How to Explore Inman Park Edges While Getting a Hairdo Pt. 2 of 2 The Wisteria Block

When I'm lucky, I get to take JoAnn to the salon. While she gets her "do" done, I explore.
 
I was a bit anxious about leaving JoAnn hanging, and didn't realize my phone was on mute. So I decided to chance it and do Part 2. It was about 4:45.

Part 2: The four restaurants at the corner of  North Highland Avenue at Colquitt: Folk Art, Il Localino, North Highland Pub, and Wisteria. The Wisteria block. (See Part 1: How to Explore Inman Park Edges While Getting a Hairdo Pt. 1 of 2 Fallen Arrows and The Dickey)



In order: Wisteria, North Highland Pub, Il Localino, Folk Art. Unless you are on foot, this is the way we see them. I'd never even walked the sidewalk, time for the Architecture Tourist to spring into action.



Why would you put four restaurants in two attached buildings? It was a mystery from my smallish town youth. Then I discovered food courts.




Folk Art is on the corner of Colquitt, has this nice sign with breakfast all day and lunch and dinner.



Folk Art is a squarish space divided into comfortable niches with a view. Lots of ways to sit. It even has some counter seats right behind me.

Cute. I want to eat there, every day.



Then Il Localino. Honestly I didn't even know it was there. It's a narrow front, can't see into the windows. It had just opened for dinner.



Good grief, it's a total red-themed, white table-clothed, attentive-waiters-in-black, Italian restaurant with three (3) dining rooms. This picture is the main dining room looking from the bar toward the front door.

Cute. I want to eat here every day too.



North Highland Pub is an 11am to 3am joint. There are always folks in there when I drive by.


It's deeper than it is wide with tall metal tiled ceiling, brick floor with plenty of standing and elbow room.



Here's the giant Loews Grand Gone With the Wind Premier mural.

Cute, I'll have a beer and bar food every day.



Wisteria is the northern most.



It's what's for dinner.



Communal inline tables, breathing room.



I'd like to sit in this window, watch folks on the sidewalk, see everybody that enters and leaves.



Wow, an un-tagged wall.



Now you know.

Thanks for joining me. Let's eat.


(See Part 1: How to Explore Inman Park Edges While Getting a Hairdo Pt. 1 of 2 Fallen Arrows and The Dickey)

Growing Atlanta's Preservation Community

We are all so busy. So how can we engage Atlanta’s enthusiasts, activists, its energy, and generous spirit? Please join me Sunday, March 26, 4:30pm at the Atlanta Preservation Center and let's talk about it. How should we leverage and amplify our grass roots: Atlanta's walkers, runners, shoppers, stroller pushers, bikers, photographers, artists, urban explorers, urbanists, our historians, librarians, teachers. How can we bring them in? How can they bring us in? We'd better do both. It's time for innovation in what is often seen as a backwards facing profession and hobby.

Atlanta has everything we need to be a leader. And that would be fun don't you think?

Terry's Tiny Tips.




1. Help folks be part of the story. Leverage local knowledge and enthusiasm. We are each experts on where we live.




2. Represent in your own communities.





 3. Introduce yourself.





4. Recognize and praise regularly.




5. Make it easy to find out: Issues, current events, leading voices, happenings.




6. Explain the terms that aren't as strong as they sound.





7. Support and fund preservation rocket science.




8. Make preservation current events.





9. Meet-up in our most beautiful spaces.





10. Reach out in every direction, go to their meetings.

11. Have great arguments.



Appendix

"We build in order to dwell among neighbors and to dwell is to live among neighbors who have as great an interest in how we build as we do. A town is a home where strangers settle side by side and enjoy a shared sense of belonging. Its streets are public spaces, the facades of its buildings stand in a personal relation to all that pass them by."
- Roger Scruton

"As surprising as it sounds, Atlanta remains chock-full of historic sites, inspiring spaces and people who care about them. This year, the Atlanta Preservation Center celebrates them March 4–26 with 270+ free tours of 99 places all over Atlanta.

"And we really need to celebrate. Preservation can be a heartbreaking profession, a depressing hobby. Even the “easy ones” are hard."
 - Preview: Terry Kearns’ guide to the 2017 Phoenix Flies festivities Mar 9, 2017

Atlanta Preservation Center Resource links 
 
Twitter #pheonixflies 
Instagram #phoenixflies
Instagram #preserveatl 


Thanks to everyone who joined us.



The outline and reminder sheet.

Reading "Happy City" Made Me Sad - Terry's Tiny Book Review

I just don't know what's wrong me. I am the worst advocate ever. And here we have this terrific source book for urban advocates which I claim to be. And doesn't everyone want happier cities that make people happier?

Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery. Thanks to Atlanta City Studio for lending it to me.

I recommend reading it in little chunks. This is where I'd go if I needed a couple slides for a presentation. It covers the waterfront, quotes from Aristotle to Freud to Jacobs, vignettes, anecdotes, psychological research, with 316 footnotes to back it up.

  

But I just can't get through it. Your results may vary.

See, I have these trigger warnings.

First: The subtitle is "Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design" and he really means it. But I lump subtitles like this in the self-help section and I'm am beyond self-helping - ask my family. Honestly if there was a book that proposed "transforming our lives with meatloaf and key lime pie," I'd probably stop eating them so much.

Second: The proposition is that my suburban brother Kenny has no soul. As Montgomery puts it (frequently), "Does the detached suburban home REALLY make its owners more independent and free?" (emphasis added). We know the answer to that one, it's urban activist speak for "Kenny has no soul." It irritates him to have no soul, makes him extra cranky to know that he is ruining it for everybody. Worse, Kenny no longer listens to perfectly good urbanist advice.

Third: Why can't we all be Vancouver? I wish Atlanta could be Vancouver except in Atlanta. Vancouverism as almost a real word. Atlantism isn't. I'd settle for a Medieval piazza with a Renaissance upgrade, a Piazzas del Campo instead of Centennial Olympic Park. Don't we all deserve it? Sure would make urbanism easy.

Fourth: I only need one of these sorts of books and for me that was Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck to explain why Kenny has no soul and that makes me sad.

The next Terry's Tiny Book Review will be Makeshift Metropolis: Ideas about Cities by Witold Rybczynski which I got through just fine. Anyone know how to pronounce his name?

Happy New Year!

People, street trees, & buildings share a comparable life expectancy, about 80 years

Building life expectancy:  "There's a lot of spread in that. The average residential building lasts about  150 years, but the average Walmart or a (not so hot) apartment complex last 10 or 15 years but the average is 80 years." Paul Knight's Streets Lecture - Part 1 



Please Come see part 2: Streets: Designing a Master Street Plan (Part II) on Tuesday, December 13th at 6:30 pm at the Atlanta City Studio on the 2nd floor of Ponce City Market.

"Streets" is one the Architecture Tourists favorite subjects, streets as public spaces, making them more fun, less boring, more democratic.

It's free. I'll be there. Please say hey. Don't let the word "lecture" scare you off. This will be fun.

Paul L. Knight, architectural and urban designer at Historical Concepts and president of Douglas C. Allen Institute for the Study of Cities, will present his second lecture about Streets on Tuesday, December 13th at 6:30 pm at the Studio. Last month we learned why streets are the most critical and long-lasting components of our cities. If you missed it, you can view a recording of the lecture below. This month, Paul Knight returns to explain how to analyze the best examples of American town planning, garnering design lessons and principles that can be used for future development.The free second seminar focuses on master street planning and design. Come join us to learn how streets can improve our cities. Please come early--it was a packed house last time and we ran out of chairs.

Here's part 1, about 38 minutes. Part 3 to be announced soon.




What is the Douglas C. Allen Institute for the Study of Cities?

1981 - Georgia Power Moved Four Blocks & Abandoned Downtown

All the folks I knew at Georgia Power / Southern Company worked at the corner of Peachtree and Baker. In 1981 they moved to the new Georgia Power Corporate Headquarters. Georgia Power moved out of downtown while technically staying downtown. Many of our big corporate citizens follow suit. They aren't coming back downtown.


I like the place OK. I've been to a meeting in the top floor boardroom, nice with a terrific view. Way better than the Jackson Street bridge.

But these folks aren't on Peachtree any more.


Seemed like a cool idea at the time. The utilities were growing with the region, security was a big issue, and the energy crises. They decided to build an energy conscious landmark between the downtown connector and the Civic Center.

And hey, nearly 300,000 vehicle occupants see it every day.


Round here you need a fence and wall.


Shuttles park here.


Pedestrian entrance with nice private park to the right.


Lot's of fences. A suburban office park.


But more private.

This has bugged me for 35 years.

Would they do this today? I think not. They'd just build in Midtown like NCR or at Permeinter like State Farm or Sandy Springs like Mercedes-Benz.

Terry's Tiny Tips for Architecture Tours with Teens & Teachers

Almost all of them were taller than me. And smarter. Even the quiet ones crackled with energy. It's as if their sensors were all dialed to 11 while most of mine have been shut down by age and experience.

It was Excursion Week at Galloway. Our 20-student group chose "Interaction of Art and Social Justice" with the theme of "separate but equal." With the help of Galloway artist in residence and Georgia State sculpture professor Ruth Stanford the group explored, researched, and made some art. Galloway teacher Mary Stuart Hall gave me Tuesday to "do something." Mary and former Galloway principal, Gordon Mathis, had two little buses at our disposal to take on the town.

My idea was to visit neighborhoods and corridors "below the line" in the morning then talk with Atlanta's city planners in the afternoon.


"Below the Line" Courtesy Atlanta City Studio, Ryan Gravel, Tim Keane, Jodi Mansbach, Vanessa Lira, Kevin Bacon (Atlanta's Kevin Bacon), Heather Alhadeff, and more.

To compare the booming corridors like Peachtree Street


"Peachtree Corridor" Courtesy Atlanta City Studio, Ryan Gravel, Tim Keane, Jodi Mansbach, Vanessa Lira and more.

To compare booming Peachtree with the less booming west side.



To compare the booming Peachtree corridor with the less booming westside corridors of  Donald Lee Hollowell, Joseph Boone, Ralph David Abernathy. Courtesy Atlanta City Studio, Ryan Gravel, Tim Keane, Jodi Mansbach, Vanessa Lira, and more.


We saddled up at Chastain Park.

Our first stop was at Lincoln Cemetery which led us through English Avenue and Vine City. Lincoln Cemetery 1926, an early African American Cemetery

Next stop Washington Park

"Prior to the construction of Washington Park in 1919, there were no recreational parks in Atlanta available to African Americans. The park started with a gift of six and a half acres and expanded to 25 acres (100,000 m2) when completed in 1928. It originally included a swimming pool, dance hall, pavilions, and tennis courts."


Washington Park


I did not know that the current SW BeltLine construction ends at Washington Park. This place will change!


We'll be able to bike to swim at the Washington Park Natatorium.

Next stop Brown Middle School and West End.

Formerly Brown High School.

Joseph E. Brown Jr. High School, located at 765 Peeples Street SW in Atlanta's West End neighborhood, was opened in 1924

Then we did a West End Walkabout, in my opinion one of the most charming neighborhoods in Atlanta.

My personal favorite activity: small blocks, styles that have been consistently popular for 150 years, mix of sizes, close to the curb in a way that enhances the beauty of the street as a public space for all passersby.


Agree?


Corner of Peeples and Ralph David Abernathy.

How we marched.


The West End Parade.

Then to Ponce City Market for lunch and a lecture at Atlanta City Studio.

Because by then we had some questions.


Jodi Mansbach had the slides.


Jodi had the giant posters.


Jodi had the big table.

That was just Tuesday!

On Thursday I rejoined the excursion at the Atlanta Contemporary.

I'll let you in on an art secret in case you didn't look.

What is really behind this piece Phillip Andrew Lewis’ Distribution in Red, 



It's the Colonel.



Tiny tips for touring with teens? I'll work on these for next time.

1. Get two experienced teachers for each 10 students.
2. Do lunch with options: Ponce City Market and the Sweet Auburn Market are superb.
3. Talk briefly to the group whenever you can get them together.
4. Stop talking before they stop listening.
5. Huddle with teachers at stopping points.They make it look easy but...
6. Find a way to integrate their phones. Students are superb at their phones.
7. Pretend that they can't smell you fear.
8. Enjoy the ride though it won't turn out exactly as planed.

Thanks so much for the experience.