TaC Studios’ goal is to provide the highest level of services that will ensure the projects success today and into the future. They apply an integrated approach to design that unites the disciplines of architecture, interior design and furniture design. They are in this business because they have a passion for design and enjoy working with people. Their commitment is to create modern works within a wide range of budgets.

TaC’s portfolio reflects a design process that develops through collaboration; they work with their clients to collectively evolve the work. Each project is unique and a high degree of energy and enthusiasm is devoted to every undertaking in order to discover a natural (simple) solution for each design challenge.

Visit TaC Studios’ Site

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Source: Prudential Georgia Realty

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Since moving into and renovating our own mid-century modern home over seven years ago (the renovation continues…), we have come to appreciate those within the Atlanta modern community.  They have given us direction on everything from the proper building materials to use to information on the pioneering modern architects in our area.  Of course, one cannot begin to research the modern history of Atlanta without coming across the name of Robert Green.

Robert Green was originally from Savannah, Georgia and moved to Atlanta when he was fourteen years old.  He began studying at Georgia Tech when he was seventeen knowing nothing about architecture. In the library of the School of Architecture Robert discovered books containing pictures of the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright.  They were a revelation to him: houses low, long, tying into the ground, beautiful in proportion, fascinating in plan and space.

During that period of time at Georgia Tech, the favorite of the styles among the professors were the glass buildings of Mies van de Rohe. The professors tended to force the students into copying his stark, modern buildings.  Robert however, liked the naturalness of Mr Wright’s designs better.  After two years at Tech, he joined the U.S. Marines to both satisfy his two-year requirement, and to get the G.I. Bill, which would allow him to attend college where he wanted: California.

After the Marines, Robert attended the University of California in Berkeley only to find that the professors there were no more open-minded than those at Georgia Tech.   Feeling frustrated, he returned to San Francisco for a few months where he had a job and a girlfriend.  He realized if he didn’t leave he would never realize his dream of becoming an architect so, he returned to Georgia Tech for one year before he decided to quit permanently.

Robert returned to California where he discovered that his favorite Georgia Tech professor had also moved to California and had been made the head of Architecture at the University of Southern California, in L.A.  On his way to Los Angeles, Robert ventured to  Scottsdale first and learned that Frank Lloyd Wright would allow students to use the G.I. Bill, if they applied and were accepted to study with him.  When Robert later arrived at L.A. he wrote a nice long, heartfelt letter to Mr Wright explaining how he wanted to study with him.

Three weeks and no answer.

He wrote another letter.  Again no answer.

Finally, Robert wrote a short, nasty letter saying, “..at least you should show me the common courtesy to answer my letter…” and sent along drawings of the only building he had designed while attending Tech.  A week later he received an application form, and an appointment to meet with Mr Wright at Taliesin West in Arizona.

Arriving at Taliesin West, Robert was instructed to wait outside of the office, because Mr Wright was in the theater.  Frank Lloyd Wright came into sight, and he saw Robert about the same time he spied him.  Wright was speaking to a man and Robert stared at him–he was about thirty feet away–and he kept looking back at Robert.  The man left and Robert resolutely approached Mr Wright, sticking his hand out and saying, “Mr Wright, I’m Robert Green, I came to study with you,” figuring the short, direct method had gotten him that far, so why not continue.  He was all of twenty-three years old.

Mr. Wright chuckled and then said, “Well, Robert, do you want to live out here in the desert where it’s cold at night and hot in the day?  Amongst the snakes and things?”

“Yes sir,” Robert replied.

“We have taken on several new apprentices recently, and I don’t know if we have room for you.”  All the time looking straight into Robert’s eyes.

Not missing a beat, he responded, “Mr. Wright, I’ll sleep in my car if I have too.”

Wright laughed, and then said, “Well, we won’t make you do that.” Then he looked to his right at a high hill behind the camp and said,  “You know, we had snow on that hill last night.  The first time I’ve ever seen that here.”  And then they spoke of the weather for the next minute or two.  Finally, he said, “Robert, you go down to the office there and see Gene Masselink.  Tell him I said to get you fixed up with everything you’ll need.”

And that was Robert Green’s acceptance by Frank Lloyd Wright.

After Mr. Wright’s death, Mr. Green returned to Atlanta, and for many years designed beautiful and fascinating buildings in the Wright style which only someone who studied with Mr. Wright would be able to do.  Mr. Green’s works included many custom homes – from 800 square feet to 15,000 square feet and costing from $100,000 to several million dollars – office buildings, apartments and condos, churches, warehouses and other commercial buildings.  Some of his work is featured below.

It is because of his talent and training with Mr. Wright, that Robert Green was able to build such beauty into his buildings, that he could boast that homes he designed often quadruple in value from the time of construction. And even with all the work drawing, detailing, and on-site inspection of construction, his fees were only approximately what real-estate sales agents received to sell a comparable sized house.  He absolutely deserves the status of local icon and it is thrilling to know my love of modern design in the south is shared with such an amazing individual.

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Kimber Cavendish and Vicki Faust knew that they wanted to open a modern bed and breakfast right outside of the financial district in Austin, Texas but they wanted to find just the right architect for the job. Enter Burton Baldridge Architects, who took the overgrown, slanted lot in between downtown and the suburbs and transformed it into an intimate Palm Springs-style getaway, Kimber Modern.

The hotel featured five guest rooms, one large suite, common area, laundry facility and a courtyard that is reminiscent of something you’d find in California. The rooms include a custom wood bed, a built-in desk and other minimal furnishings created by the architects. High-end designer furnishings include Philippe Starck and Duravit bathroom sinks, Modern Fan ceiling fans, Eames molded plastic chairs and Offi Perch Lounge reading chairs. The common area has Arne Jacobson egg chairs, around an Eames elliptical table. This place ain’t for the average traveler — design savvy adventurers take note!

Artists should also take not that the owners hand-selected pieces from a few local artists, Martha Gannon, Margo Sawyer and Valerie Fowler, which add to the custom, boutique feel. If you’re planning a trip to Austin any time soon, I suggest you check in to Kimber Modern.

Photography by Casey Dunn courtesy of Kimber Modern.

Source: Design Milk

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Archaeologists Heather Cline and Mary Socci say the 900-square-foot house was owned by Scottish immigrant William McKimmy and was built about 1790.

That would mean the home predates Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. That home was built in the 1820s near Lynchburg, Va., and is considered to be the first octagonal house in the U.S.

The director of archaeological restoration at Poplar Forest says he questions whether the find in South Carolina is a full-size home.

Source: The Island Packet

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The Ramp House, so named because of its gracefully sloped interior walkway, is one of three spec houses designed and built by M.J. Neal, AIA, in the same transitioning South Austin neighborhood. One might presume that a house with a ramp as its primary circulation is a folly, however, like one’s shoes, visitors are asked to leave presumptions and prejudices at the front door.

“The Ramp House is a study in time and movement,” says Neal, who lives in the house with his family. “I wanted to play with the fourth dimension, time; to deliberately slow down the pace of travel through the house. I wanted people to experience the sequence of space differently than just racing upstairs.”

And, indeed, the unique spatial experience starts just inside the front door where the ramp immediately begins its gentle ascent at the foyer. Constructed of a steel pipe framework with its surface and substructure of 3 1/2-inch solid ipe wood, the ramp is essentially a sculptural element that functions all at once as a means of vertical circulation, a spatial delineator, a massive bookshelf – a solid wood grid structure inserted in between the ascending and descending legs – and a modern objet d’arte.

The climb to the top yields an unexpected surprise: the second floor’s living room, kitchen, and dining area. The upper level, like the lower, is another large volume organized by furniture placement, casework, and a floor pattern reminiscent of Japanese tatami. The pattern is, in fact, a tectonic expression of structure that is seen again on the ceiling.

Where the ramp extends space vertically, the layout of the first floor extends space horizontally and outwardly into exterior courtyards. The first floor – which includes the master bedroom, master bath, second bedroom and a small reading area – is partitioned with pivoting, sliding, and swinging doors and wall panels, which allow many spatial configurations. Such flexibility is useful in a 2,400-sf house, of which the ramp consumes 230 sf. When asked if the ramp takes up too much space relative to the total floor area, Neal responds, “Of course, it is how you look at it. However, it is not inefficient at all because it offers spaces in, on, and under it to read, study, and play. Kids especially love the ramp. It really is a very versatile use of space.”

On the question of the insertion of Neal’s three distinctly modern houses in a neighborhood of vintage homes from the 1930s, Neal says, “We don’t live like they did when these houses were originally built. What was at one time a very typical suburban neighborhood is now, by virtue of proximity to downtown, a very urban environment.” That switch from suburban to urban, Neal notes, is evident by the many drawn blinds on his neighbors’ street-facing windows. He says that demonstrates the neighborhood’s inward focus that is characteristic of the urban residential experience, as opposed to suburbia where residents look out on their front yard and to the street. “I wanted to bring a more urban mentality to this neighborhood,” Neal says, “to show people how to utilize this very small piece of land and get a lot out of it, a lot more spatial experiences; to show them they don’t have to have their house closed off.”

But, he adds, an urban or modern site response does not free the designer from being sensitive to the adjacent historic structures. “I went to great lengths to look at the scale and proportions of the adjacent houses and to be cognizant of those things,” he says. “This was so that this home didn’t become this massive ‘thing’ sitting here…unlike a lot of the pseudo-traditional homes being built.”

The Ramp House does nestle into and use the site very well. However, even with sensitivity to adjacent scale and proportion, the combination of materials, form, and detail makes this house obviously different than its neighbors. Nevertheless, the house successfully achieves the design intent. Neal has created a house that does challenge conventional notions of movement and time by forcing one to slow down and observe the surrounding space. In our age of haste, that is something we are less and less inclined to do.

Project: Ramp House, Austin
Client: T.E. Kolenda
Architect: M.J. Neal Architect
Contractor: M.J. Neal Development
Consultants: Structures by Jerry Garcia (structural)
Photographer: Joe Pettyjohn

Source: Texas Architect

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In 1938, then president Dr. Ludd Spivey contacted Wright via telegram that read, “Desire conference with you concerning plans for a great education temple in Florida.”  I love that terminology too – “education temple”.  Wright has been equated by some to the status of prophet because he had the ability to literally see over 10 to 20 years into the future when it came to his designs.  He absolutely accepted the challenge issued by Dr. Spivey and  designed a complex of 18 buildings built around a central fountain and connected by a network of covered walkways.

Wright was given an honorary doctorate by Florida Southern in 1950 and while on the campus to receive the same, he said the college represented what he called a new type of American “organic” architecture.  He went on to call it, “a little green shoot in the realm of the spirit – something that is true to itself, something that is true to mankind, something that insists upon integrity.”  Again, given the year, Wright was some 60 years ahead of all the “going green” builders of our modern day.

The Wright-designed buildings on campus were named to the World Monument Fund’s 100 most endangered sites in 2007. Funded by several grants, ongoing restoration projects are giving visitors a glimpse of the famed architect’s original vision, and tours are available as well.

Luckily for us, the Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay, Jr., Archives Center at FSC has launched two major digital collections related to the work of Wright.  The “Child of the Sun: Florida Southern College Digital Photograph Collection” comprises hundreds of vintage images from the 1930s to the 1950s, including seldom-seen photographs of the campus construction. “The Southern: Florida Southern College’s Student Newspaper Collection” represents the beginning of a keyword-searchable database of student newspapers that chronicle the history of the Wright project and other campus events. Both collections are accessible at http://archives.flsouthern.edu/cdm4/about.php

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Sky Cottage by Archimania

Project:
A 2,500 SF residence for a couple occupying a tiny, pie-shaped site with views of the Mississippi River.

Solution:
The house is decidedly modern as it responds to both the neighborhood and its primary asset, an unobstructed view of the Mississippi River. The design is composed of two components; a white-brick cube, which aligns itself with the established streetscape of rowhouses; and an elevated box, which resists this grid. By progressing into the home’s upper levels, one realizes the reason for the box’s unusual orientation — a focused and remarkable view of the river.

Bottom-line:
This house, designed and owned by archimania’s Barry Alan Yoakum, accepts a forgotten site and maximizes its positive characteristics to serve as a force of contemporary architecture.

Visit the Archimania website – here.

Photography by Jeffrey Jacobs Photography

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Lakeshore is a main east/west drag that takes you from Bessemer to Homewood (where it becomes Shades Creek Parkway) and on into Mtn. Brook (where it becomes Mtn. Brook Parkway). Yes, our roads have a lot of names. I attribute that to each municipality not wanting to play second fiddle to the next. Unfortunately, a lot of first fiddles does not an orchestra make. But that is a political discussion for another day. And probably for another blog. But, none of our street names start with the word “Peachtree” followed by a hyphen, so we’re good.

Nestled just off Lakeshore, and accessible from Green Springs Highway/Old Columbiana Road (South Lakeshore Dr., Murray Hill, Lakeridge, etc.) is Lakeshore Estates. For those still puzzling on the naming conventions in the Magic City, the answer is no: there is no longer a lake. This is where imagination comes into play, much like in the “Lakeview” district near Highland Park and the “Lakewood” district near East Lake. We Birminghamians are an imaginative people when it comes to water. Just watch how we convince ourselves that railroad tracks are a river as we redevolop downtown. But I digress.

Back to Lakeshore Estates. These are some great homes on large lots, and can be had reasonably considering their highly coveted location.

Source: Magic City Modern

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