My New Grant Park Block is 400' by 400' with an Alley so...

We moved to Grant Park. My brain is totally upside down so I'm blogging my block. Here it is.

Bigger than ideal but small for Atlanta. Block size and grided street systems are a big deal.

"A good maximum block size is about 260’ x 370’ and a minimum size might be like Savannah, about 200’ x 300’." - from Richard Dagenhart's "Ten Lessons for Designing Cities:"


Richard Dagenhart will explain this to you himself in his Good Urbanisn presentation thanks to the Georgia Conservancy and the Atlanta City Studio.

Here's the commercial strip.

We'll continue the tour another day.

Thanks to Grant Park folks for the welcome. Thanks to Morningside folks for 39 great years.

Atop the Gothic Tower in Grant Park and Stained Glass Too - Terry's Tiny Video Tour

I met the building manager yesterday, he said, "Want to see?"

It's the Georgia Avenue Church at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Grant Street in Grant Park. Three congregations meet there. It's one of the Architecture Tourist's favorite spaces in Atlanta but I'd never seen upstairs.


The balcony is now an office with this window.


The bottom part of the big window shows in the sanctuary, the top part shows in the balcony.


It's the Anchor Window. See?


Then he pointed to the dark spiral stair up to the belfry. I never dreamed of this and was excited. I needed hours but had minutes.

From the bell-free belfry I climbed to the roof.  It was crenelated parapet wall battlements or in Terry's terms: "Decorative tower battlements with pointy merlons and embrasures (aka crenels)."

So here:

Best Blogger(s), LikeMinds, Preservation, Artists - What a Week

My brother called: "How'd you get best blogger?" Me: "Because I'm the best blogger?" He wasn't buying it.

I got a tweet on Thursday morning: I'm Creative Loafing's "Best Blogger" staff pick. I'm not worthy. (If you tweet, please follow me @terrykearns.)

Cityscape
Best blogger: Terry Kearns
Staff Pick

If you find an Atlanta building charming, chances are Terry Kearns has blogged about it. If you're wondering what happened to one of your favorite structures, he's probably videotaped its demolition, complete with commentary. The bespectacled Web designer and architecture buff is a ubiquitous presence at art gallery happenings around town, and painstakingly details the cornices, columns, and goings-on in the local development world. www.architecturetourist.com. 

So THAT'S why they wanted a picture. Caricature by Tony Stewart. Last year's staff pick was one of my blog heroes Cameron Adams who does Atlanta Street Fashion.

That was Thursday. Then it was LikeMind on Friday morning at Octane for coffee courtesy of MailChimp.


Folks who can smile at 8 a.m. are better than I am. Lori Buff, Jen Soong, Tripp Cook, and Maigh Houlihan move, shake, and smile before coffee.


Wearing black is optional.  In this picture Jennifer Schwartz in black next to me, Jessica Weiss in blue behind Lori, and Sherri Copeland in black 2nd from right between Maigh and Jen.


Ashley Putnam was there, he's Atlanta's Burger and Brew blogger. He can only blog burgers and brew because he's a marathoner. See y'all next month.

Friday wasn't done. Reggie Darling (THE Reggie Darling) visited Atlanta on Friday and invited bloggers for cocktails at the Four Seasons. No pictures I regret.

I am NOT an erudite blogger. But Reggie is, and Blue, Jennifer, and Julieta are. They know stuff and know how to write.

Reggie Darling - The View From Darlington House has been restoring a circa  1817 house in New York state for more than a decade. Reggie is the nom-de-blog of a New Yorker. He doesn't just have readers, he has "dear" readers.

"Blue" author of The Blue Remembered Hills taught the history of design. In the world of sugar-sweet design blogs, Blue contributes a tiny but welcome bit of bite.

Jennifer Boles who blogs at The Peak of Chic is a design writer / historian. Jennifer has a book coming out in October, In with the Old: Classic Decor from A to Z. We Atlanta bloggers will be at the first book-signing, right?

Julieta Cadenas blogs at Lindaraxa, she's a banker with a food blog. She cooks 'em, she photographs 'em, she eat's 'em, she blogs 'em. (Mmmm...) I met her for first time on Friday.

There are so many great bloggers in Atlanta and room for plenty more.

More for Friday: The Atlanta Preservation Center Features the Rose House: A Rose on Peachtree Photography, Videography & Artifacts.  

The show is in my favorite Atlanta space, the drawing room in the L.P. Grant Mansion, patina galore.


Jason Travis, Jessica Sheppard, and Michael Joe Morgan presented art, photography, and video at the Grant Mansion. Author / historian / collector Jeff Clemmons (not pictured) provided some Rose artifacts for the exhibition. It's open through October 11, 2013 Gallery Hours - Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm during the exhibit and by appointment.

Thanks to M.H. Mitchell, Inc. for supporting the show.

The Rose House is at 537 Peachtree Street. It was the forlorn old museum across from Crawford Long. "The Rufus M. Rose House has been on the APC's Most Endangered Historic Places List since 2007."

Saturday: Student Art in Grant Park and Established Art at Beep Beep.

I love student art shows because it's their very best stuff, it takes some courage, and who knows where they'll be in 5 years. Matt Haffner insists his Kennesaw State students do a show away from school this time at the Arts Exchange in Grant Park. The exhibit: "'waxing:waning' - an exhibition of photographic installations" was curated by Ben Goldman. 'waxing:waning' has a spot in the Atlanta Celebrates Photography 2013 Festival Guide. You can see it at the Arts Exchange until October 22, 2103.


Tracie Hinnant.


Jenny Woodall.


Sara Hollis.


Taylor Tolbert.

I finished off at Beep Beep Gallery with "Everythingalltogetherallatonce" new work by Jason Kofke.


Beep Beep Gallery is across Charles Allen from Grace Methodist. You can't imagine a gallery in this little space but it works. It's a bit intimidating for the gallery shy; there's no place to hide.


Jason was elsewhere stuck in transit but his "everything" was here.


Drawings, paintings, video, humor, and everything worth a close look.


Voyager's and Jason's message to ET. I really like these. Maybe it's a guy thing, if we look long enough we'll learn something.


Art requires time to grok. So you take little timeouts to chat with friends. Artist Craig Cameron, Art dealer Yu-Kai Lin.

What a week and it was only 3 days.

4 Artists, 4 Artists' Collections in 4 Grant Park Bungalows

How do Atlanta artists "do" their homes? Who do they collect? Is collecting just for the elite? Are artists good designers? This was an architecture tourist 3-fer: Artists and their collections in century old bungalows.

It was the Burnaway.org Grant Park Artists Collection Tour, featuring the homes and collections of four Atlanta artists: Mark Leibert, Terri Dilling, Jonathan Bouknight and Katherine Taylor.

In this Atlanta season we have high profile tours: the Atlanta Symphony Show House, the Inman Park and Driud Hills tours. I do love them. But the Burnaway tour was under the radar. The houses weren't freshly renovated, redecorated, or staged, folks just lived there.


Here are two Burnaway "bigs" Susannah Darrow and Rachel Reese selling tickets at the season opening Grant Park Farmers Market on April 21. It was fine day for home grown food, Hula Hoops and home tours.

House 1: "I realized it could hold a lot more art."
The artist was a print-maker among other things and print-makers trade and collect their friends. Paintings, sculpture, folk art, ceramics, sense of humor. Art everywhere low and high. Cozy, comfortable warm yet plenty of challenge. The house's color pallet obviously curated by a color-wise artist. Public rooms on an enfilade on the west side of the house. First class design of master, family room, kitchen on the back. Narrow deep lot that bordered the SE Atlanta BeltLine. One of the most charming front-porch streets in Grant Park or anywhere.


House 1 had this black bird print by my neighbor Gena Spivey VanderKloot.


Irises in the pediment.

House 2: Child and Parent Raising
A corner house, a "must see inside." They were cooking up a late lunch. A bit sparser with a sense of big bungalow volumes. Art, prints, books, photos, maps, furniture with plenty of space left. An historic theme perhaps. Child's presence everywhere. Bright child art. Warm indestructible feel. The corner kitchen held furniture, not just kitchen cabinets. The 100 year old house had all the space necessary and the flexibility for several more generations of maturing families.


This wasn't in House 2 but...

House 3: Older, Quirkier Bungalow Goodness.
You don't see this floor-plan in the magazines. Early-mid career couple curated. Probably much more detailed than average when built. Shady. Evidence of glory then decline, then pioneer quirk, and much appreciation. Previous come-back owners clearly loved it. Every room a curiosity. Amazing furniture pieces. Some challanging art, a comfortable nude. Each hearth held a different gravel, I presume the originals were destroyed long ago. On an alley. There was a totem pole and mega-giant oaks in the back yard. My mind can't hold on the the floor plan: not odd but not everyday either.


House 3 window transom.

House 4: Young Artists with Space.
Focused on art, and making art and thinking about art and living in art. Hadn't yet accumulated room-loads of furniture so you could feel all the volume. The public rooms done as livable galleries. I got a personal tour of  the pieces. There was the most startling self-portrait of a friend done when she was 17 right inside the front door. A borrowed Shara Hughes set everything in spinning color. The stair hall had work hung knee-high, you had to look down. It also two red-spotted rectangles joined in a diagonal echoing the stair. Lace on yummy green background in the bathroom. Nearly everything stimulated.


House 4 window transom.

I think that this was my favorite home tour.
I was overwhelmed in the very first room.


Thanks Burnaway.org and Mark Leibert, Terri Dilling, Jonathan Bouknight and Katherine Taylor.

Six Grant Park Windows from the outside.

I took a few pictures of windows at my Grant Park Tour for the 10th Phoenix Flies.

Windows are on my mind since starting the Atlanta Glass Project. (Please "like" it, enjoy it, and contribute some information, OK? And tell your friends.)


What is there to say about this gable, except that the glass probably isn't original equipment. This is on east side of Grant Street.


This is the bottom section of a south facing sacristy widow at St. Paul Methodist Church, a decorative window for a sacred space.


Here's the whole window. The the top part is protected by plastic and makes a mirror image.

The interesting thing is that you can't see the whole window from inside.


They've paneled over the bottom part of the windows. The top window sits in deep reveal with a blind arch. It's a good look.

Here are a few more.


Aged is a good look.


Wavy glass is a good look.


This vertical oval is in...


... the Burns House, an oldie:

"Union Capt. James A. Burns began building the large Queen Anne-style home after the Battle of Atlanta"


This one on isn't very prominent in daylight.


But a little Photoshopping reveals the butterfly and flowers. Imagine this from the inside.


A nice transom trimmed in green.

There are so many more. Keep your eye peeled and let us know at Atlanta Glass Project.


The 10th Phoenix Flies continues through Mary 24, 2013. See you?

My impressions: 5 open houses in early July.

I don't usually get to go inside: Grant Park, Druid Hills, Candler Park, Virginia Highlands, and Morningside, from 1920 to 2012.

I think architecture tourists deserve curated lists of open houses. I mean: We aren't buying but we are certainly in love.

Grant Park

On July 1st, I visited this 1920 Victorian overlooking Grant Park. It's as perfect as a 90 year old smallish family house can be. In the early 70's this house was probably falling down. You could have bought it for a few thousand.


It's pretty close to the house next door but they do have this nice stained glass window. With a 12 foot ceiling in the central hall and with parlors right and left, you feel like you are in a museum. The bathrooms and kitchen are up to date but they don't do houses like this any more. And maybe that's a good thing.

But someone will fall in love. Maybe JoAnn and I would have in an earlier era. In the meantime I have a crush.

On the 8th I did 4 houses. I just cruised looking for balloons. I hoped to find one in Inman Park. Who knows what you'll find in Inman Park.

But Chandler Park is just fine too.


This had me at the driveway. In fact this was an architects house. Too small for their family they moved away and rented it for decades. Then a tree smashed it. They added an upstairs and put it up for sale. It's a 1930 bungalow updated with clever design and oodles of hand made details.


Perhaps the hand-made driveway will give you a hint of the clever, practical, arty, funkiness. This is a labor of love and design savvy


It's a charming bungalow in the front, modern-practical in the back, Funky fun done well. I smiled the whole time. I think I could live here.

On to Druid Hills.


It's a 1929'er with a big garage/maids quarters/ student apartment in the back. Several Emory VIP's have lived here. It's elegant and beautiful but not a mansion.


I felt important when I walked into the central hall with very fine if not overly grand stair. The dining room is to the left, great parlor to the right exactly as expected. It has some add-ons, some enclosures, and a new kitchen.

There was no funkiness so I wanted modern closets and I wanted a kitchen/family room combination in this one. But I could live here none-the-less.

On to Virginia-Highlands.


This is a 2006 teardown. It might as well be brand new.

It's a lesson in maximizing a 50' wide lot into 4000+ square feet and a 3-car garage, The left door can park cars 2-deep. There are a bunch of these in Linwood Park.

It fits the modern checklist for kitchen, bathrooms, closets, interesting ceilings, family room, elevator, and space, space, space.

It's a city house. But the double garage in front keeps it from being a Virginia Highland house.

Finally to Morningside/Johnson Estates.


This is a 1940'er renovated into a brand new house. It's absolutely in keeping with the neighbors. Very clever design meets the modern check list in a minimum of square feet. And there's no climbing to bring the groceries in.

It's in a very desirable location. 


Though it's a renovation, it feels as if it's been designed from scratch. I could live here.

That's five down, and thousands to go.