Now You Don't Have To Tear It Down to Save It: McGruder Street Church

I'd been stalking the McGruder Street Church of God in Christ (1940) for about a decade. It's a little landmark. Here's the deal:

"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 set within the matrix of the city, instead being sorted out and withdrawn into 'courts of honor'"- Page 228, ”The Death and Life of Great American Cities” - Jane Jacobs, Vintage Books Edition 1991


Finally in 2011 I spotted someone entering. I slammed on the brakes and ran after them. This "slam on the brakes and run after them" is NOT always the best method for this sort of thing. But it worked this time.


I learned that zoning and building codes prevented the owners from converting it into a place to live.
 


Parking was the prime issue. I'm paraphrasing: To make it a place to live they had to add off-street parking. There's just not room. (And that's not all.) So it sat empty and unused.



I won't bore you with the details because I don't understand them. Let's just say, what they couldn't do then they can do now.

But that's not what I'm here to blog about.

Last night I ran into Shana Robbins. Her family was connected to this place.

It reminded me that they built a new house across the street that featured views of the church.



Here's the view from the first floor.



Here's the view from the second floor. Bravo: designing to take advantage of  two Old Fourth Ward landmarks.

Sabine Woman by Dorothy Berge is BACK and I'm GLAD

I think this is the perhaps the best / best sighted sculpture in town. They'd hid her in the bushes for close to 20 years. I am unexpectedly emotional about it.

I ran into Gregor Turk last weekend. He told me they were "moving the Burge," said they spent three days just figuring how to take her apart. I needed to get over there.

 
This is "Sabine Woman" by Dorothy Alphena Berge (1923 - 2009), commissioned in 1968 to sit in front of 100 Colony Square at Peachtree and 14th Streets. See the map at the bottom of this post.


Sometime in the 1990's they moved her around the corner to a little garden triangle between the 100 building and the W Hotel. They hid her in the bushes.


I got my picture taken with her last year, she's big.


Yesterday I made my way from the North on foot.


She's digging in.


Look at that curve!


I talked with these guys, they know they are working on something special.


This is how you see her as you exit 100 Colony Square.

57 second video.


How to get there.


Bravo!


Thanks to Gregor Turk and the Atlanta Preservation Center's Phoenix Flies for my formal introduction.

I Walked Downtown McLean and Found...

I went for a short photographic walking tour of  picturesque downtown McLean. But I didn't find it.

A place this pretty, upscale and practical should have a city center, a city center with public landmarks, a city center with an image I could keep in my head. It should be a destination that entices families to hang out.

But nope.

"By taking care with the relativity very few spots that are inevitable eye-catchers, much character, interest and accent can be given to a whole scene by suggestion..." The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs

Nope. I guess they leveled all the old places when they upscaled. That's what prosperous communities did in the day.

It is because it's not a town at all? "McLean (is a) ... census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia ...West McLean is the most expensive ZIP code in the Washington metropolitan area." - Wiki

Thanks to Linda who sent this fine "Brief History of McLean."

I did find two terminated vistas on Chain Bridge Road that tell the tale. These are what catches your eye driving south on Chain Bridge looking ahead to where the road bends.


The Sunoco roof is the most colorful thing on the street. I like it but I'm a little off.


The po-mo Monticello shaped sign above Total Wine needs some neon or something. It's what catches the eye.

Aren't there any churches in "downtown" McLean?


McLean Baptist Church faces away, shows is backside to the town. That steeple would look nice on Chain Bridge.


First Baptist Church of Chesterbrook is over on Kirby, modest yet the noblest building in the neighborhood. There's a rumor it's a teardown. Maybe they'll move it downtown instead.


They could use a few more of these too.