AIA Guide to the Architecture of Atlanta

Abstract

60 ARRIS Volume 6 1995 AIA Guide to the Architecture of Atlanta. Text by Isabelle Gournay, photographs by Paul G. Beswick, foreword by Dana F. White, edited by Gerald W. Sams. Athens, Ga., and London: The University of Georgia Press, 1993, xxxi + 365 pp. The AIA Guide to the ArchitectureofAtlanta joins those for Chicago and Syracuse (both published in 1993) and Washington, D.C. (1994) to form a valuable series of guides to the architecture ofAmerica's major cities. These guides have been developed under the direction of local chapters of the American Institute ofArchitects. While an unusually talented and perceptive team was formed to complete this project, the choice of Isabelle Gournay as primary author of the book's building descriptions is surprising.1 She has been a frequent visitor to Atlanta, butshe does not reside there (she teaches at the University of Maryland), and nothing in her previous work would suggest as catholic an interest in or understanding of the architectural developments of the last 150 years as she reveals in this work. Her previous writings have focused almost entirely on French architecture in France, Quebec, and the United States. In his preface, Gerald Sams describes her writingas "lively, readable, and insightful," and Ifind his descriptionapt. Gournaycombineshistorical fact and architectural description with critical analysis 1. Gournay is a Yale-trained architecture historian whose writings include Le Nouveau Trocadera (Liege, 1985) as well as translations of various French works on architecture. White is the author of TheMaking of Modern Atlanta (Atlanta, 1991), The Urbanists, 1865-1915 (New York, Richard Meier, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1983. Peachtree Street facade, view from northeast (courtesy of Paul G. Beswick). and judgment. She not only tells us what to look at, she tells us how to interpret what we see. Her description of the Atlanta City Hall is typical: The Atlanta City Hall, a fourteen-story tower surmounted by a shallow pyramidal roof, was erected on the site of the Neal Residence, which served as General Sherman's headquarters during the Civil War. Unlike the Art Deco setback skyscrapers of New York City which inspired its easily recognizable silhouette, the new municipal building featured relatively obsolete neo-gothic decorative elements, each setback being enhanced with pinnacles and pointed arches (this type of ornamentation had known its heyday with the completion of the Woolworth Building in New York City in 1913). All exterior and interior materials were extracted or manufactured in Georgia. On top of a granite base, the reinforced concrete structure is covered with cream-colored tiles and olive green spandrels in terra-cotta (notice the Phoenix motif on the second-story spandrels, symbolizing the quick recovery of Atlanta after the Civil War). No money was spared on the main lobby, with its floors and walls in polished marble and ornate gilded-wood ceiling, entrance and elevator doors in heavy bronze, and brass fixtures. The exterior and all public spaces have recently been restored to their original grandeur concurrently with the addition on the south side.2 1989), and other articles about Atlanta and urbanism. Beswick is a distinguished architect who heads Beswick International. Sams has been active in AlA affairs in both Atlanta and Savannah. 2. AlA Guide to the Architecture of Atlanta, 10-11. Gournay combines architectural description, stylistic identification, contextual analysis, and critical commentary in a succinct but delightful manner. She is not afraid to take a stand for or against a building, so the text is consistently interesting. But her judgments are sometimes at odds with the editor's selection of photographs. For example, the passage quoted above goes on to describe Walter T. Downing's Trinity United Methodist Church in glowing terms as a powerfulbrick structure given strength and ornamentation by massive brick buttresses and translucent stained-glass windows illustrating the history ofthe church, butno photograph ofthebuilding isincluded. Too many omissions of this type occur; it is frustrating to read about a structure that the author describes enthusiastically but not be able to see it. A second irritant is that building descriptions are separated from their listing by map reference, name, address, date, and architect; it would seem preferable to discuss each building immediately after its listing...