5 Buildings to Save and 5 We’ve Lost
People often blame General Sherman for destroying the city of Atlanta, however, Sherman has nothing on Real Estate Developers. Developers and their allies in the city council over the years have ripped through Atlanta and destroyed great architecture. They almost destroyed the Fox Theater! Too many buildings have been lost and too many continue to be threatened. The Atlanta Preservation Society is doing the best they can, but they are not a high priority among the city’s leading charitable givers!
5 Great Buildings We’ve Already Lost:
o Rio Mall This was a required cultural landmark for any visitor to Atlanta. Designed by Arquitectonica, this was the first deconstructionist piece in the city. It was also a place where the northside and southside could meet. It has been replaced by Post Apartments
o The Oxford Bookstore, Pharr Rd. Bruce Goff didn’t build much in the Deep South, but he built this wonderful building. First it was a car dealership. Then, Oxford Books bought it and converted the building into a bookstore. It has been replaced by post Apartments.
o The Original Equitable Building One of two buildings designed by famed Architect Daniel Burnham, this was a classic example of early modernism. In the 1970s however, European modernism was all the rage and this graceful
beauty was destroyed to make room for wider sidewalks.
o Peachtree Arcade Before there was Underground, there was the Peachtree Arcade. This was Atlanta’s first indoor shopping district and it sat where the First Atlanta Tower now stands.
o Terminal Station
This Beautiful Spanish style rail station was the hub of Atlanta activity for 100 years, but as trains ceased to be the main mode of transportation and as demands for downtown office space expanded, this venerable station fell.
5 Great Buildings That Face the Wrecking Ball!
o The Winecoff Hotel .. This was once the grandest of all Atlanta Hotels but after a tragic fire, it has never been rebuilt. Saving this landmark would both boost the north section of downtown but restore a landmark to a true heritage. The building was designed by William L. Stoddart.
o Women’s Club of Atlanta .. This beautiful mansion in midtown has been a women’s society parlor, a restaurant, and two famous nightclubs. Now it is occasionally used as a special events facility, but could easily fall away.
o Brookwood Station .. Atlanta’s current Amtrak station is designed by the great Atlanta Architect Philip Shutze. Mr. Shutze designed this station to serve the Buckhead area and make train travel convenient. Now, the building
could be lost if a new Atlanta Intermodel Terminal is built. The Real Estate is highly valuable and developers covet the land more than they covet the beauty of the station.
o Crawford and Company Building ..Losing this building would be a two fold tragedy. First, it’s one of the best examples of a Bauhaus style building in Atlanta and it is I.M. Pei’s first commercial project. The scale and purity of this project remain a testament to Pei’s elegance.
o The Peters House This house has a few key values. First, it’s a great example of the Queen Anne style that was prominent in 19th Century Atlanta. Second, it has the oldest remaining landscaping plan left in the city. Lastly, it’s one of the great houses on Ponce and the more we lose, the more of our heritage we forget. Who owns it? Marietta’s Mayor.
What does he want to do? Build condos!
We still have time to save these and many other buildings. The first thing you can do it notice and appreciate them. Then act!
July 22nd, 2004 at 4:25 pm
I guess what’s worth preserving is in the eye of the beholder. I favor preserving the styles that have stood the test of time and that have worked well adaptively for new uses in Atlanta and in other cities. That would include almost all that you mention, since buildings like the old Terminal Station and Equitible Building stand on a solid classical foundation. On the other hand, I’m really glad that crap like the RIO mall and the Oxford Books whatizit are gone. The Post apartments are an improvement, and are better urbanistically.
I wouldn’t lose sleep if the I.M. Pei sucker got leveled either. Pei, while not the worst offender, exemplifies the attention-seeking “starchitect” phenomenon (cf. Frank Gehry), which designs buildings that draw attention to themselves, rather than those that work well in a city fabric. (James Kunstler - kunstler.com - has a few good rants on this topic.)
July 24th, 2004 at 10:27 pm
The Winecoff is one of the coolest and creepiest buildings in Atlanta and one of the first things I learned about when I enrolled at GSU. It would be a huge shame to see it go.
July 25th, 2004 at 2:35 pm
Came across your blog while blogsurfing. I grew up in Atlanta and moved back a couple of years ago, and I was completely bummed to see the Pharr Rd. Oxford Books had been taken down (although I knew that Oxford Books itself eas long gone). I would be bummed to see *any* of those buildings destroyed, especially the work of I.M. Pei.
August 6th, 2004 at 3:21 pm
What is the address of the Crawford building? I would like to see it.
August 21st, 2004 at 1:29 am
hi, if i’m not mistaken, that crawford and company building is on ponce de leon, near juniper. i’m not sure, though; i would like to check it out.
as to the first comment on this post, there is not a single redeeming cultural quality to post apartment complexes; they are about as valuable as a starbucks or sports utility vehicle. as far as ‘urbanistic’ concerns go, they are a total failure. fencing off parts of the city, ruining pedestrian traffic, and preventing the interaction of citizens of the city are not additions that are appropriate in an urban context. post apartments are turning intown into the suburbs.
an article on rio vs. post:
http://features.sisyphean.com/?word=5
August 31st, 2004 at 12:47 am
I read the front page story about the man decapitated involved in the DUI accident on Canton Hwy.,Marietta, over the weekend, featured in Monday’s AJC. I sincerly hope and pray, in the sake of more responsible reporting, the medical condition of alcohol related Blackouts are discussed. A Blackout can happen to anyone with certain hallmarks in place, then add alcohol. Not even a lot of alcohol. One drink can cause the same type of neurological change in people, ie;the lost of time/memory for a period of time, that have had ANY previous blackouts. Please help save a life, and print the whole story.
Michael L. McGuire, NCACll, (National Certified Addiction Counselor) Executive Director:MG Counseling Services, Inc., 2470 Windy Hill Rd.,Suite 161, Marietta, Ga. 30067
September 1st, 2004 at 5:10 pm
This response is to Ashley. I read your post and the link you provided — I think we agree on some big basics, such as the need for additions to the urban fabric to remain urban themselves in character. And for the need to wean ourselves from auto dependence in city centers.
But I think you completely misunderstood my reference to Post. Yes, earlier Post apartment developments were gated, suburban “garden-style” apartment enclaves. But later in John Williams’ career, he was exposed to the ideas of Andres Duany and other leading “New Urbanists” — as a result, he “got religion” and his later developments were nothing like the old ones. I am speaking of Post Parkside, on 10th Street, and Post Biltmore, on West Peachtree and 8th.
Both of these developments embrace the street and are developed with all of the right urbanistic common elements — street parking, relatively wide sidewalks, street trees, etc. (Additional parking is hidden via interior garages.) I dare you to start at Tech Square (Spring and 5th) and wander through this area to, say The Vortex, and say this isn’t a worthy addition to the city fabric.
What’s more, both of these complexes are mixed use — Biltmore contains a CVG pharmacy on Peachtree (at street level), and Parkside has a popular branch of The Flying Biscuit on the busy Piedmont / 10th corner.
I never was a fan of the RIO mall simply because it shrank back from the street on all sides. That’s an urban no-no in my mind. The nearby mixed-use development between Ponce and North Ave. (can’t remember the name) is a much better fit for the area.
We also apparently disagree on big boxes, but I’ll make that a separate comment.
September 1st, 2004 at 5:40 pm
OK, now about the big boxes. I’m not sure I can see clear all the way to your worldview on this one. Here’s my conundrum — I live in East Atlanta. WWII-vintage house, about 1/3 an acre (overall Floor Area Ratio of around 0.25 or less)street with a sidewalk, MARTA bus line but no rail. (Good rail service typically requires FARs of 1.5 or more.)
Now, when my wife and I need to do our big shopping, what do we do? We drive out to the periphery to a Costco, or Kohl’s… (not to Home Depot because that’s on Ponce, albeit in a really bad suburban-jammed-into-urban setting). The trip is usually either to Perimeter Center (15 miles one way) or down to the Mt. Zion area (15 miles the other way) or to Stonecrest (15 miles to the east).
Could we take MARTA out to the periphery? Not realistically. I actually experimented taking MARTA to my job at Delta for a while, and with two buses and two trains to get there, it was over an hour for what is a 10-15 minute car trip. Can’t justify it. (If the Robert Moses-inspired Interstate Highway planners hadn’t rammed expressways through the city center back in the 1960s and 70s there may not have been that much disparity in trip times.)
Now, Sembler is building the Edgewood Retail District on Moreland Ave, less than two miles from us. Although we still will be driving, it will be a 4-mile round trip versus 30. How is this bad on a prima facie basis?
Yes, I can hear the rejoinder– big boxes are ugly; they are architectural blight. To that I say, not necessarily. There is no reason big boxes cannot be built to fit in seamlessly with the urban form — which is what is being attempted both at Edgewood and at the Castlegate site. (And, they tell me, at Lindbergh, although there are “issues” there.) The issue is not size (or else we would be decrying the huge office buildings downtown) — it is urbanism, or the lack thereof.
Let’s look at the most urban example possible. If I move to NYC, do I have to give up my big box discount habit? No I don’t, actually. There’s a Kmart at Astor Place, a Costco in Long Island City (Queens) and all the mall stores I could ask for at Columbus Circle (Time Warner Center). To name just a few.
There’s no reason why large retail spaces have to be a blight on the urban fabric. I find blanket denunciations of them to be a bit simplistic, as well as unrealistic as to the way people — even urban people — actually live.
September 8th, 2004 at 5:40 am
Wow, I’ve always wondered about the Winecoff building and why it has been allowed to just sit there for all of these years. As a person that works in the Standard Building (GSU) and lived in the William Oliver I’ve always wondered why somebody didn’t at least do a condo redevelopment there (the right way - unlike the WO).
Surely the premium for that location could offset the seemingly significant development costs. It is really a great looking building and I think that it adds to the area. But I’m just an ignorant downtown resident and not a RE tycoon so I’m probably missing something.
November 29th, 2004 at 11:39 am
Hi regarding Winecoff Hotel Fire — my friend Allen wrote a book about the tragedy some time ago. An atlanta journalist is now looking for some folks that worked there at the time of the fire as he believes they may have a compelling story — if anyone knows Alice Edmonds or Rozena Neal who worked at the Winecoff at the time of the fire, could you contact or ask them to contact Harold Lamar — his contact info is at http://www.winecoff.org thanks so much!
June 24th, 2005 at 12:42 pm
Save the Winecoff Hotel!! To much history is in this building to let it go. I would love to see the inside of this building also. If you have any information on how to get a tour of it, please contact me
February 10th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
regarding the winecoff 119 persons lost there lives there .do not save it
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:25 pm
While I understand somewhat Peter’s sentiment regarding the Winecoff and the 119 who were lost there, I hope that his attitude does not prevail. The building is historic and beautiful in an understated sort of way.
Aside from the fact it is worthy of preservation, what would demolishing it accomplish? Perhaps nothing but giving folks an adjacent historical monument to stare at with out seeing the real deal. Pretty stupid, I think.
I would daresay that while there are survivors who would like to see it go, there are probably more who may see it as a “wailing wall” of sorts