#atlanta architecture

[atlantathecity]

I love this building on Wylie Street next to the BeltLine in Reynoldstown. Look at the beautiful brick details on the facade. It dates to 1906.

I'm told that this building is currently a popular recording studio. Gnarls Barkley and Belle & Sebastian have recorded here.

History: In 1866, Madison and Sarah Reynolds (both formerly enslaved) moved from Covington, Georgia to settle between Atlanta and Decatur. Their son Isaiah Pearson Reynolds, who was born in Covington in 1862, graduated from Clark University in 1881. He became a major player in Reynoldstown's early development. The community was said to be named in honor of the Reynolds family.

In 1906, I.P. Reynolds became the first Black person to build a two story brick building in the community, and from this location he operated an all-purpose store. The building was known as the I.P. Reynolds Building. (Source: Reynoldstown 2000 master plan)

[atlurbanist]

Thanks to Pete Corson for sharing this image of a 1917 news article (from the AJC) about the beautiful Peachtree Arcade!

The Peachtree Arcade was a shopping arcade in Downtown, designed by Atlanta-based architect A. Ten Eyck Brown. It opened in 1918.

It was located on a property that stretched one block between Peachtree Street and Broad Street near Five Points, running parallel to the Western and Atlantic Railroad. You can see the Peachtree Street viaduct in front, built several years before this to allow traffic to go above the rail tracks.

The arcade was demolished in 1964 to make way for the giant Two Peachtree tower (which the city wants to turn into affordable housing).

Info above via Wikipedia. Photos after the first one via GSU Digital Collections.

[peter1rose]

"I try to remember the wrath of the devil was also given him by God."

- Mitski

[msterpicasso]

@elyse.entice

[brutalistinteriors]

Georgia Tech West Architecture Building, Atlanta. Cooper Carry Architects.

[immaculatelyamiss]

Transmission

[wisteriaed]

June 11, 2023

Shot on Samsung Galaxy S21 FE

[vintagehomecollection]

Jack Adams, ASID, Adams Design, Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii.

100 Designers' Favorite Rooms, 1994

[mrs-trophy-wife]

[angelnumber27]

[jron]

“Well, we survived all of these assholes”

I took a tour of the US Capitol on Saturday with some friends.

I had toured it a few years ago and didn’t exactly want to go to that part of town in the unbearable heat, but we went anyway and it made an interesting perspective. Hot on the heels of the Biden-Trump debate, newspapers like the NYT were calling on Biden to leave the race (presumably they’re happy with Trump staying in it), the Supreme Court was busy helping Trump avoid Justice and undermining safety regulations, and most people I know were essentially freaking out about our choices this fall.

If you’ve been on the Capitol tour, you’ll know it’s fairly short, but still well-done. It doesn’t visit the chambers, but goes through the crypt and the Rotunda, as well as the foyers that once acted as the much smaller original chambers. The focus of the tour is on the art, especially the statues, of which every state sends two.

Our state has sent Dr. Crawford W. Long & Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens. One is known for inventing treatments for malaria (yea!), and the other for his speech declaring that slavery and white supremacy are and always will be the “cornerstone” of the Confederacy that he supported.

Our travel friends from California were represented by Father Junipero Serra, declared a saint but mostly known for torturing indigenous people until they accepted Christianity, and Ronald Reagan, one of the most destructive presidents of the modern era who looks worse and worse with each passing year.

In fact, the whole tour is something of a rogues’ gallery. The occasional hero on display tends to stand out because so many of the people depicted were powerful villains. Robert E. Lee has fortunately been removed, replaced by civil rights hero Barbara Johns, but the visit itself can be whiplash inducing, because it is a display of the fight between modernity and an unjust past.

On the way out, our friend announced to the rest of us, “Well, we survived these assholes. Maybe things aren’t so bad right now.”

Maybe he’s right.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have more work to do to clean up this mess than we did only a week ago. But it’s true, the nation has been in the hands of some fairly terrible people for quite a lot of its existence. And some terrible people are still honoring their destructiveness.

It’s also true - and the Capitol tour shows this - that a lot of extremely talented and visionary people came together to build the government we have today. And that this work is never finished. Some of those new statues bring that message home better than others, but it was inspiring to see them there.

Overall I’m glad we went. The nation has survived some awful people. Maybe we’ll make it through these.

(Edit to add: At one point in my diatribe about Stephens, it was suggested that perhaps his statue should stay as a learning experience. For example, visitors should know about the Cornerstone Speech. However, no one else in our highly educated group knew anything about that statue’s subject, only that the state of Georgia thought it should honor him above all the rest of its citizens. Our conclusion? Get rid of it.)

[atlantathecity]

What pretty weather for enjoying the view of Broad Street from Naan Stop at lunch today. It's a lovely scene but I'm wondering why we can't ban cars here at least during lunch on Monday-Friday. I spotted a wrong-way driver here today and thought: "that car shouldn't even be here"

[atlurbanist]

In 2017, the owner of the Medical Arts Building in Downtown (GBX is their name though the specific owner in tax records in an LLC) got a $3 million grant from Invest Atlanta to help prepare the long-vacant building for conversion to offices. It didn't happen.

Then in 2019 the plan changed to a hotel (see rendering in the second image). It also didn't happen.

They tried to sell it in 2022 but it looks like they weren't able to, judging from property tax records. I assume they're hanging on to the building for now in expectation of a property-value windfall after The Stitch gets built across the street.

And though it's offensive to me that we have to put up with eyesores like this on Peachtree Street until a massively expensive investment in freeway capping comes along, it will be somewhat fitting: I've read that the reason the building emptied out decades ago was that construction for widening I-75/85 blocked access to it and all the tenants left.

The building opened in 1927, long before the interstate highways existed. It's protected from demolition because the facade is owned by the non-profit Easements Atlanta, which I love -- we need to protect these treasures, though we also need to prevent them from being disused and unmaintained.

[peter1rose]

The smell of autumn fills me with dread and anticipation. Please let this season fill my ideals of what it could be and not what it has been.

[msterpicasso]

@taeseru

[hometoursandotherstuff]

I'm not usually one to go for modern construction, but this house, built in 1982, is impressive. My own house was built in 1986 and looked nothing like this. It looked old and dated. This Atlanta, Georgia home has 4bds, 4.5ba, and has the best of both worlds- it's modern, renovated, and you can make it look historic. Asking $1.6M. No HOA.

Imagine your guests coming up the long driveway and the massive front entrance.

They enter thru your double front doors to a lovely entry hall. In front of them are sweeping stairs and a curving mezzanine. There's an archway and look at the perspective they get of the other rooms off to the right.

Is this not gorgeous? Beautiful crown molding, dramatic fireplace. Okay, the wood isn't carved, it's plaster, but some older houses have plaster.

Look at the details in the ceiling. This is so beautiful and it's not an historic home. If it was, it would cost a fortune.

The kitchen opens up right to this room. I don't know, is this the dining room? It looks like a grand ballroom.

I thought that this was the dining room, unless it's for less formal dining. All these rooms have doors to the garden and I'm so glad that they're not painted gray.

Check out the bar.

Look at the ceiling in this family room. Fireplace, w/a hanger above, so all you do is put up your flat screen and you're good to go.

Here's the kitchen looking right out into the "ball room."

Very large. I would need a backsplash, though. I don't see an exhaust hood for the cooktop. And, it's missing the cover for the light fixture.

It's beautiful up here. I didn't realize that you can see into the ball room below. Love the curved railing and the ceiling.

This looks like the main bedroom. Look at the lovely architecture.

Such a large bathroom.

The only tile is in the shower.

Walk-in closet is small by usual standards. Maybe it's just one of two.

Here's a secondary bedroom. They're pretty big. Look at the size of this room and it has a big en-suite.

Wow, look at the cool brick fireplace in the ground floor rec room.

There's another room and bath on this floor.

Wow, marble floor around the beautiful pool.

Grassy area look at the brick walls.

The large garage looks like it has an apt. in it, too. There's an acre of land.