It seems "wow" at first but I don't feel so good in there.

If you build 4,500 square feet spec houses, you can afford a day with an architect to design the master suite.

Or you can buy A Pattern Language and skim patterns 127, 136, 144, 187, 188, 189, 190, and 196. (I'll get to A Pattern Language in a minute.)


Or you can build this: A 4-door, 10' double tray ceiling, "shock and awe" master. On a checklist, it's pretty darn good. And it's BIG!

I see these over and over again. I presume builders, investors, bankers, and brokers follow the herd for safety.

A running conversation with Holly at Things That Inspire focused me two ideas:

1. Can you bathe and dress without disturbing the loved one sleeping or ill in bed?
2. What makes a bedchamber, particularly a marriage bed, feel private and cozy?

Then Brad Heppner gave Holly, Claire and I a tour of one of his 4,500 square foot designs. The bed chamber itself was small, plain, peaceful and private. After four years THIS is the bedroom I remember most.

It's not about style, fixtures, or finishes. I've seen it done very well in houses by Brad, Joel Kelly, Rodolfo Castro, Stan Dixon, Brian Ahern, Cara Cummins and Jose Tavel, Spitzmiller and Norris, Bobby McAlpine, Dencity Design, and more. Big and small, modernist and traditional.

A few quotes from A Pattern Language:

136. COUPLE'S REALM "...it needs some kind of a double door, an ante-room, to protect its privacy."

144. BATHING ROOM "...they must be able to have a shower, or use the toilet, unseen, when they want to."

187. MARRIAGE BED "...an intimate anchor point for their lives; slightly enclosed, with a low ceiling or a canopy, with the room shaped to it; perhaps a tiny room built around the bed with many windows."

188. BED ALCOVE "The valuable space around the bed is good for nothing except access to the bed ... dressing, working, and storage of personal belongings which people stuff uncomfortably into the corners of their bedrooms - in fact, need their own space, and are not at all well met by the left over areas around a bed."

189. DRESSING ROOM "Dressing and undressing, storing clothes, having clothes lying around, have no reason to be part of any larger complex of activities. Indeed they disturb other activities."

190. CEILING HEIGHT VARIETY :...in an intimate nook, or over a double bed, where the social distance is no more than five or six feet, the ceiling has to be very low."

196. CORNER DOORS "The success of a room depends to a great extent on the position of the doors. If the doors create a pattern of movement which destroys the places in the room, the room will never allow people to be comfortable."

note: floorplan floorplan master bedroom closets doors

Why does this terrific house stay on the market so long?

It was a late 80's near teardown, 4,500 square feet, great lot, great street, great neighborhood. It's a "statement" house, modern-ish, very well designed by Barry Doss R.I.P.. It's well built, well landscaped, and in great condition.

Why has it been a slow seller all four times? I've visited and I know why.

1. The grand stair does not look safe. It's the primary design feature in the entrance hall. It's where the eye goes. It seems steep and exposed. I got up and down in complete safety you understand but I never got used to it. It's a mountain couloir, an ice-fall of steps spilling through a wide mouth into the foyer. I would not know how to fix it.

2. The kitchen though spectacular is not the heart of the house. It's well designed, practical, convenient, well lit, loaded with no-glare natural light with the highest quality appliances and finishes. It's beautiful. A separate kitchen is simply how design worked at the time. But it's dated. It can never be the center of family life.

A Pattern Language: "The isolated kitchen, separate from the family and considered as an efficient but unpleasant factory for food is a hangover from the days of servants..." Pattern 129. COMMON AREAS AT THE HEART

There is no easy fix. Isolated kitchens define 20th century design. It's the biggest and most expensive challenge for successful. renovations.

3. and 4. Neither of the two master suites have a bathroom door. Listing agents know this is one of the dumbest ideas ever. They must be ready to explain that some folks will just love no-door living.

Another quote from A Pattern Language: "Unless the spaces in a building are arranged in a sequence which corresponds to their degrees of privateness, the visits made by strangers, friends, guests, clients, family, will always be a little awkward." - Pattern 127. INTIMACY GRADIENT.

Thanks to the Tucker Historical Society for saving this noble little building and moving it here where we can fall in love

LaVista Road, Georgia 268, is how you get from I-285 to Tucker. It's a 5-laner. Not a burger-row, but you just want to get through it. And get though you must, it's my route to the legendary Handy Hardware, and the to fine town of Tucker.

"Most landmarks and focal points in cities - of which we need more, not fewer - come from the contrast of use radically different from its surroundings, and therefore inherently special-looking, happily located to make some drama and contrast of the inherent difference ... noble buildings ... set within the matrix of the city, instead being sorted out and withdrawn into 'courts of honor'"- Page 228, ”The Death and Life of Great American Cities” - Jane Jacobs, Vintage Books Edition 1991


For years I've wondered what the heck this place is.


Last week after visiting the dentist across the street I ran across the 5 lanes for a closer look. It's picturesque fronting the modernish Tucker Recreation Center. Looks like there's a pilgrim in the yard!


Aha.


 The landscaping is so modest and so comfortable: woodchips in a garden grown wild. (design pattern 172. GARDEN GROWING WILD)


You can rent the place, get married here. I approve.


It wasn't open but I got took a picture though the window.


If you've got a couple of minutes, stop and enjoy it on foot.


View Larger Map
You can't miss it.

WARNING - Migraine Sufferers Should Avoid this Post - WARNING

Warning - don't scroll down.

Really: thinking about migraines is a migraine trigger for many folks.

Warning - don't scroll down.

Warning - don't scroll down.

Warning - don't scroll down.

Warning - don't scroll down.


It made me sick. The memory of the room makes me sick.

Do you get migraine headaches? Do you recognize your triggers? I get them and I can sometimes recognize my triggers.

Last night I went to a lecture in a trigger room. It's brand new, it's wonderful, it's huge, it still has the new car smell. It made me sick.


I exaggerated the contrast in this picture but it captures the essence. It's an evenly lit grey room with bright slivers on the walls and ceiling. The house lights were low so we could the the slide show. That emphasized the bright slashes.

Instinct warned me. I found a seat at the very front and cupped my hands like horse blinders so I couldn't see the walls. I enjoyed the lecture and bolted as soon as it was over.

When I encounter trigger room, a room with migraine lighting, I just want to shake some sense into the designer.

Don't they teach this stuff in lighting design school?

There is another lighting problem in the room, not a migraine problem but one that works against human comfort.

Design Pattern 252. POOLS OF LIGHT

"Uniform illumination - the sweetheart of the lighting engineers - serves no useful purpose whatsoever. In fact, it destroys the social nature of space, and makes people feel disoriented and unbounded...One word of caution. This pattern is easy to understand; and perhaps it is easy to agree with. But it is quite a subtle matter to actually create functioning pools of light in the environment."
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein.

"But it is just this refinement, down to the last foot, even to the last inch or two, which makes an immense difference. " - see Pattern 221 at the end of this post.

I first mentioned this teardown in May. This is one of my very favorite construction projects. It's not an intellectual thing, but I might eventually find words to explain it.


It's by Rutledge Alcock Architects, Decatur, Georgia.

I talked with principal Andy Rutledge today. Andy says there is a lot more goodness yet to come. He's keeping a special eye on it as well he should. It's in a prominent place on one of Atlanta's great streets. It can only be seen in context with it's neighbors. There is no hiding, no separation as there might be on an estate lot. This is Morningside.

Oh those windows: the Auburn "School" filters Lutyens. My architect friend Carl Bridgers told me that is it doesn't feel good during construction, it probably won't feel good when it's completed. This is feeling good right now.

Remember?




Have a look now. Window pane heaven.


The driveway facade faces north-northeast. The light will be indirect and diffuse reducing shadows and glare. Recesses and bump outs will maximize light in the interior. There are plenty of niches and bumps on the south side too.



Now that I've done a mind-meld with A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein, these come to mind:

159. LIGHT ON TWO SIDES OF EVERY ROOM
When they have a choice, people will always gravitate to those rooms which have light on two sides, and leave the rooms which are lit only from one side unused and empty.

164. STREET WINDOWS
A street without windows is blind and frightening. And it is equally uncomfortable to be in a house which bounds a public street with no window at all on the street.

192. WINDOWS OVERLOOKING LIFE
Rooms without a view are prisons for the people who have to stay in them.

222. LOW SILL
One of a window's most important functions is to put you in touch with the outdoors. If the sill is too high, it cuts you off.

239. SMALL PANES
When plate glass windows became possible, people thought that they would put us more directly in touch with nature. In fact, they do the opposite.

They alienate us from the view. The smaller the windows are, and the smaller the panes are, the more intensely windows help connect us with what is on the other side. This is an important paradox...

This one is quite challenging in our value engineering environment---
221. NATURAL DOORS AND WINDOWS
Finding the right position for a window or a door is a subtle matter. But there are very few ways of building which take this into consideration.

In our current ways of building, the delicacy of placing a window or a door has nearly vanished. But it is just this refinement, down to the last foot, even to the last inch or two, which makes an immense difference. Windows and doors which are just right are always like this. Find a beautiful window. Study it. See how different it would be if its dimensions varied a few inches in either direction.

I'm really enjoying this one.

Phoenix Flies Recap #8 St. Paul United Methodist Church (1906) in Grant Park, Atlanta during the Atlanta Preservation Center's Phoenix Flies tour for 2011.

We climbed the stairs to the balcony and bell tower.


Once up there Don is kind-of pointing to the grating behind the cross.

The organ pipes from the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition held in what is now Piedmont Park, are behind the grate. It was recycling back when recycling was really cool. For you non-Atlantans the Piedmont Exposition made a bigger mark on Atlanta than the 1996 Olympics. It was Atlanta's international coming out party at the turn of the century. It was the era of the City Beautiful Movement.


Don cranked up the organ and fellow Phoenix Flier, Dee, sang a few lines. The 115 year old pipes rang, purred, and roared.

May I show you a few more pictures of this beautiful church?


One big window is on the South facade.


It's a big window.


The other big window faces east. The top of this one is in the attic. The steps might be a tough climb for granny but there is a new elevator in the back.


Here is a zen view from the floor of the Narthex. There is a hierarchy of open space and varying ceiling heights (See Design Patterns 114 and 190) . The sheltering narthex and the ceiling under the balcony are a comfortable and cozy feeling compliment to the tall spaces. Your don't feel so exposed.


The floor of the Nathex is sturdy and dignified after 105 years of service.


The metal ceiling in the narrow narthex looks it's age, having withstood a leak or two.


The ceiling is blue, beamed, and beautiful.


In the center there is a medallion, I suppose it could have been an oculus had the budget allowed.





St. Paul has a full length bump out. There is the expected symmetrical, center-aisled sanctuary. But to the north there is extra large main floor and balcony space, comfortable, flexible and unexpected. It's a great opportunity for clerestory windows.


The balcony bumps out to the right.


Looking out from the bump


We went to the roof and the attic. This is the east window from the attic over the narthex. It's stunning to see this from a dark room.


Yes I really did see the attic, still solid after a century.

I hope I haven't worn you out. You need to see the sacristy, as charming a room as I've visited.

The sacristy is in the midst of a big cleaning refit, but the beauty shines through.


Fireplace, stained, glass, paneling, and color made this little room feel perfect.


Every building deserves a room this good.

I keep getting distracted. I was headed to the roof.


The roof decking from the inside.

My 45 second video from the roof.




Thanks to St. Paul United Methodist Church, to Don Wallace for the tour and to Pastor, Susan Allen Grady.

I've barely shown you the stained glass. Even the smallest window deserves a close look.

Every arrival here should produce a smile.

I never paid attention until they lit the pigs for Christmas. The teen-aged infill townhouses are background buildings compared to their eclectic neighbors. I never paid much attention to them.

Then I met I met Halo and Wings, dressed for Christmas.

They are living between the townhouses...


in a tiny oasis ignored by passersby. Wall, gravel, bench, spillover ground-cover.


A delicate arched gate, terracotta pavers, urns, pansies, wall climbing vines that encroach on the stairs. Pots up and down, a sunny place to sit, a shaded chair on the stoop, textures galore.


This doesn't require acres or million$. I wish landscape designers featured attainable little patches like this.

Even a tiny city lot can have a 172. GARDEN GROWING WILD. From A Pattern Language:

"The gardener is in the position of a good doctor, watching nature take its course, occasionally taking action, pruning, pulling out some species, only to give the garden more room to grow and become itself. By contrast, the gardens that have to be tended obsessively, enslave a person to them; you cannot learn from them in quite the same way."

Did I mention this eclectic street?

One room where everybody wants to do everything. Pattern 139. FARMHOUSE KITCHEN.

...an ancient kind of kitchen where the cooking and the eating and the living are all in a single place...a circumstance where the people who are cooking are in touch with the rest of the family, while they are working...

Merry Christmas. We had 6 house guests joining our 5 for comfortable family mayhem, eleven folks did most everything in our big room, consuming vast quantities in the process.


Cristin directed the deep dish apple pie making from our kitchen peninsula. It was a group activity performed "in the round" with witty remarks flying everwhere. We had sweet apples and tart apples a'pealing. Katherine works the tart ones.


The pie team featured 3 more of our all-stars, Rachel, Cristin at the sink, Linda.


Guests came over to see the show. You couldn't come to our place without meeting the people and the pie.


The pie crust may have set a world record for homemade goodness. The Weather Channel reported our prospects for a white Christmas.


For her efforts Cristin was named the first Lifetime Pie-Goddess by the directors of the Architecture Tourist Culinary Committee. Matt was behind her 110%.


Oops, I almost forgot another pattern: 199. SUNNY COUNTER.

Special thanks to Bill.