Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Teardown 4 of 4, Infill where it REALLY Matters - Inman Park

New house, 3,100 square feet on 1/10 acre, must "match" 10 other 90+ year old 900 square foot houses in historic neighborhood. Architectural design for the project was by Ute Banse of Ute Design.

Inman Park: "Atlanta's first suburb circa 1890" "Atlanta's first intown neighborhood to gentrify ... Gentrification began in 1969..."

Inman Park was a short lived home of the gentry. In New Urbanism terms: Inman Park got "leap-frogged." Druid Hills became the place to be. I'm sure Inman Park lost much in the process.

But I'm not so unhappy about it. Druid Hills became a museum of beautiful homes, frozen in place. Inman Park became eclectic and colorful. Today it houses millionaires and poor students, families, hipsters, and hipster families.

2011-11-27-851-Virgil-Street-infill-before-1
The last thing I'd expect is a vacant lot. This is not a teardown, not a burn down. It was the backyard of the house on the corner.

P1020719-2011-11-27-851-Virgil-Street-infill-Trees-Cleared
This was the back yard of the blue house.



How do you build 3,100 square feet on a 10th of an acre? Excavate the entire lot.

P1040469-2012-01-27--851-Virgil-Street-infill-Inman-Park-foundation-wall
The real first thing was to create design that worked, that satisfied the Atlanta Urban Design Commission, and everyone else. There is a very long report online:
"Regarding the roof pitch, all the contributing houses on the block face have 6:12 roof pitch. The proposed house has a 10:12 roof pitch, which does not meet the compatibility rule requirement...
P1060359-2012-04-03--851-Virgil-Street-infill-WIP-detail
They got the permit.

P1060360-2012-04-03--851-Virgil-Street-infill-WIP
Does this look a new home in a high prestige neighborhood?

P1100406-2012-07-16--851-Virgil-Street-infill-Inman-Park-complete
I think so.

P1110348-2012-08-20--851-Virgil-Street-infill-Inman-Park-complete-East-side-elevation
I admire this tiny detail, the lintels that project just a bit.

P1100405-2012-07-16--851-Virgil-Street-infill-Inman-Park-complete
What about the neighbors?

P1110345-2012-08-20--851-Virgil-Street-infill-Inman-Park-complete-in-context
Our new house makes 11 in a row. You can see 3 of them to the right. Perhaps the new house is a tiny bit taller.

P1110345-2012-08-20--851-Virgil-Street-infill-Inman-Park-complete-in-context-reversed-porch
I'm amused that the new porch is on the right side of the house. All 10 old porches are on the left. It's probably because of the slope.

P1110352-2012-08-20--851-Virgil-Street-infill-Inman-Park-complete-East-in-context
But perhaps the right side porch is punctuation, an eye-stopper, a period at the end of the 11-house sentence. (Apologies to the house to the right. I'm not showing it at it's very best. It's getting a new retaining wall.)

Agree or disagree, I welcome your comments.

8 comments:

  1. Personally - the front is a little too flat for me - but I am not paying for it nor designing it, so can I really say anything? I noticed those old-timey-quite-dated metal awnings on one of the homes about two or three houses down - something like that might help the "flatness" of the front facade. But I am splitting hairs, now.

    Love all these infill and teardown projects you have documented, Terry! Keep it up!
    Trish

    ReplyDelete
  2. All 10 are the same yet not the same at all. They've been broken in, lived in.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The mullions on the new place are haint blue. It makes them not as pronounced. Interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are making me wonder what it would look like with white mullions. I think it's trying not to be too obvious until the house weathers in over the next 50 years.

      Delete
  4. I think it looks fantastic!! The detailing is so crisp and well executed - I'd love to know who the architect was. Would love to get a peek inside...maybe it'll be on the Tour of Homes?

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is so interesting to read! Thank you! I am the architectural designer for the project and hope to post some more pictures on my website www.ute-design.com soon. I located the porch on the right side so that it could get evening sun.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello Ute, thanks so much. I'm going to put your link in the blog. I'm anxious to compare the teardown around the corner on Hale.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is a great post, I really like the design of the front of the house.

    ReplyDelete

Blog Archive