The lions are way up in the elaborate cornice.
As long as I've been here, it was dumpy, frumpy, and seedy. The 2006 redevelopment into the Glenn Hotel deserves high praise.
It's the last classy, classical building on the west side of downtown.
There's nothing nearby left from it's era. The Omni, (now CNN Center), the former Federal Reserve, 101 Marietta (now Centennial Tower), the digital billboard with the giant clock, the Centennial Park light towers, are practical, impressive, modern, "activated" pop.
It's a vibrant area but my eye prefers the Glenn.
Let's count lions.
There is one lion on the rear of the building which faces southwest.
Eighteen lions on the Spring Street side.
There are nineteen lions on the front which faces Marietta Street.
Lion thirty-nine flies solo over the northwest side.
More lions:
- Candler Building Lions: 31 in the Cornice and 4 at the doors.
- Sixty Lions on the Ellis Hotel's Cornice - Really - I Counted Them
Bonus lions:
The Ponce Apartments (now Ponce Condominiums) lions guard Midtown
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I was the project architect on the Glenn renovation. It was one of the most challenging projects I've worked on, but also one of the most gratifying. I'm happy to see it is appreciated as a valuable part of Downtown's fabric.
ReplyDelete-Rob Bartlett-
This building having been built in 1929 is not only the last classical/classic buildings in that downtown area, by 1929 the ornate classical facades were well on the way out of style- you can see this with the relatively plain facade below the rooftop cornice with the lions- other than a couple of flourishes here and there the rest of the facade is just plain brick. After about 1920-1930 there was a brief period when Art Deco and polychrome decoration was popular, but by 1940 that was pretty much the end of it, and the beginning of what I call the cardboard box and parking garage style.
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