Thirty-nine Lions on Atlanta's Glenn Building

The Atlanta lion count continues with the Glenn Building, 1923, designed by Waddy B. Wood.


The lions are way up in the elaborate cornice.

 
As long as I've been here, it was dumpy, frumpy, and seedy. The 2006 redevelopment into the Glenn Hotel deserves high praise.


It's the last classy, classical building on the west side of downtown.

There's nothing nearby left from it's era. The Omni, (now CNN Center), the former Federal Reserve, 101 Marietta (now Centennial Tower), the digital billboard with the giant clock, the Centennial Park light towers, are practical, impressive, modern, "activated" pop.

It's a vibrant area but my eye prefers the Glenn.

Let's count lions.


There is one lion on the rear of the building which faces southwest.


Eighteen lions on the Spring Street side.


There are nineteen lions on the front which faces Marietta Street.


Lion thirty-nine flies solo over the northwest side.

More lions:

• Candler Building Lions: 31 in the Cornice and 4 at the doors.
• Sixty Lions on the Ellis Hotel's Cornice - Really - I Counted Them

Please submit your lion count request in the comments.

Bonus lions:


The Ponce Apartments (now Ponce Condominiums) lions guard Midtown

Candler Building Lions: 31 in the Cornice and 4 at the doors.

Atlanta's Candler Building opened in 1906 with a full complement of Lions. Two things first. One, if you aren't from Atlanta: The Candlers were Coca-Cola. Two, if you are in downtown Atlanta: Walk into the lobby, thank me later.

 
I'm on a hunt. My last post was "Sixty Lions on the Ellis Hotel's Cornice - Really - I Counted Them." A kind reader wondered about the Candler lions. Here we go.


The south cornice has four lions.


The east cornice has eleven lions.


The north cornice has six lions.


The west cornice has ten lions.


The other "south cornice" doesn't have a cornice or lions.

That's 31 lions in cornice.


The east entrance has two Lions.


The west entrance has two lions.

That's 35 lions in all. Have I missed any? Let me know.

Next?


The lion count on the Glenn Hotel.

Sixty Lions on the Ellis Hotel's Cornice - Really - I Counted Them

The Ellis Hotel was the Winecoff Hotel, scene of a tragic fire, December 7, 1946, in which 119 people died. Allen Goodwin's Winecoff Fire Remembrance Page is a moving, historical reminder. Another Atlanta tragedy, the Orly Crash in 1962, killed 130.

That needs to be said, but this is the Archtiecture Tourist and we are here to talk about sixty lions on the cornice.


The Winecoff opened in 1913. William Lee Stoddart designed it as well as the Georgian Terrace and the Ponce Apartments.


Can you see the lions from down here?

I'd never have noticed except that whitespace put together an exposition for Stanley Beaman & Sears studio on the top floor of  "Davisons" featuring art by Ann Stewart and Seana Reilly.

This was a 3-fer: Art, Architecture, Elevation so I went.


When I got out of the elevator on the 6th floor, the Ellis cornice was right in my face.


What do you think of the cornice detailing? And it has lions.

Lions-in-the-cornice has been a good look for a long time. See The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Limestone cornice with a lion�s head early 4th century B.C..

I had to count them.


The south cornice has three


The east cornice (facing Peachtree Street)  has 25.


The north cornice (facing Ellis Street) has 29


The west cornice has three.


But what's the story on Lion 45?


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