from 1945 through the 1960s, providing a broad comparison of the apartment buildings and complexes built in the Old Fourth Ward with those built elsewhere in Atlanta at the time, providing a broad socio-economic comparison of the Old Fourth Ward apartment complex development with the chronologically-contemporary Collier Heights neighborhood; and creating a documentary photographic record of the three apartment buildings at 89-103 Fort Street." Georgia Department of Natural Resources



But what about the brise soleil ovals? Was it original? From 1952? Were they restored? They don't look 60 years old to me..


Imagine this view from your front door, front windows, front porch.

I'm at a loss. I presume the apogee of mid-century modern came later.


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