Where Piedmont Avenue Slips Off the Rails

I don't need to tell you: One of Atlanta's great streets is Piedmont Avenue but only between St. Paul's Presbyterian and Rock Springs Presbyterian.

Piedmont goes off the rails at Cheshire Bridge and never recovers.


St. Paul's Presbyterian (1916) in Midtown and Rock Springs Presbyterian (1923) in Piedmont Heights bookend the pretty part of Piedmont. Charles H. Hopson designed both, the only two churches extant on Piedmont. St. Paul's is our Gothic-revival buttress against some unloved midtown moderns that succeeded in making St. Paul's look sad. Rock Springs Presbyterian with its cemetery seems teleported from the English countryside. It's a favorite of mine inside and out.

A few blocks north of Rock Springs Piedmont hits Cheshire Bridge and descends into Peachtree Creek's valley, from here on: ack.


The little bank designed by Pringle and Smith marks the sad transition. It was probably just right in 1957. Can you remember when it was last a bank? It stayed in good shape until the real estate folks moved out.



This is today, where the visual muck starts that not even Buckhead's jumble of me-me-me skyscrapers can resolve.


An early rendition of Inkaholics.


Cheshire Bridge's terminated vista in blue.


If we can just make it to Peachtree, maybe we'll be OK.




This has got to be fixed. 



Get me outta here.

Academy of Medicine has my Favorite Men's Room in Atlanta - Terry's Tiny Tour

It's formal and formidable: The Historic Academy of Medicine at Georgia Tech and I go every chance I can get. Designed by Philip Shutze and restored to tip top condition, there's no place like it in Atlanta.



On Wednesday it was the Atlanta Studies Symposium (terrific event, free, mark your calenders for next year). I'll write more about it if I have time.



This is the Historic Academy of Medicine.



Enter here.


Terry's Tiny Tour: The best men's room in Atlanta? Video 2:25 with a bit of bubbly music:





Is the ladies room just as good?

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.

Restored: St. Luke's 1913 "Good Shepherd" mural by E. H. Blashfield

In this tradition 100 years is the blink of an eye.

Atlanta's St. Luke's Episcopal Church has restored "The Good Shepherd," a giant canvas by E. H. Blashfield, the artist who did the domed ceiling of the main reading room of the Library of Congress. Before they took the scaffolds down, St. Luke's invited parishioners to see it up close and up high from the scaffolding. Thanks to Bobby Mays who invited Trip Cook and me for a once in a lifetime experience.

It's a canvas "pasted" to the wall. I loved that the restoration of this hundred year old mural and 2014 Living Walls Conference were happening at the same time.

 
Restoration by IFACS International Fine Art Conservation Studios. They worked 12-hour days for two weeks. Photo by Tripp TLF Photography.


As you walk into the sanctuary, The Good Shepherd seems ancient in muted colors. It's the calm focal point above the alter amid the glorious windows. My photo from an earlier visit.

How big is it? How high. Perhaps twice life size? I forget to ask. In my reverie I forgot to ask everything.


I'm not a high scaffolding person. Nope. But I was going up. My photo.


Mental note: Identify your assistants. My photo.


Cleaning revealed that the Good Shepherd's feet are in foam at the water's edge. My photo.


Distorted at eye level, but right when viewed from below. My photo.


From the scaffold I felt as if I was in the mural but separate and small. It was in my face. How does the artist manage the distorted up-close view?. Artists figured this out a few thousand years ago, mastered it in the Renaissance. It's an ancient tradition. My photo.


Up here the scaffolding rocked, like being on a floating dock in the waves. Photo by Tripp TLF Photography.

How long to stay up there? My brain and body were floating. I felt a claustrophobia of being so close to the giant painting. The working lights were good for the artists, but glared through my cataracts.

But I could turn around.


To see this. Photo by Tripp TLF Photography.


The cleaning uncovered more sheep. My photo.


Doves. My photo.


Angels galore. My photo


Angel in a frock. My photo.

 
My photo.


The angels in the arches aren't quite so finely rendered. My photo.


What is she holding? My photo.

By now I was lost in the experience, running out of time, knowing this was my one time up there.


Pardon the poor focus. My photo.


Who modeled these angels? Do they appear just the same in other murals? My photo.

I need to catch my breath before I show you a few more details.


Photo by Tripp TLF Photography.


The restoration includes relighting from below. It will be seen as never before.


The whole flock. My photo.


I couldn't stay long enough. As simple and as straightforward as it is, there's no way of "getting it." My picture.

Climbing down was like stepping off the dock onto solid ground.


What a room. Photo by Tripp TLF Photography.

I understand that after the lighting is complete the restorers will return to discuss the mural and the restoration. I hope to go.

Thanks Bobby, Tripp and St. Lukes.

P.S. The 2014 Living Walls mural most in this tradition is by Spanish artist Borondo.


Borondo's #lw2014 mural faces west on Jesse Hill between Edgewood and Auburn. It faces the John Lewis mural. It's just 8 blocks south of St. Lukes'