Title: 665 WW
Location of Proejct: Atlanta, GA
Project Completion Date: N/A
Firm Name: Robert M. Cain, Architect

Short Description: The existing 825 square-foot post WW II home is located in a newly vibrant neighborhoods near a constructed section of Atlanta’s Beltline and a broad range of rapidly developing urban conveniences. It has been home for four years to our clients, a young family of three.

We were commissioned to design the renovation of the existing home, design an addition and an out-building comprised of a garage, studio and in-law suite.

Client priorities include sustainable, economical and efficient use of materials: slab on grade, birch plywood cabinets, exposed GLB and 2x6 wood decking, high-albedo roofing, high-efficiency windows and LED lighting.

Architect's Statement: There are neighborhoods scattered around downtown Atlanta comprised of one story houses, likely derived from Cape Cod style cottages, representing Atlanta’s first generation of low-cost post-war modern housing. Given less than premium locations, racial dynamics and other urban influences these neighborhoods have, until recently, remained mixed race time-warps of lower middle-class housing. Now, as Atlanta’s post-recession growth has folded back into the urban arena and away from suburban sprawl, younger professionals have discovered the affordability, walkability, geniality and convenience the neighborhoods provide.

The existing 825 square-foot home presented here is located in one of the newly vibrant neighborhoods near a constructed section of Atlanta’s Beltline and a broad range of rapidly developing urban conveniences. It has been home for four years to our clients, a young family of three.

We were commissioned to design the renovation of the existing home, add 1,900 square feet of bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen and an out-building comprised of a garage, studio and in-law suite. We were also charged with (while maintaining as much of the character of the existing house as possible) incorporating Mid-Century Modern aesthetics to the addition and out-building.

Priorities incorporated include sustainable design, economical and efficient use of materials: such as: slab on grade as finished floor, birch plywood custom cabinets exposed glulam beams and 2x6 wood decking roof structure (eliminating ceiling finishing requirements), high albedo roofing (metal roof and TPO), high efficiency windows throughout the house, LED lighting, energy star appliances.

We are a firm committed to our own sustainable southern regional style. However, given our clients’ preferences and appreciation of Mid-Century design, the modularity of the Ray and Charles Eames house, works by Rudolph Schindler, Paul Rudolph’s Florida houses and the structural simplicity of post-and-beam Eichler homes were added to our project design thoughts.

Horizontally the exterior and interior are organized by a datum flowing through all facades and established through the addition of a minimalist front porch roof. Axial constructs through and across the interior of the existing house and the addition inscribe order upon the previously unordered plan. Vertically, as in Mid-Century houses, modularity of the post and beam structure establishes the project’s appealing rhythm.

In space time a new minimalist front porch roof leads the circumnavigator to the drive and toward a backyard defined by buildings and screens. Rigorous adherence to the linear roof datum and others slowly introduced by trim, new roof planes and detail evolve as the design transformation is revealed in transit. Axial constructs through and across the interior of the existing house and addition inscribe order upon the previously unordered and extend the interior sense of space. Modularity and structure establish the projects rhythm and as one walks back to the street keys, along the east façade, into the existing house once again through the referenced joints and continuation of the datum introduced at the main entry.