It's a shock to find a once familiar house looking like this. It's as if a sci-fi ray gun dissolved the flesh but left the bones.
Morningside has some great old homes but it's not an historic district. Many are just old and tired. They don't suit the upscale demographic. Morningside is hot.
From what I understand, the more of the original house you keep, the easier the permitting process and perhaps the cheaper the build out. I guess every developer/builder/architect considers all the options and makes a choice.
But this is spooky.
There is a building permit sign but that's no guarantee that work will proceed.
We Morningsiders might wake up one day to find something like this next door.
I hope well financed experienced professionals are on top of it. This small house on a tiny lot will be a $million plus. It will probably sell in a hurry even in this market.
That's probably a good thing for us. Not so good if you live next door and the financing falls through.
Moving Photos So, we entered Besharat. On one side were National Geographic style photos by Steve McCurry. We've seen these. Up close, they are uncannily real.
On the other were stunning fine art photographs by Atlanta Photographer Parish Kohanim.
And lots of happy people in the middle:
MOVING Pictures Can a picture make you weep? Make me weep? Maybe I was in the mood: We three Architecture Tourists have found something special, unexpected. I don't know. This one made my eyes tear up. It's by Parish Kohanim, huge, layered, shiny: floating dancers twirling into a blur:
Your results may vary of course. I can't explain it. I kept returning. It kept it's magic. It didn't affect Katherine or Laura the same way but they appreciated what it did for me. What will happen when I see if again?
I kept returning to this portrait with a flower by Parish Kohanim. Against an impressionistic background, this woman seemed more real than the people in the gallery. The flower in her hand seemed supernaturally natural. Her slight smirk let us in.
Steve McCurry's subjects also seem to be in the room with us:
MOVING Arabesque #1, Claude Debussy Dania McDonald Lane played harp for the reception. Perfect yet most folks pay little attention: A beautiful sound, a beautiful instrument that is fascinating to watch. And watch I did while looking at my hyper-real girl on the left.
After a bit more wandering around Ms. Lane started playing Debussy's Arabesque #1. I rushed to the harp, listened and watched from 3 feet away with misty eyes. Never this close.
You've heard it many times. It may even be your ring tone. You might enjoy listening while you finish this post:
MOVING People Laura, a well traveled photographer herself, knew who Mr. McCurry was. Katherine and I took it on ourselves to get pictures with Mr. McCurry and Mr. Kohanim and to make sure Laura got to speak with them. Mission accomplished. Both were delightful.
Laura, Katherine, Steve McCurry, Darrell Lane, Parish Kohanim at Besharat Gallery - Reception Thursday, October 15, 2009
Mr. Kohanim enjoyed our crew:
Turns out that Mr. McCurry asked Laura questions:
This is a hard act to follow. But I toured more of the gallery, frequently returning to my red, ballet triptych. Does it still "get" me. Yes:
Outside, there is a deck with this amazing whatever it is:
When Jo Ann and I are cruising and see something like this, we both say, "Why can't we live in a place like this?" I mean a place where you can be this colorful. I locked on to Southern Aspirations post about Stuart Florida (see her picture of the "Colorado Hotel" towards the bottom) and realize that I'm searching Atlanta for just such a colorful place.
Some commercial places can do it like Habersham Gardens:
Or the Irwin Street Market:
And there are 3 pink houses in Ansley Park:
But only the older, funky neighborhoods and architecture can dare the colors. Like the MLK district in the Old 4th Ward.
Or this pink one in Cabbage Town within sight of Oakland Cemetary:
The Wigwam condo is a treat
This pink mill house in Scottdale is a favorite:
The black house in Atkins Park isn't a tropical color but it has palms:
You can get away with a yellow house on a few streets in Morningside:
You can paint your trim pink in Virginia Higlands:
There is Pink Mirror Fence in Oakhurst, certainly a license for color:
This blue one in Poncey Highlands even makes dead Kudzu look good:
Even the dark red brick of the Virginia Cotton Docks looks a bit tropical with the overflowing bush thing (Know what it is?).
Oh well, this post is just making me more envious. I have many more of these pictures for another day.
Joni at Cote de Texas is bucking the open kitchen trend. Well she is. If you don't believe me, listen (again) to the latest at the Skirted Roundtable: "Blogging and Design with Susan Serra, CKD." It's not the first time she has let this slip out.
We all want our real estate ads to be proud of us. Don't we?
Honestly, who doesn't want an open plan and granite and 10' ceilings and stainless and farmhouse sinks and sconces and chandeliers and... for our kitchen? At the Architecture Tourists' house we at least have an open plan and it worked very well on Independence Day.
So what can WE do to help Joni. I don't think she feels the least bit guilty about it.
In this very polite universe of design blogging a bucked trend or a critical comment is a delightful breath of fresh air. So I'm helping Joni by saying big thank you.
TV shows, magazines, the books, and the blogs can make design fans feel very small, very dated, very out of style, very poor, and worst of all, very un-cool.
I decided to followup with a little reading in "A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction." There is quite a bit about kitchen psychology. Try this pattern. I'm teasing you with a few quotes.
139. Farmhouse Kitchen
"In many cases, especially in houses, the heart of this common area is a kitchen or an eating area since shared food has more capacity than almost anything to be the basis for communal feelings."
But Joni specifically mentioned caterers and wanting to keep the mess away from guests.
"The isolated kitchen, separate from the family and considered as an efficient but unpleasant factory for food is a hangover from the days of servants."
The Architecture Tourists will volunteer anytime anywhere to test the "unpleasant days of servants." A bit of history:
"...in the middle class housing of the nineteenth century, where the use of servants became rather widespread, the pattern of the isolated kitchen also spread, and became an accepted part of any house. But when the servants disappeared, the kitchen was still left separate, because it was thought "genteel" and "nice" to eat in dining rooms away from any sight or smell of food. The isolated kitchen was still associated with those houses of the rich, where dining rooms like this were taken for granted."
"...there is in this kind of plan still the hidden supposition that cooking is a chore and that eating is a pleasure."
Well maybe I can help. I think maybe some folks need both a family kitchen and a catering kitchen.
If you can find A Pattern Language you might check these 2 other kitchen patterns.
147. Communal Eating
"Without communal eating, no human group can hold together."
182. Eating Atmosphere
"Put a light over the table to create a pool of light over the group...(so that it) lights up people's faces and is a focal point for the whole group, then a meal can become a special thing indeed..."
Henry Hope Reed and Classical America show the classic shapes, proportions, and techniques taught for the last couple of thousand years. Classic design is so familiar to us we often don't pay attention. But when we see classics done wrong it grates on the eye. This video shows it done the old timey, correct way.
The Mr. Reed starts drawing at about 4:45 if you want to see what the video is all about. At about 10:00 you'll learn the difference between a cyma recta and and cyma reversa.
The pioneers of modern architecture didn't abandon classic proportions although some of their imitators did. Your eye can tell.
Architecture - The New Liturgical Movement and Beatus Est are two great blogs that focus on classic architecture. Fellow architecture tourists with better pictures, better writing, and better credentials than me.
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