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Whatever happened to the mail order house?

The Chelsea, from the earliest Sears Roebuck collection available 1908-1914

Arrol Gellner is a practicing architect with 30 years of experience in residential and commercial architecture. He is a graduate of the College of Environmental Design at the University of California at Berkeley. He wrote an awesome article about the bygone days of yore when you could buy a "mail order house." If you know about any mail order houses still in use around Atlanta, please let The Rootdown Group know - we would love to see the property! Mass production residential is still in it's "re-infancy," but as we have reported before, there are some nifty new pre-fab ideas out there... Arrol states "Over the course of the 20th century, there have been many attempts to bring mass-production methods to the building industry. " Many folks remember or have heard about the "Sears Roebuck" houses - Arrol offers a nice explanation..."...retailing giant Sears Roebuck began offering houses by mail order. Each Sears Modern Home came in a 25-ton kit consisting of precut lumber … [Read more...]

Intown Atlanta and Decatur Modern Architecture enthusiasts – go see this

601 3d Avenue

Renewal Construction is doing a remarkable job, one Intown Atlanta and Decatur house at a time. They have an upcoming "pre-drywall" open house inspection of a cool looking "green" modern - the house is a remarkable looking Earthcraft Renovation, and is getting media attention, so if you have any interest in such things, it is worth a little bit of time this weekend. Make sure that you come by their open to the public "open house" on Friday, March 21 from 4-7 pm, or on Saturday March 22, from 9am to 1pm. … [Read more...]

Luminescent Gravel

Wow, gravel aggregate mixed with glow in the dark particles. Cool. Reminds me of Light Bright! … [Read more...]

Sweet Modernism in Reynoldstown

Concourse E and their remarkable designs in Reynoldstown The folks at Concourse E are working on 2 really cool projects in the shadow of the CSX Hulsey railroad in Reynoldstown. One house is on Manigault and the other is on Weatherby. We find it refreshing to see innovative design done well, and we are glad to see more and more of it, in lieu of the ubiquitous newly built craftsman house with Hardi Plank siding. Somebody come down to Reynoldstown and get your real estate on! … [Read more...]

Robert Green, apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright

Robert Green's "Krone House"

I communicated with some folks at Trulia Voices today, because someone wrote in seeking preliminary suggestions on how to get a unique, architecturally significant house sold. The Architect of the house is Robert Green. Some of the friends of IntownInsider.com love super cool houses just like I do, but many of us didn't know that up until 2003, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright was designing metro Atlanta residences. Check out the link... http://www.jetsetmodern.com/green.htm If you ever see a super cool Intown Atlanta or Decatur house worth sharing with others - maybe it's a house for sale - then please write us and make sure that we know about it. We've been inside 3 different Atlanta area Robert Green properties, and we think that they are all a work of art. There is a built in demand for well-built contemporary residences at all price points, all over Georgia! … [Read more...]