ARCHITECTURAL TREASURES OF CLASSICAL ATLANTA, PAST & PRESENT

Immediate registration required!

Sponsored by The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America

Arranged by Classical Excursions

Atlanta’s
classical tradition is a rich architectural heritage that since the
early years of the 20th century has never ceased to thrive. J. Neel
Reid, Hal Hentz, Rudolf Adler, Philip Trammell Shutze, Lewis Edmund
Crook, Jr, James Means, Norman Davenport Askins, Rodney Mims Cook,
William Harrison, Charles Heydt and Yun Pak are just some of the names
that come to mind in the pantheon of the southern city’s classical
architects. The highly talented Edward Vason Jones should also be
listed although he was based in Albany, Georgia.

Through supreme
talent and the highest standards Philip Shutze was the strongest link
between the early years and the work being accomplished today. For it
was he (and others like Means, Jones and Crook) who kept the golden
thread from unraveling by designing some of the city’s most acclaimed
classical private homes and public buildings.

In his 1989 preface
to American Classicist: The Architecture of Philip Trammell Shutze by
Elizabeth Meredith Dowling, architectural historian and then president
of Classical America, Henry Hope Reed wrote “In the triumphant age of
American architecture when the classical reigned, more than one city
was able to reward a talented native son. We think of Horace Trumbauer
in Philadelphia, of David Adler on Chicago’s North Shore, and of Arthur
Brown, Jr., of San Francisco. These men raised their cities to the
noble level of the grand tradition, and yet they have received slight
recognition beyond those cities. Such a man was Philip Trammell Shutze.
He placed Atlanta on the map of America’s great classical architecture.”

Reed
was able to meet the nearly forgotten Shutze before he died, write
about him, and organize an exhibit of his work in New York. In 1982
Classical America granted the architect the first Arthur Ross Award,
presented by Brooke Astor. In 1949, as an editor of House and Garden
impressed with his work, she gave national recognition to his talents.
Today the Southeast Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture
& Classical America presents the annual Shutze Awards “to recognize
excellence in Traditional and Classical design,” as well as in interior
design and craftsmanship.

The institute is proud to announce an
extended weekend tour organized by Classical Excursions of some of
Atlanta’s best classical architecture, past and present. William R.
Mitchell, Jr., architectural historian, historic preservationist,
lecturer and author of 17 books, as well as architects of recently
built homes will be on hand to lecture and guide. There will be an
opening night dinner and lecture by Mr. Mitchell starting at 6:30pm,
October 25th, at the home of Deborah and Bill Harrison, dinner Saturday
night at the home of Joan and Norman Askins and Sunday brunch, ending
around 1:00pm, October 28th, at the home of Emily and Rodney Mims Cook.
These exclusive events in fabulous private Atlanta homes designed by
the owners are not to be missed. First-class accommodations are planned
for three nights at the Westin Buckhead Atlanta Hotel.

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS

Swan
House was designed in 1926 by Shutze for Emily and Edward Inman and is
considered the architect’s finest residential masterpiece, where we see
his mastery of Italian and English classicism recently restored. The
relationship between architect and clients remained completely
compatible. The one admired the other’s “impeccable taste.” Mrs. Inman
was a bird lover and chose the swan as a design motif from the fanlight
above the front door to the capitals of the engaged columns in the
morning room. Great thought and care is taken throughout the whole
design of the house. For example, the columned circular vestibule
balances with the circular staircase at the other end of the entrance
hall. Lunch will be served in the Swan Coach House.

For the
Goodrun House (1931) Shutze was inspired by the English Regency style –
slender columns, bow windows, wrought iron railings, metal canopies and
Gothic detailing are the prevailing features. In the dining room is a
fanciful chinoiserie mural by the artist, Allyn Cox, based on a concept
found at the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, England. The octagonal
breakfast room has a vaulted ceiling displaying trellis, birds and
vines painted by Athos Meniboni, with whom Shutze frequently
collaborated. In the entrance hall is the extraordinary Chinese
Chippendale iron stair railing painted red.

The Temple of the
Hebrew Benevolent Congregation (1929) is, according to Dowling, an
imposing tour de force created by Shutze, the interior and exterior of
which “contain classical details transformed with Hebrew references.”
The auditorium is a square space above which is a saucer dome broken in
bays of ornament, each with a decoration symbolizing one of the Twelve
Tribes.

Shutze received several commissions at Emory University:
Found within the Education Building (1939) is the exquisite Little
Chapel, which Shutze created within a 33-foot square space, though the
illusion is of greater space created with the use of a saucer dome
centered above the nave and supported by eight arches springing from
twelve freestanding Ionic columns. At the Emory University Hospital
extension of 1948 he designed the Whitehead Memorial Room for board
meetings. The oak-paneled room is decorated with portraits inset in
elaborately carved frames surrounded by garlands and other work
representing the seasons. Shutze and his master woodcarver H.J. Millard
were inspired by the work of Christopher Wren and his master woodcarver
Grinling Gibbons.

From the firm of Harrison Design Associates is
a spectacular 28,000-square-foot house (2002) built, at the request of
the owner, of some of today’s finest materials: Indiana and Texas
limestone, Giallo Siena and Rouge de Roi marbles, wrought iron from
France, crotch mahogany, burl cherry and burl walnut. The 27-foot
Corinthian columns at the entrance are made of single shafts of Indiana
limestone that required three years to quarry and sculpt The design of
the library was inspired by the design of the library at Biltmore
House, Asheville, NC. The Harrison firm has also brought up to date
with great integrity the beautiful stone and timber Richardson-Franklin
house originally designed in the 1920s by Aymar Embury II and Cooper
and Cooper.

Inspired by Villa Gori near Siena, and Villa Cuzzano
near Verona, the Calhoun-Thornwell house was completed in 1923 and its
design came from of the firm of Hentz, Reid & Adler, utilizing the
collaborative talents of Neel Reid, Philip Shutze, Lewis Crook, James
Means and others. The stucco of the exterior is burnt sienna with the
trim in raw sienna. Inside, the foyer features a monotone sepia mural
by the classical artist Allyn Cox. The reception rooms are equally
Italian baroque in character. When Henry Reed asked Shutze how he was
able to obtain such high quality decorative work, the architect
answered that a lot of plasterwork was being done in the 1920s, even
the gas stations were stuccoed.

Completed in 1929, the McRae
House was designed by Shutze with the irregular massing of an English
manor house, such as Mrs. Eleanor McRae grew up in on Chicago’s
Lakeshore Drive, though the architect simplified the elegant interiors
of the Atlanta house. Dowling states, “Unlike most of Shutze’s
residential work, the McRae house has an irregular picturesque massing
in its principal façade; however, on the garden side, an L-shaped
plan….produces both highly irregular and, when viewed on axis, rigidly
symmetrical images.” Charles Heydt of the Pak and Heydt architectural
firm has brought the house up to date, while retaining its integrity,
to meet the needs of the present owners.

The Cook-Vawter House,
dating from 1958, maintains a simple French vernacular style that was
only one of the several that James Means excelled in designing -- a
high-pitched roofline, large multi-paned windows, solid paneled
shutters and balanced pavilion wings. The interior rooms are simple,
refined and livable. Three rooms across the back of the house, drawing
room, library and bedroom, have access to the terrace through high
French windows. Old Atlanta pine timbers panel the French library. The
floor of the wide entrance hall is laid with white and black marble
squares.

The secluded, charming French provincial Rooker-Warren
House, 1974, by James Means, is at the end of a winding drive on the
wooded 25-acre estate. The drive enters a shaped forecourt bordered by
Belgian blocks. The house of gray stucco has a high mansard roof and
projecting end pavilions. A panoramic view of the Chattahoochee River
is seen from the opposite side of the house. Here the drawing room
opens onto a broad terrace. To maintain an aged quality about the
house, Means used flooring and beams from a Georgia house built in the
early 19th century.

James Means completed the Kennedy house in
1974, an American interpretation of the Italianate villa,
Palladian/Baroque in character, the only one that the independent
architect designed in this style. The architectural detailing is
sumptuous though the house is not large.

The Martin House was
designed by James Means and completed in 1966, magnificently evoking
the style of such 18th century Tidewater Virginia plantation houses as
Carter’s Grove or Berkeley, in the process of meeting the desires of
the original owners, Thomas and Peggy Martin. The dining room’s
chinoiserie wallpaper was painted by decorative artist, David Richmond
Byers III. For the present owners, architect Norman Askins has
sensitively added extended wings to the house.

Tour Price
$1395.00 per member/$1495.00 per non member, $295.00 single supplement
Please contact Lani Sternerup of Classical Excursions to register.
contact@classicalexcursions.com 800-390-5536