Since 2007, the Modern Atlanta Home Tour has offered metro Atlantans the opportunity to consider a reality beyond colonials, bungalows, Tudors and Cape Cods.
Modern Atlanta (June 1-10) is a weeklong series of fashion shows, seminars, lectures and exhibitions held every year that culminates in the home tour. And each year, said Modern Atlanta co-founder Elayne DeLeo, the self-guided tour’s popularity grows, just as the prominence of modern booms in the city. There were more than 2,500 visitors at last year's tour.
Sourcing new construction modern homes for the tour in the past had been a challenge, DeLeo said. But it is becoming less difficult to find modern spaces as their popularity rises in Atlanta.
“We had a larger influx of new home submissions this year, which is a good sign,” said DeLeo, who added that the increased interest in sustainability in home building also has contributed to the growing influence of modern.
Decatur architect William Carpenter’s Lightroom Studio firm specializes in modern home design, and has featured a home on Modern Atlanta tours since 2007. Carpenter also has observed a growing interest in contemporary homes throughout metro Atlanta.
“Even just 10 years ago, I had clients that were afraid of doing modern projects. It has grown exponentially. I think in a lot of ways, Modern Atlanta is responsible for that,” Carpenter said. “Where I used to have to do projects where people would hide their modernism in a basement renovation, now we have Realtors who used to be afraid of selling modern projects that are now specializing in it.”
DeLeo said she has several goals for the Modern Atlanta tour, “to promote the architects, builders, designers and manufacturers who are creating modern and contemporary homes,” as well as “educate the public on the benefits of modern design and integration of sustainable and green building practices.”
This year’s Modern Atlanta tour June 9-10 features a total of 10 homes from Decatur to Roswell. For the first time, it includes modern properties in Athens on June 2.
Projects on this year’s tour include the modern work/live space of TaC Studios architects Jose Tavel and Cara Cummins and renovations of midcentury modern Atlanta homes like a custom-built 1957 Buckhead ranch home renovated in 2008 by the home's owners, Clark and Zook Architects. The Modern Atlanta Home Tour also will include the Perkins + Will architecture firm office, “recently named the greenest building in the Northern Hemisphere,” DeLeo said.
Decatur homeowners Ben Park, a physician epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Allison Loudermilk, a science editor, are participants on this year’s home tour. With the help of Carpenter, their architect, the couple used an unconventional blend of historic and modern features for the home they completed in July 2011.
Carpenter worked within the specific historic requirements of the McDonough-Adams-Kings Highway Historic District in Decatur where the couple live by creating a welcoming facade in a traditional style. “They are very strict guidelines, which we followed and creatively translated,” Carpenter said.
From the front, the home looks like an American farmhouse that Carpenter said was inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper and the influential Atlanta architect Leila Ross Wilburn, who designed homes in the Decatur, East Lake, Druid Hills, Candler Park and Ansley Park neighborhoods.
But the rest of the home projecting back in an L shape from that traditional main building embraces a decidedly modern aesthetic with its geothermal heat system, Georgia cypress cladding and walls of glass. Carpenter created overhangs on those south-facing windows to minimize light input in summer and maximize the sun’s rays in the winter.
“Building a modern house in a historic district certainly was challenging from a design standpoint,” admitted Park, who stressed that homeowners interested in building modern can find creative ways to work within such confines.
“Still, we found the city and the historic preservation commission to be generally encouraging and supportive,” Park said. “We think that is a real testament to the open-mindedness and forward-thinking nature of our city officials.”
Like so many of the projects on the Modern Atlanta Home Tour, the Park-Loudermilk home typifies a shifting perception of just what modern “means.”
“I think some people think of modern houses as being cold and sterile, and they can be in some cases. But our home is the opposite,” Park said. “Often you see modern homes that are over-styled to look like a hotel or a catalog. Essentially, modernism is about simple usage of honest natural materials. The architecture should recede into the background and be a blank canvas for the residents’ personality to shine through.”
Though this is their first modern home, Park said they are more than happy with their decision to build it. “The light in the house is amazing! We never turn on lights during the day. Also, the light is different depending on the time of day and even the season. In that regard, it is like a sundial -- we observe the passing of time.
“Our home is really very calming, warm and comfortable,” Park said.
Modern Atlanta Home Tour
June 2 (Athens); June 9-10 (Atlanta). 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. $35; $25 students. Cost covers the three days in both places. http://modern-atlanta-tickets.eventbrite.com/
