It Feels Wrong: My Unfavorite Places on the Modern Atlanta '13 Tour

Short answer: Some of the stair hand rails. They should fell so safe and so comfortable that we don't even notice them.

It makes me wonder: is everything is up for grabs every time?

 
Of course not as Cara Cummins said at a MA13 panel, "We're not designing white elephants."

Designers/architects would never violate the "stair ratio." We'd know something was wrong; our bodies would know something was wrong. Granny would fall, we'd fall. Dangerous stairs can ruin a house or a garden.


MA13 Panel: Linda O�Keeffe �Whats Modern Now� with Cara Cummins, principal at TaC Studios, design consultant Smith Hanes, founder at Flags of Origin, and architect/interior designer Shawn Alshut of studio A2.


We might not notice a bad kitchen triangle with our eye. But once we started cooking when we'd know something was wrong. We'd feel it even if we didn't know how to fix it.


Out on the tour, I expect proper kitchen triangles, proper stair ratios, and proper handrails though they might look out of the ordinary.

It went like this for me. I think to myself, "Cool Stairs" and start the climb.

Then I'd feel the handrail and, "Ugh."

I'd find my hand on an uncomfortable edge, on a rail that was too big or small, on a rail that forced me to look. The first one didn't bug me too much. The second, third, and fourth ones did.

I'd guess stairs are one of the few places in a modern that beg for detailing. The diagonals, the turns, the height can make the drama and the delight.

I'm all for designing drama and delight if you don't screw up the hand rail.

My Favorite Place on the Modern Atlanta '13 Tour

All those moderns are rattling around in my head, know what I mean? I saw 10 of the 13 on the Modern Atlanta tour. I was docent at two them for 3 hours each.

 
I was fortunate to be able to do it. It's hard to see moderns except in magazines. There aren't many so they sell quickly, often before there's an open house. And you really, really need to see them in person.

Anyway, the 10 are rattling around in my head.

There was this one room in the Dyson house. There was a place in this room where I wanted to stay.

So I went back the next day to make sure. Yeah, it's where everyone would want to do everything all the time.


My place was that corner between range and sink, just give me a stool.

I don't think it has anything to do with style. The shape, the proportion, the sheltering roof, the light, I'd love it empty.

Murphy Avenue for Folks Who Enjoy Industrial

Architecture tourists go sightseeing on Murphy Avenue. It's part of the industrial corridor that borders Fort McPherson, Sylvan Hills, Adair Park, West End.

 
There is plenty to see.


By and large, they made the street fronts attractive.


Folks are repurposing many of these sturdy buildings. This is Bella Cuccina corporate HQ.


I wonder if Atlanta Time Machine can find a picture of this in it's prime.


What brickwork!

 
This ruin fronts nine acres.


There are some storefront churches.


This could be anywhere in Georgia.


If you are here at the right time, there are yummy smells.


Lifecycle Building Center lives here, they recycle building products and you can follow them on Faceboook.


Amazing. Tax records say this was built in 1966. It's on 3 acres.


There's much more to Murphy Avenue.

Want to tour Murphy? Let's go.


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