Terry's Tasty Traffic Calming Treats

I drove Peachtree Road yesterday and as usual nobody looked happy, not even the folks driving 50.

"Right now Peachtree Road is a highway, our most famous street is a lifeless, un-fun bore with some IMPORTANT looking buildings, and I don't feel safe driving on it." - me on Facebook.

I'm ready for a change and that change is "re-striping Peachtree." But I don't think we're going to get it. Traffic calming on Peachtree means reducing lanes. Intuition says that would slow traffic at least that's what my intuition said.

But as with so many things in my life, I've changed my mind. Here are some "traffic calming" projects that have improved my life.

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This is Emory University's front door. They spent a bunch on the hardscape - it's Druid Hills after all - but they got it right. Used to be four lanes all the way on North Decatur with a giant intersection. You could go 50 though there if you caught the light right. Now it's just two lanes and we seem to zip right through. Emory students actually use the crosswalks which were formerly "cross-runs-for-you-lives."

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This was a busy place with irritating, dangerous, unpredictable left turns onto Ponce. They removed two lanes and added a dedicated left turn lane. They just changed the stripes. It's still a busy place but now left turns are relatively dreamy. Bravo to the engineers.

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It was an adrenaline surge zone in my family's neighborhood. Two wide streets combined into a Formula One chicane and you could just fly while you rubbernecked over your shoulder. Now it's civilized and I don't miss the speed. You have to wait at the Piedmont or Highland stoplights anyway. But it wasn't perfect until they added the "best 4-way stop sight ever," which made my Kroger runs into pleasure rides.

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BeltLine interference that slows folks down and gets them home just as quick. One pedestrian can push the botton and stop traffic in midblock. Preposterous! Yet instead of stopping once for a long time, you might stop twice for a shorter time while calming the Monroe Drive drag strip. My Kroger runs require a right turn from Cumberland to Monroe. Now it's civilized.


Here's a picture approaching the crosswalk from the south.

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Ansley Park's new pitchers mound is thing all to itself. A circle on Ansley's giant streets must have been spiritual experience for the engineers. Unexpected soil and utility issues must have been a spiritual experience for budgeteers. Ansley has many more too-big intersections. I hope their circles are on hold.


The colossus of mound.

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I think they ran out of money before they got the Fatt Matt Circle just right. Though it slows folks down a bit, folks just don't know how to use it. After a little experience a circle is obvious. This one isn't. The hardscape is too small giving drivers too much leeway.


It's needs to be scaled like the Pitchers Mound. The landscaping is pretty though.

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More later. Ponce de Leon is a whole 'nother traffic calming thing - which I mostly favor.

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.

Terry's Tiny Tour: Brad Heppner's Extraordinary Design in Morningside / Lenox Park

This house moved me. It's for sale but it's expensive. It's a sculpture with breathtaking yet comfortable public spaces and with cozy, quiet private spaces. French Normandy? Glen Mercutt? Edwin Lutyens? Charles Voysey? Zen? Yes?



Brad said they studied the rhythm and scale of the street, developed the twin gables, started with a cube in the front and a cube in the back, connected the cubes with a "service" area, then began sculpting, creating axes and enfilades, removing the unnecessary.

Brad makes it sound easy and routine doesn't he?


All four sides of the house are interesting.

I met architect Brad Heppner by blogging this house in 2009: "White and Pointy - 80 Years Apart." That blog led to three visits to this house including yesterday when Brad spoke about it.


Brad spoke to agents and brokers yesterday. That's Brad standing on the right with jacket.

I looked at the ad copy and pictures. I can't do much better.

Let me give you two tiny video tours of the private spaces. I like them so much.

The master suite included a modest bedchamber. The cove ceiling makes it uncannily quiet. I start in the public space. If you can't see the master suite video below, please click here.


Extraordinary. If you can't see the master suite video above, please click here.

The children's and guest bedrooms are upstairs surrounding a daylight lounge and study space. If you can't see the child/guest bedroom suite video below, please click here.

Extraordinary. If you can't see the child/guest bedroom suite video above, please click here.

Thanks to Brad and to Bob Glascock for inviting me.

P.S.

Before.


After.

Five Atlanta Architects Build Their Own Homes

Five Atlanta residential architects will live their in own designs and I want to know everything.

I'm sorry to tease.  I know the who, the what, and except for one the where. But it's personal. And each architect can leverage the house, the design, and the story, perhaps get published. And publishers want exclusives.

I'll show you the before's: One occupied, one just started, one nearly done, one about 1/4 done, one a mystery.


Torn down. It's on a 1911 Sanborn® Fire Insurance Map but it hasn't had a future for a long time. I've toured the new one. It's a not so big modern that I really like.


I toured this one. It's clever, a 1,175 square footer build from a kit in 1971. It's been stripped of salvageable material awaiting the wrecker. The new one will be a "not so big" modernist but the architect is coy about the specifics.


The big renovation is underway. The is before, built 1925 about 1,700 square feet. It's the most interesting challenge. It had been ruined by home-brewed renovations but its craziness amused me. I'll bet they hollowed it out inside. It will keep this basic shape.


It's nearly done and it still looks like this from the front. I've had a tour. Inside it's spacious and special, bigger than a not so big house but you can't tell from here. Built in 1940.

The mystery house? The folks who know are keeping it secret. I presume they are going whole hog PR / marketing on it. I've heard one detail but they could be teasing me.

Do Two Sinks Tell a Tale? -1951 Rancher Teardown

With sale stuff strewn everywhere - all those personal mundane things - in rooms mostly unchanged for 40 years it was like looking into the coffin of a stranger. But these "D" shaped sinks with porcelain spouts were clean and looked almost new. It was easy to imagine loved ones brushing their teeth there thousands of time.

It's a teardown, a 1951 rancher on Wildwood about 2,300 square feet over a full basement. The last owners bought it in 1977 and I'd guess they lived there until the end. I went to the estate sale to look at the house. Architecture tourists do this sort of thing when we can.

It's a very livable house but they don't build them like this now. And you don't update ranchers in this neighborhood. You build 6,000 square-footers.



The master sink in taupe. 


The other sink in blue.


 
The house has been demolished, summer of 2014. 

Two New Corner Houses from Harrison both Blend and Show Off

Architecture tourists have the sweetest dreams about corner houses. Even the little ones are important.

I've followed these two corner teardowns for a while. I cheered when the Harrison Design Associates signs went up. Harrison is particularly clever in adapting elements from neighboring houses. It's one of their trademarks and very important for small lot neighborhoods. It doesn't matter so much on "estate" lots where you can only see one house at a time


This one is on a little hill in Lenox Park a block from Shutze's Dwoskin house and across the street from two Ivey and Crook houses. That is a high bar.

The teardown was a low-slung mid-centry modern camouflaged in ivy. It ignored the street. It was more a green space than a house lot.


Here's the new house emerging from the clay with a coat of primer. The front door points diagonally into the corner. I call this "honoring the corner" because it contributes to the feeling on the street. They divided the lot so they'll build another house to right some day.

It's bit smaller than nearby teardowns. You can't tell that it's a skinny "L" shape, a house of wings that will bring in the light. Pattern Language fans will remember "107. Wings of Light"


The other corner is the most prominent setting on the street. It takes a lot of detailing to manage this much restraint. Who doesn't love a shield with swags?

They aren't matching bookends but they go together in shape, style, mass and the aim of the front door. Someone suggested the left house is a Shutze. I don't know if there is any evidence but I wouldn't be surprised if that proved true.

26 second video:



Now the other house:


The other is in Brookhaven. It's not in the country club proper but within the halo. You build 5,000+ square feet if you are doing a teardowns around here. This was picturesque, doomed, and I loved it, see "The only one I care about will soon be a goner."


The old house looked like farmhouse; the new one will too but grander. It looks like it has evolved over the generations with outbuildings. It's smaller and more restrained than nearby teardowns.


Here's the other corner on a little rise, a high quality design I think. The new Georgian "farmhouse" will be a good neighbor on what will be a memorable corner. Other than the pretty gabble facing the side street the modern ignores the corner, ignores the street.

Not bookends but related, horizontals galore broken up by vertices in the widows, and board and batten siding (in the gables of the teardown). Fancy gables are a bit rare in a mid-century but here they are. The deep overhang in the modern echoes in the teardown. Overhanging roofs are NOT a Harrison Trademark. The embracing crook between garage and house honors the corner.

18 second video:



I'll show you when they are finished and landscaped.

Almost a Teardown - Morningside Modern Renovation by Dencity Design Complete

Dencity Design ranks high on "edgy" in the Architecture Tourist scale of modernist home design.


Once you know it's a Dencity, it's fun to  guess whether it's a Bryan Russel (left) or Staffan Svenson (right) design. I think I can tell. I've house-sat both a Bryan house and a Steffan house for Modern Atlanta, but that's another blog post.


I thought this one would be a teardown for sure. It was a totally ignorable house, hard to see because of the hill and 4-lanes of traffic. There was some nice detailing though. Property tax records say 1,199 square feet on a 0.172 acre lot built in 1929.


In context.


But instead of tearing it down, they popped the top and added on.  Look at that triangle thing above the porch arches.


It's done and it's got that Dencity edge.


I'm unexpectedly amused and charmed: How about that crazy triangle window aligning with the old-timey shingle hipped roof? I hereby declare this the Triangle House.


I like that the old house is still in there taking the edge off the sleek.


In Context.