Modern design in Atlanta is like a Porsche in a sea of Hyundais — pretty hard to miss. But there is no better proof of Atlanta’s growing enthusiasm for modern architecture than the attention homeowner Michael Plutino received for his freshly built contemporary home.
Completed in October 2011 in the Edgewood neighborhood of Atlanta, Plutino’s three-bedroom, 2 ½-bath home is a topic of conversation for a parade of passers-by who stop to survey the interlocking gray, tan and white boxes with an entrance featuring a waterfall and a fish pond.
“They walk by almost every day and say ‘I love your home,’” Plutino said.
“When you put your heart and soul into something,” he said, “it’s kind of neat, there is that validation.”
If some perceive modern architecture as cool and foreboding, proponents of contemporary attest to a very different effect when a modern home goes up in a neighborhood formerly devoid of them.
“It really becomes a catalyst for neighborly interaction,” said architect Scott West, the owner of West Architecture Studio who designed Plutino’s home. “People are excited about seeing something different.”
Plutino, who is a regional vice president for a restaurant company, is among a growing number of Atlantans who are choosing to build modern homes within the city’s largely traditional architectural landscape. Plutino thinks the growing prominence of design-centric hotels like the Westin and W hotels that he frequents on his business travels is part of what has opened his, and other, Americans’ eyes to the pleasures of contemporary design.
“I think that’s probably why more folks are getting bitten by the modern bug,” he said.
The annual Modern Atlanta event ( June 4-10), which debuted in 2007 and is devoted to contemporary fashion, design and architecture, has likely also fostered more local acceptance for modern architecture and design. MA has exposed scores of Atlantans to the wealth of modern architecture, both mid-century and contemporary, during its Modern Atlanta Home Tour.
Sandra Carey, a founding member of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s Realty, has seen a growing interest in contemporary homes in recent years.
“It was common knowledge, 10 or 15 years ago if you were trying to sell a contemporary house, it was just a hard sell in Atlanta. We just didn’t embrace contemporary design. It would just sit there forever,” she said.
But these days, contemporary design is in great demand, she said.
“I guess it’s just one example of the way things are changing in Atlanta. We have a variety of interest in terms of design and people are moving to Atlanta from all over the world and so we have different tastes. And there’s a lot of different price points. There’s no problem selling a contemporary home at this point in time,” Carey said.
“There is a bigger market than I think anyone in town recognizes for something a little bit different,” said Plutino, who said he sees his modern home as a “safer investment. There is enough of an audience and there is not enough supply on the market.”
Atlanta architects who specialize in contemporary design also have seen an increasing demand for modern.
“I think we’ve seen demand for this type of architecture pick up every year, despite the economy,” said architect Staffan Svenson, a principal in the Dencity architecture firm, one of about a dozen in Atlanta that specialize in modern architecture.
Since its inception in 2000, the firm has designed homes in an expanding array of neighborhoods including Ansley Park, Virginia-High-land, Ormewood Park, the West End and Buckhead, where the firm recently completed a spectacular 7,500-square-foot home.
“We’re working with people from all different backgrounds; old people, young people, people that have lots of money, people that have very little money,” Svenson said.
When he first contemplated building a modern home, Plutino had some reservations about taking such a dramatic aesthetic leap. His previous home was a 1935 Tudor in Morning-side. He didn’t want his new home to appear too sterile or cold. So West — who has designed both traditional and very contemporary homes — worked to inject a sense of comfort into Plutino’s home.
“I try really hard to get away from that stereotype of the sterile white box,” West said.
To that end, he used dark slate tile and bamboo siding on the exterior and wood flooring on the interior to infuse the home with texture and warmth.
“Wood flooring makes a huge difference. It’s helpful when you have these modern, clean line spaces that can feel a little stark, if you just have a wood floor. That by itself warms the space up immediately,” West said. Also key is building to what West called “human scale.”
“Obviously a giant three-story atrium doesn’t feel human scale. It’s amazing and interesting but it’s not necessarily comfortable,” West said.
Architect Stephen Flanagan, owner of Studio One Architecture in Sandy Springs, designs traditional, transitional and modern homes. He also was motivated to defy the white box modern stereotype in the elegantly earthy glass and wood home he completed this year for his own family in Sandy Springs. His wife, Kim, an account executive for an IT company, had some concerns about moving into a modern home.
“Kim was not interested at all in a contemporary home when we started thinking about it. Before we were married, her ideal home was actually a white Victorian,” Flanagan said. “She really needed it to be warm, she really wanted it to be comfortable. She did not want to have something jarring or cold. She was always imagining a steel box that landed from space and it really got her very concerned. When I told her that was not what I was envisioning, she was much more relieved.”
The same connections that Plutino’s modern home is allowing him to foster in his neighborhood the Flanagans are finding in the connection to nature their home affords them. Abundant windows offer impressive views of their wooded one-acre lot, and the spectacle of leaves changing and birds migrating for the winter.
“I love the connectivity to the exterior, and blurring the boundaries between inside and out. We are much more attuned to the outside world than we ever have been any place that we’ve lived,” Flanagan said.
