Two New Corner Houses from Harrison both Blend and Show Off

Architecture tourists have the sweetest dreams about corner houses. Even the little ones are important.

I've followed these two corner teardowns for a while. I cheered when the Harrison Design Associates signs went up. Harrison is particularly clever in adapting elements from neighboring houses. It's one of their trademarks and very important for small lot neighborhoods. It doesn't matter so much on "estate" lots where you can only see one house at a time


This one is on a little hill in Lenox Park a block from Shutze's Dwoskin house and across the street from two Ivey and Crook houses. That is a high bar.

The teardown was a low-slung mid-centry modern camouflaged in ivy. It ignored the street. It was more a green space than a house lot.


Here's the new house emerging from the clay with a coat of primer. The front door points diagonally into the corner. I call this "honoring the corner" because it contributes to the feeling on the street. They divided the lot so they'll build another house to right some day.

It's bit smaller than nearby teardowns. You can't tell that it's a skinny "L" shape, a house of wings that will bring in the light. Pattern Language fans will remember "107. Wings of Light"


The other corner is the most prominent setting on the street. It takes a lot of detailing to manage this much restraint. Who doesn't love a shield with swags?

They aren't matching bookends but they go together in shape, style, mass and the aim of the front door. Someone suggested the left house is a Shutze. I don't know if there is any evidence but I wouldn't be surprised if that proved true.

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Now the other house:


The other is in Brookhaven. It's not in the country club proper but within the halo. You build 5,000+ square feet if you are doing a teardowns around here. This was picturesque, doomed, and I loved it, see "The only one I care about will soon be a goner."


The old house looked like farmhouse; the new one will too but grander. It looks like it has evolved over the generations with outbuildings. It's smaller and more restrained than nearby teardowns.


Here's the other corner on a little rise, a high quality design I think. The new Georgian "farmhouse" will be a good neighbor on what will be a memorable corner. Other than the pretty gabble facing the side street the modern ignores the corner, ignores the street.

Not bookends but related, horizontals galore broken up by vertices in the widows, and board and batten siding (in the gables of the teardown). Fancy gables are a bit rare in a mid-century but here they are. The deep overhang in the modern echoes in the teardown. Overhanging roofs are NOT a Harrison Trademark. The embracing crook between garage and house honors the corner.

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I'll show you when they are finished and landscaped.

Losing a Little Landmark - Deconsecrated and Ready for the Mansions

The little place felt like a discovery every time I saw it.

The last service was in August, the pastor and congregation have moved on. Now there's one less church in Brookhaven Heights and soon there will be one less church building. Like the Homer Hood house the difference made it special. This is what delights architecture tourists.

There's room for two or three houses on that lot and I won't care a flip about them.


"Most landmarks and focal points in cities - of which we need more, not fewer - come from the contrast of use radically different from its surroundings, and therefore inherently special-looking, happily located to make some drama and contrast of the inherent difference ... noble buildings ... set within the matrix of the city, instead being sorted out and withdrawn into 'courts of honor'"- Page 228, ”The Death and Life of Great American Cities” - Jane Jacobs, Vintage Books Edition 1991


I "discovered" it last February, a modest little church on the corner with a shelter out back.


It was a going concern, neat as a pin. Trinity Baptist had been there 19 years, before that I don't know.


Though modest it was a breath of fresh air amidst the original houses and the teardowns.


On Wednesday the steeple was gone, the marquee painted over, the developer signs in place.


As you approach on Etowah from the west, you peer around the cyprus hedge and catch the church on a little green.


It's handsomely plain.






They removed the tables and old pews from the shelter.


The shelter is irresistible to me.


As it was last February with tables and orange pews.

It's still there. Go see if you are in the neighborhood.


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It doesn't seem possible that both of these are houses

The recession saved the Hood House for a while but they are building again in Brookhaven Fields (map below).


I took this picture in late 2008. I think folks lived there, a "granny" house with two outbuildings holding back the McMansion tide. Property records say the Hood house was built in 1947 with 680 square feet, 2 bedrooms and 1 bath on half an acre.


Oh no. on Monday I found a big yellow sign: "Request to Waive lot Merger Requirement."

I stopped to take some pictures. The place was empty.


It was Homer Hood's house. Do people still put their names on the mailbox?


The camera exaggerates the difference in scale but not much.


Awnings must make it dark in there.


Clothesline post and outbuilding.


This is inviting. What's in there?


My dad insisted on checking for snakes in outbuildings. Good advice I think. I use a noisy foot shuffling approach.


Maybe they built this around their old BBQ pit.


It's the place to eat watermelon and peel shrimp.



I think they enclosed the back porch.


From back here the Hood compound seems so spacious.There's room for 2 quarter acre maxi-houses.


But we can't do 'em like this anymore, not a couple of blocks from the Brookhaven MARTA station.


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National I-house is getting a modern T-Bone in Decatur

You can find these in every county in Georgia, probably nearly every county in the USA. This one is in the MAK District of Decatur, near a boatload of Leilia Ross Wilburn houses, very good company.


Here is another in Brookhaven, recently torn down.


Here is the Lambright House, Freedmen’s Grove from Vanishing South Georgia.

It's a "National I-house." according to pp. 96-97 of The Field Guild to American Houses, a skinny house 2 rooms wide and one room deep.


It's just skirts my errand route. Today I did a little detour to check it out. So many of these dignified houses rot away on roadsides. It's familiar all-American shape sits on a lot with plenty of breathing room.


But how can a tiny house suit a modern family in a first class neighborhood?

Something is going back in the back. The sign for Lightroom Architects (...specializes in the modern renovation of existing residences) is a dead giveaway. Some thing is going on back there and it doesn't look vernacular.


Let's check the other side.


Uh-huh. I like that the new wing isn't continuous with the siding of the I-house. The I-house maintains it shape.


Looks like the wing T-Bones into a big room at the back. The "porte-cochere roof overhang thing" suggests the width and height of "T" room.


Here is the south side.


I have turned this over to the Architecture Tourist Vernacular / Modern Special Interest Group for weekly inspections.

Congratulations to Lightroom and to the fortunate owners.

Attention: Lovers of The Ansley Glass House by bldgs, the office Atlanta architects Brian Bell and David Yocum.

The Crystal Palace Costco at Town Brookhaven

Town Brookhaven is a-building. It's a new urban, mixed use development on Peachtree Road by Sembler between the Brookhaven MARTA station and Oglethorpe University. It's in a wide open, level stretch of road, past the bustle of Buckhead and before the strip centers of Doraville.

They are building a most beautiful Costco there.


I'm guessing that all of structure will show. I hope so. I've never seen so much white steel.


It's big and sits in a typical big box parking lot. I hope the setting will improve as Town Brookhaven builds out.

The roof curves from end to end. It's light and full of air yet solidly on the ground.


I am not a natural shopper but if you can get me in the door, I'll just be happy admiring the filigree of the roof trusses.


The straightforward shapes of the loading dock makes the steel dance even more.


The beauty of this building is clear from early on. The builders enjoy it every day. That's rare. Many structures look terrible until the last details are complete.


Why install the light fixtures so early? Not a problem with me, they have a nice look.


Find out more about the original Crystal Palace.