I Don't Think This Is a Smashing Visual Success - Do You?

To my eye it's interesting visual clutter, not my style. So on this gray Sunday morning I saw it on foot, walked all the way around.

They tore down the I. M. Pei designed Gulf Oil Building. In fact they tore down the whole block except for St. Paul's Presbyterian to build 131 PONCE Apartment Homes.


There are done now and this is what we got. View east on Ponce de Leon.


I'm not going to rehash all the controversy but you can rehash all you want. View south on Juniper.


Not every angle of the old Gulf Building was magnificent; not everybody loved it.


The developers saved the marble and built an homage to the old building and put the pool on top. Bathers will have a great view of the Midtown skyline. View west on Ponce de Leon.


I was most concerned about St. Paul's Presbyterian, a one-of-a-kind that I fear is a white elephant for which which we must hope. I don't think "131" leveraged St. Paul's beauty though. The block looks like a mess from this angle too.


They scraped off the Gulf Oil Building, a former office furniture store, and parking lots, a little more than 2.5 acres. View east from the top of the Ponce Apartments.

I give credit for building on one of our most road-isolated blocks. Juniper (bottom of picture, one-way right) has five one-way lanes south, Piedmont (bottom of picture, one-way left) has four one-way lanes north. Six lanes each on North and Ponce de Leon. It's busy and fast on these streets.

I walked counter-clockwise starting at Ponce then south on Juniper.


The Gulf Oil Building gave Juniper a cold shoulder. View south on Juniper.


The Juniper side felt comfortable to me, from here it seemed like an apartment building. I felt safely buffered by a green strip and protected by a row of poles and trees. I wasn't expecting comfort. Walking here has never been so good. View south on Juniper.


Emory's new Proton Therapy Building (the beached white whale) is a lot less inviting. View Northwest from North Avenue.


From the corner of North and Juniper I could see the whole new composition without the Pei homage or the church. It's what I imagine the Khumbu Icefall on Everest looks like. My eye couldn't get a grip on it but I did see balconies. View east on North Avenue.


The North Avenue Side.


Here's the view from North and Piedmont. My eye didn't get it except for the balconies.


It kind of woks as the foot hills protecting Peachtree Ridge and the Midtown skyscrapers. You might think of it as a fortified line. This could be the most picturesque building on Ponce between North Avenue Presbyterian and Highland School Lofts. View west on North Avenue.


The Ivy Hall Apartments on the right are a bit more traditional.


I'm most interested in the Church, in making sure it survives. I hoped the new apartment would leverage it, compliment it.


I'm not sure it does.


It needs help.


The green corner makes a difference. Go have a look.



Happy New Year.

Grandest House on Moreland Avenue (except Kreigshaber House) is Boarded Up

It's on the way to Grandma's if you go the long way and the long way is the Architecture Tourist's favorite way to go.

I've been sneaking by here when I could for almost 20 years. I've been dreaming a history for it but I'd like to know the real story if you know somebody who knows. There's a map and a video at the bottom.


This grand house is near Ellenwood Georgia on Highway 23 south of I-285.


It's the grandest house with the grandest garage on Moreland until you get to McDonough, until long after Moreland has changed to Macon Highway, North Henry Boulevard, then Atlanta Street.


It has the maximum front porch for a one-story.  And who doesn't love fluted square columns of real wood.


I've never seen a soul or even a car there. A couple of years ago they boarded up the back windows.


Yesterday I had a little look around.


Looks like it was last a real estate office.


Or maybe a developers' office.


A little leaky in one room.


An important fireplace.


It has mostly lost its identity as a house. Perhaps it was never a home, perhaps it was a funeral home, maybe both but I don't know.


There's a side porch too. Looks like the copper thieves have already been here.


The side porch faces this walled garden on the the north side, can't see it from the street. They've kept the lawn mowed.


There's a millstone in the middle.


View from the walled garden.


You'd need a hard heart not to fall in love with the garage.

Go see if you are in the neighborhood. It's where Old Rex Morrow Road T-Bones Highway 23.



Video 1:02

Little Flatiron Landmark in Reynoldstown

I've always had a crush on it, always wanted it be something, always wanted an excuse to visit.

"The plan of streets in Reynoldstown is a series of small grids that connect awkwardly to one another...forming T-shaped intersections..." - National Register of Historic Places Registration Form February, 2003

The crazy curvy diagonal of Flat Shoals Avenue gives rise to some "odd shaped lots" that make Reynoldstown perpetually interesting to me.


My eye always stops at this little flatiron. It shows on all four sides and even its backside is cute. It's pretty much at the center of "downtown" Reynoldstown.


It's been boarded up as long as I remember then a hair salon.

Let's have a look around.


The front looks like a face to me. You?


The streetcar to East Lake, Decatur, and the Soldiers Home ran on the right side.















Update: Thanks to Lisa: Flatiron in Red via Streetview:


Perhaps you can tell me a little more about this place.

Prominent and Challenging Corner Tear-down is Complete and I Like It

They say that challenges and constraints motivate designers - in this case Harrison Design. Does that make it harder or easier? "I think maybe it's both." - Forrest Gump

It was a high bar. It's a across the street from an Ivey And Crook, a block from two more "Crooks" and a long block to Philip Shutze's Dwoskin House.

It's a difficult elevated corner, book-end'ed with a fine diagonally sited Italianate on the other corner. It's a small lot so there's no hiding and you can see all four sides from the street.

And of course it has to meet the lenders' size/amenity checklists for the neighborhood demographic.

This wasn't easy.



The old house was built 1948, 2,572 square feet, an infill I think, most neighboring houses are pre-Depression.


It was low slung up in the ivy and shade. You'd notice the lot rather than the house.


From the street.


The back showed some details.


It tumbled down the hill. This is how the architect solved the problem.

It eventually disappeared into the setting. Some folks like them like that.

But it's hard to build the 4,500+ square feet the market requires and disappear into the landscape.


Instead of hiding it they built a landmark in stylistic harmony with it's neighbors.

Some folks say it's too big.  But at 4,289 square feet it's smaller than neighboring tear-downs on smaller lots which often exceed 6000 square feet on 1/5 acre.


This doesn't look easy to me.

But diagonals are cool and the "L" shaped front and "U" shaped back presented opportunities for "Pattern 107 - Wings of Light."


It's a landmark and I like it.