Keeping Morrow Weird: Branch Library by Scogin, Elam, and Bray

It was my birthday and I am the Architecture Tourist after all. I was in Stockbridge, Google said it was only eight minutes to the Carol Cobb Turner Branch Library in Morrow by Scogin, Elam, and Bray.

First: The bottom lines.

1. I salute places that are open to the public.
2. You've just got to see this place. Pictures don't convey how strange-wonderful it is. 
3. It's totally nutty on the outside. But when you walk in... 
4. I like places that can accommodate a mess. And this place...
5. Scogin, Elam, and Bray designed two more libraries in Clayton County.
6. I'm thinking a Saturday morning road trip to see all three. Interested? 
7. There's a Star Trek reference below.

So I went and I've been giggling ever since.


"This is the weirdest building I've ever seen." Prison worker emptying the trash 16 May 2017


"Do you ever get disoriented in here?" Terry 16 May 2017
"Yes!" Morrow Branch Library desk clerk 16 May 2017


"... the Talosians, who then allowed Captain Pike to see that her youthful beauty was an illusion. (Vina) explained she had nearly died in the crash and that the Talosians, who had never seen Humans, had had no guide in repairing her smashed body." Star Trek "The Menagerie, Part II" 24 November 1966


"Weird is what what we do." paraphrasing Merrill Elam (left) speaking about the new Austin Courthouse at Record on the Road - Atlanta 29 March 2017


“Morrow library could have been built for less.” 30 January 1992 The Clayton Sun


Then there's the alien spaceship pointing to the mother-ship.


But also a human touch.

Road trip?



Let's visit one Saturday.

"...which seem designed not to fit in but to stand out." Three Ideas from Roger Scruton

Roger Scruton believes that the "Vernacular Classical Idiom" is a proven idea for fitting in. Me too. We're about to have this demonstrated on La France Street in Edgewood. We'll talk about it next year.



How's your week?

In Atlanta we're talking about an at-risk Jova designed modernist round bank that amuses thousands of drivers every day. We're buzzing about a no-longer at-risk Breuer designed brutalist library which impresses but inspires little love.

We whine about McMansions every single day, those spreadsheet designed houses that don't fit in, certainly works of the devil. We're building these in every hot neighborhood from Kirkwood to Tuxedo Park.

I don't have words. 

So lucky me. I stumbled in to this 2008 Royal Geographical Society debate,"Prince Charles Was Right: Modern Architecture is Still All Glass Stumps and Carbuncles." Roger Scruton was on the "for" side so you can imagine he's much hated.

I made this transcript of Roger Scruton's introduction which starts about here.

"Regarding the ordinary buildings that have sprung up...which seem designed not to fit in but to stand out."

Principle 1
"We build in order to dwell among neighbors and to dwell is to live among neighbors who have as great in interest in how we build as we do. A town is a home where strangers settle side by side and enjoy a shared sense of belonging. Its streets are public spaces, the facades of its buildings stand in a personal relation to all that pass them by."

Principle 2
"Genius is as rare among architects as it is among the rest of us. Most buildings will be the creation of talent-less people who are simply doing a job like you and me. The less they try to be original and expressive the better. To pretend to these (genius) qualities in their absence is to jettison the three most important social virtues: Modestly, humility, and to act as if others are more important than yourself.

"Most of our beautiful towns were not the work of architects but of modest builders working with materials they understood and on a scale that does not challenge our perceptions."

Principle 3
"Buildings should fit together in a public space that it accessible and friendly to all of us. This is most easly achieved if there is a shared repertoire of details. Materials that blend and do not come apart visually at the joints and proportions that can be emulated by each new addition to the towns-cape."



Modest, yet...



Deep reveals. Too expensive these days for anything but an estate house.

"We Were Never Going to Tear It Down" - our Breuer Library

That's what former Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts said on Wednesday night about Atlanta's Marcel Breuer designed library which I call "The Breuer," (How to pronounce Breuer)

Mr. Pitts also said, "But in 2008 the voters voted to build a new downtown library."

Thanks to FOCAL - Friends of the Central Atlanta Library, Creative Loafing and the Center for Civic Innovation for hosting their 4th "Social Studies" and the meeting last night, this one about the future of The Breuer. They asked the panel:

"What’s wrong with Atlanta's Central Library and can it be fixed?"

I scribbled #terrystinybulletpoints which are a little whiny. Read Thomas Wheatley's report "What will happen to Atlanta's Central Library, an architecturally significant but undervalued building?" at Creative Loafing. And see "Atlanta’s Central Library debate" at Turned Georgian.


The stair window is my favorite place in the library. The grimy glass is a sign of why folks are talking about it. If the library can't manage to clean one of the coolest windows in Atlanta - and it's on the ground floor -  then....


Here's the panel It one was as focused and on point as a panel can get. Special thanks to Kyle Kessler who opened with a history of the Downtown Libraries.

So here are #terrystinybulletpoints

1. I had stumbled on to a discussion that began before 2008. 
2. The most boring use I can imagine for The Breuer is as a library.
3. At the very same hour Switch Modern held a seminar, "Why Beauty Matters." I wonder how this would go if The Breuer was considered beautiful as well as "significant," "world class" and "master work."
4. I wished the Beauty Matters folks were at our meeting.
5. Side 1: Politicians need to do what the voters voted for in 2008: a new downtown library.
6. Side 2: The Breuer could work as the "new downtown library" and it would be cheaper and it needs some work. The library is at risk if it's not a library.
7. Libraries are no longer be what they were when The Breuer was built. It's a white elephant.
8. Libraries will no longer be what they were when the "new" library was(is) built. It will be a white elephant.
9.  Does building to "the program" guarantee inflexible short-lived buildings?
10. I don't think the government is the best long term steward for "The Breuer.".
11. If they tear it down, will we get a world-class hotel befitting our international city? 
12. A Kroger in The Breuer might help the downtown renaissance thing more than a library or a hotel.

So Terry what are your #smartypants suggestions?

1. If we must, build the new library in Underground Atlanta. Maybe white elephants can cancel each other out or perhaps work together. Perhaps it can bridge south downtown with not-south downtown.
2. Get the High Museum / Woodruff Arts Center to buy The Breuer and give downtown a major cultural center that is actually on the sidewalk where a lot of people walk, where tourists hang out, near our popular downtown park and our big downtown university, in the midst of the hotel/convention district. Make it our Whitney. The High would have a Meier, a Piano AND a Breuer. Can we get Calatrava to build a bridge to one of them? TOTAL PACKAGE!
3. I don't think Atlanta has the patron capital or the art fan capital to pull it off right now.
4. Check your lottery ticket and get back to me.

Thanks to everybody for a useful meeting in an extraordinary building.


When it rains, the brutalist diagonal concrete grooves rock.

Terry's Tiny Tour: Triple-Arched Mid-Century 2520 Peachtree Rd. Before #teardown #preserveatl

I toured 2520 Peachtree Road  (1955) but my video isn't so hot. I want to try again.

In the meantime here's a two minute teaser video of the entrance, the hall, and a tiny bit of a condo.

By mid-2016 construction will begin on the new 23 story "2520 Peachtree."  Pay the old one a little respect before it's gone. If you know who developed, designed, or built it, I'd love to know.


Except for the arches it doesn't make much of an impression if you are going up Peachtree at 45.


I always thought it was a doctors' office, a nursing home or something.

When they announced the teardown, I took a look.


I had no idea.


L-shaped apartments on central hall, three stories tall with parking underneath.

I toured the one it red, a two bedroom, two bath.

Here you go. The video has some music so beware.


Now you know.

The "Moderns" on Their "Best Days" MA Design is Human Tour

Why do folks put their houses on tour? Back to that in a minute.

It's not love at first sight for me. They are so unfamiliar, so complicated, so clever, so cool, so clean, so uncluttered, so unornamented, so unmoored from the familiar, so "start from scratch every time." But I so enjoy visiting and I'm perfectly willing to give love a chance.

That's why this was my 6th year as docent for the Modern Atlanta Tour of Homes.

I gave up taking pictures and gave up trying to explain these places. You have to be there.


I was docent at two houses for about 3 1/2 hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings. In the afternoons I raced all over to see the rest of the houses. I'm exhausted and they are all jumbled up in my head.


Why do folks put their houses on tour? Many reasons I'm sure.

But if the owners stayed home, they'd know that people are the best home accessory, and that their homes had never been so alive.


These were their best days.


Hey Octane, thanks for the lemonade.

These Six Teardowns are Done

A handful of teardowns. Two new whoppers, a big expansion, two pop-tops, three not-so-big houses, a squeezed-in modern. I can't keep up.




Full contact builders spec house.

and


I didn't get here at the beginning. Pre-Depression level details, pretty amazing I think.


The chimney was the deal.


Might not be your thing but heck-of-a-job by Mark Arnold. The chimney is the prominent detail on the porch but it's hard to see in this picture.

and


This was cute before and in a really nice creek-bottom setting.


A pop-top.


It's still cute, a not so big house. Maggie Shannon architect.


Looks like it has always been there.

and


Pretty cute before. Look at the triple window, porch, and few-step grandma access.


Nice flat lot. No climbing with grocery bags.


I wasn't quite getting it until they installed the landscape then I got a crush. A not so big house, nice work Chip Murrah architect and Blake Builders.

and in the Old 4th Ward:



It held its own at 968 square feet. It's what caught my eye. Sidewalk level access really appeals to me, need the brick wall for a sense of enclose.


Already surrounded by teardowns, traditional left and modern right.


Hello garage door. It was on the Modern Atlanta tour last year and I enjoyed the inside.



Where mill houses used to be.

and


It was the "Faux Chateau" a transformed rancher by Barry Doss, R.I.P.. It was odd and I liked it a lot. Already surrounded by teardowns.


The former backyard from pictures I saved from the old real estate ad.


It grew.

Druid Hills Shingle, a Favorite - Terry's Tiny Tour of BIG GABLE HOUSE

Believe me, this is an amazingly luxurious space. I visited three times to make sure.

I think there is some golden ratio magic going on in here. The important rooms are either square or golden rectangles and though the ceilings are eleven feet tall, the rooms felt just right to me: They were big but didn't make me feel small. And with big windows, interior windows, French doors and transoms I didn't really need the lights on.

There's a floor plan and a little video in this post if you want to skip ahead.

I spotted estate sale balloons on my Thursday errands. This being Druid Hills I followed them because Druid Hills is a living house museum and I want to see every house.

I got excited as the balloons led me south across Ponce, then west on Fairview to the house I always thought of as BIG GABLE HOUSE.


Though it's on one of Atlanta's most picturesque streets, it stands out. I never thought I'd see inside. There just aren't any houses like this, or are there?

I've followed it for a long, long time.


I've seen it full-frontal naked.


It's kind of beach house style, less formal than most in Druid Hills, not Georgian, not Tudor, not Italianate not Mediterranean. But there are plenty of lovable details. I adore its chunky shingles in straight horizontal lines dressed in pale yellow with curvy-tailed purlins. Were these the original windows?


My Field Guide to American Houses says the Shingle Style lasted from 1880 to 1900. So I guess BIG GABLE HOUSE is "Shingle Revival," being built in the 1920s. I think Atlanta's bona fide shingle styles are mostly in Inman Park, West End, and East Point.


I think BIG GABLE HOUSE is an homage to the William G. Low House in Rhode Island "designed in 1886-87 by architect Charles Follen McKim of the New York City firm, McKim, Mead & White." This side faces the water. It's a really big, that roof is 140 feet wide. It was demolished in 1962.


I'd never been able to judge the size of BIG GABLE HOUSE.


Though it loomed over me as I approached, it was more like a cottage than a mansion. Property tax records say 3,983 square feet.

Let's have a look.


The vestibule was promising.


The big fireplace is right there.

Well wait, this will work better on video. But a few things first.

1. I don't know who designed it.
2. It's now divided into a grandfathered quadraplex and I think that's just fine.
3. There are a big 2-bedroom unit and an efficiency on the first floor.
4. There are two apartment units upstairs.
5. All I saw was the big 2-bedroom.
6. The left and right parlors are the two bedrooms each with huge closet and bath. The right bedroom suite included the enclosed porch.
7. It wasn't staged or decorated but there was a estate sale going on. It was clean, painted and almost move-in ready.
8. This was an amazingly luxurious space.

Let me repeat: This was an amazingly luxurious space and not because of trim, detailing, finishes or fixtures. No. It was the luxury of the volumes, the proportions, the light and the flow.

Here's the plan.




Here is my video route

Here's the video tour.



Here are a few more pictures.


Fireplace detail. It looked perfect.


The big room had beams but the paint was poorly detailed and distracting. I'd guess they hadn't finished. All white would have been fine with me.


Toward the left "parlor." This French door with door-sized sidelight is 100 inches tall. Light galore and it looks well proportioned.


Looking from the left parlor back into the big room.


This window wall separated the big room for the dining room. My camera couldn't show how bright is was.


From the dining room into the big room toward the fireplace and front door. The kitchen door is to the right.


The big room and dinning room are a little bit dressy.


Big door and transom that look just right


The right parlor opened to the now-enclosed porch through French doors with transoms.


The now-enclosed porch reveled in full-shingle-glory.


Sweet enfilade from porch though right parlor into the big room.


I couldn't get to the west porch but I wanted to.


Here's the backside.


In context with the neighbors. BIG GABLE HOUSE stands alone.

I lucky to have seen it.


How about this 1960 tribute on Pinestream?