Terry's #PhoenixFlies 2018 Curation: Awesome Churches

When folks ask me what to see during Atlanta Preservation Center's #PhoenixFlies 2018 I say the churches. There are 16 church tours this year.

I want see Northside Baptist and St. Anne's Episcopal this year and more I hope

Here are links to the online Phoenix Flies 2018 Program to the Phoenix Flies 2018 Event Cards and to the Phoenix Flies 2018 Daily Calendar Cards.

It's big. Francis Palmer Smith's magnum opus. Stained glass by the acres.	Another Francis Palmer Smith. Two words: Hammer beams. You'll get a church tour, a stained glass tour, and some honking big organ. Sometime you go in the pipe rooms.	Not just a church tour but the current "First Existentialist Church ," aka the "Old Stone Church" goes deep.

There's not a prouder structure on Peachtree, every brick and mortor-line has a purpose. Inside: An ethereal space with a dome. Combine this tour with Tour 40 for a same day two-fer.	Glorious stained glass with handful of Tiffany windows. Combine this tour with Tour 39 for a same day two-fer.	Glenn's main sanctuary is workaday and doubles and Emory's auditorium. The Steeple, and the dignified exterior reward every drive by. But Shutze's "Little Chapel" is a cathedral in 900 square feet. Shutze based the design on St Stephen Walbrook by Sir Christopher Wren: how to "dome a square."

I've never visited this one but I plan to.	The octagon landmark where the Northside Drive splits with Northside Parkway. Stained glass #notliketheothers

One of the Charles H. Hopson churches and a Peachtree landmark. Spectacular inside. Must see ceiling.	Buckhead, kind of hidden, looking forward to my first visit.	Spectacular and you'll hear the great organ. Combine this tour with Tour 90 for a same day two-fer.

Midtown landmark at 5th and Peachtree. Must see inside.	In Granite on Grant Street in Grant Park. Have you seen it, seen inside? Stunning sanctuary. #notliketheothers	One of the three "Jesus Junction" Chruches, a tall steepled landmark in white. Yes, the congregation used to meet on Ponce de Leon.

Shutze landmark with big-time heritage and history. The 1958 bombing is remembered in "Driving Miss Daisy,"	On the St. Luke's property it pokes out into Courtland Steet. Combine this tour with Tour 80 for a same day two-fer.

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.

Terry's Tiny Tour - Classical / Traditional Spring Street in the Drizzle

Here's the deal: This week Maria Saporta wrote:  "It’s hard to believe, but the expansion of the Center for Puppetry Arts is even worse than I had feared..."

When I arrived at Georgia Tech in 1968, Spring Street was a 2-way of car dealerships. Is it less memorable today? Last night I cruised the 15 blocks between Peachtree and Linden to find out.

"Where you headed?" JoAnn asked.

"Spring Street."

"Huh?" was her silent, telling, sarcastic and totally correct response.


However great the puppet expansion might be, it hides a nice old building.

Terry Tiny Tour for folks driving 35-40 mph.


The Temple is one of our finest buildings (Shutze) and you can kind-of see it from Spring Street so I'm giving it an honorable mention.


Peachtree Christian Church (Hopson) is the gateway to Spring. It's stunning inside and out but seems lonely.


The skyline view from Peachtree Christian. It's where the eye goes but ...


The most you can see of the old Spring Street Elementary from Spring Street, the 40 mile an hour view.


It's still there, but fronted with modernist camo.


This is 1385 Spring, tax records say 1920. This and 1050 Spring are the only "houses" left on Spring Street. They are building this style today in my neighborhood.


The superb H.M. Patterson & Son - Spring Hill (Shutze). As if teleported from the English countryside.


The drizzly skyline view from from Spring Hill feels big city but not big comfort.


"Warm" view with drizzle in 19 seconds from Spring Hill. Caution: metal music.


 
Though Crum and Forster (Crook) is only 1/3 of its former self and has trompe l'oeil stick-on windows, it still classes up the place.

One more.


563 Spring Street, tax records say 1926. If pay you attention to the traffic, you might miss it.

Yet to be done: Terry's Tiny Mid-Century Modern Tour of Spring Street might be good.

Morrow, Georgia's Classical Niches with Urns

The Morrow First United Methodist Church (1967) is the best building on this stretch of Jonesboro Road, a rather pleasant, practical, sparse, green, burger, nail-care, big box road along the tracks.


Its portico has two fine niches with urns. I'm at a loss about why these are so appealing to me but there you go.

Morrow has Spivey Hall and Clayton State University but you can't see them from the road and they aren't designed for show.

Morrow has two important if unexpected side by side moderns: The National Archives at Atlanta and The Georgia Archives.Both are warehouses fronted by impressive facades activated with modern facade pizazz. They catch my eye but don't make me care.


Wren-Gibbs style churches are everywhere. But there's SOMETHING about First Methodist. I couldn't figure it out when I was driving 45. So I stopped for a minute last Saturday.

William R. Tapp Jr. Architect Associates used some fine if modest detailing in 1967. Mr. Tapp, 1922-2011 was a Georgia Tech alum who designed a lot of buildings around here though this is my first encounter. His name is carved into a niche plaque.


The design "money" is in the portico...


...and in the niches. Isn't it amazing how the urn's shadows and reflections color and shade the niche.

Perhaps I'll do Morrow First Baptist another day. It's on Lake Harbin.


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De-Marbling the I.M. Pei on Ponce and baring St. Paul's Presbyterian

I hope you'll go see, go see this whole block before it's covered in modern apartments so familiar that we'll pay no attention.

They are buffing the block for apartments / mixed use. This week they started removing the marble panels from Gulf Oil Building, 131 Ponce de Leon, designed by I. M. Pei, built in 1949.

They've exposed the west side of St. Paul's Presbyterian. "Isn't that where The Abby was?"


"The project will incorporate the 'Pei' Building at the corner of Juniper and Ponce as its leasing center, making it 'the most dramatic element of the development' according to Branch." - Hunt Archbold, MidtownPatch, July 11, 2012 


Before

On Facebook T-square Interns: "To us it looks like one of many similar buildings scattered around the country, most of them dilapidated and/or mold-infested-beyond-habitability. These buildings were obviously never designed for the long term. We say: let's take them off their respirators. They've had a good life; now it's time to let them go. They'll be better off in the end."


I don't know why they leave these signs up, guess that's another contractor's job.


These are the last intact panels.


There are coming out in pretty good shape. They'll have plenty left over.


They are using doors to block the 2nd floor holes. I love those practical construction folks.


The doors make an amusing band.


A last look at it's best side.



I don't have a picture of  the building next door to the east. It's gone too. I barely remember it as a deep red brick modern, a glass fronted office furniture store. It's been abandoned, boarded up and camped in nearly forever. I just don't remember much. You can see it in the map below.


Tearing it down exposed the west side of St. Paul's Presbyterian, 1915, one of our great church buildings on Ponce de Leon. It's one of three here that I know of by Charles H. Hopson (1865-1941) with Peachtree Christian Church and Rock Spring Presbyterian.


I'm worried about St. Paul's Presbyterian. It will be 100 in 2015. I hope we'll be celebrating.


It hosted several churches, then the Abbey Restaurant, now St. Paul's.


The roof looks fresh. Maintaining the details looks like a chore.


Did somebody heave a brick? What would this cost to fix this? Start by taking the whole window to the shop.


So many huge stained glass windows.


This is how downtown commuters see it on their way home going north on Piedmont. The brick block building with red-out windows doesn't help.


One of the best things about blogging is that it makes me look.

So go look.


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