Midcentury Architecture

March 30, 2013

Tote-ally Northwoods! 0

by Joseph Geierman • Doraville Spotlight, Midcentury Architecture

The Northwoods Area Neighborhood Association (NANA) – representing one of Metro Atlanta’s historic mid century neighborhoods – has given us another reason to renew our membership in 2013. It’s a new tote bag featuring an image of Northwoods’ new entrance sign!

 

Northwoods-BW

All NANA households that are current on their 2013 dues will receive a free bag. It’s just one more perk of their membership (along with social activities, community service opportunities, and a vibrant and informative e-mail list!). Additional bags can be purchased for just $5, with all proceeds going toward the fund for the neighborhood’s remaining entrance signs!

DSC_0402

 

For information about joining NANA, check out their website.  If you’re interested in purchasing additional bags, e-mail Joseph@doraville.org.

March 16, 2013

Doraville Neighbor Lunch at Cafe 101 0

by Joseph Geierman • Midcentury Architecture, Taste of Doraville

Photographs by Charlene Fang & Joseph Geierman

Doraville has many strengths – a great location, beautiful mid-century architecture, and fantastic neighbors. In early March, a group of us got together to celebrate all three – a neighborhood lunch at Cafe 101, a local Taiwanese restaurant in an awesome 60s-era building. Charlene Fang, who lives in Northwoods and also happens to be tied into Atlanta’s Taiwanese community, suggested the outing as a late Chinese new year celebration. About thirty people agreed, and we had a great time!

DSC_0096

Originally, the building opened as Oogleblook – an Atlanta-area, hamburger-focused chain owned and operated by Morrison’s Cafeteria. According to people who lived in Doraville during the late-60s and early-70s, the restaurant’s motto was, “You can’t beat our meat” – apparently, they were known for their king-size hamburger with “special spices”.

DSC_0403

Of course, that was a long time ago.  The restaurant has been called “Cafe 101″ (most likely named after the Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan) for several years now.  They’ve done pretty interesting things with the inside, too.  The restaurant is pretty open, so you can see the interesting structure of the round roof.  In the shot below, you get a pretty good view of a wall that has been entirely papered over by various pages from magazines – it’s a cool effect


DSC_0404

Overall, it’s a pretty nice space! I’m a vegetarian and am a little wary about Chinese food sometimes. I was lucky that Charlene was there, though, because she was able to steer me to a few really good options. Overall, I think everyone came away really enjoying the experience and all the comments I heard about the food (served in a buffet during lunch) were good.

 

DSC_0405

Of course, beyond the food, the real reason we all got together was to have fun enjoying each other’s company. We had people there from every neighborhood in the city, and talking over a meal helped old friends catch up, as well as providing a great way to make new friends!

Cafe101c

Lining up for the buffet!

cafe101A

David Harper, Rick Dovi, and Michelle Harper

cafe101h

Charlene Fang, B.J. Abbott, Joseph Geierman

 

cafe101f

Cindy Bradford and Sally Powell

cafe101d

Susan Fraysse, Pet Neri, Lorraine Carribean, and Connie Cody

We’re thinking about doing one of these a quarter – still working out where the next one will be. It was a great time, and another event that reminds me of why I like to live in Doraville.

February 16, 2013

Replacing our Door Hardware with the Schlage Orbit “Century Collection” 0

by Joseph Geierman • Doraville Spotlight, Midcentury Architecture

I’ve written before about how my partner and I have been slowly restoring our ranch house in Doraville’s historic mid century Northwoods neighborhood. Last year, we replaced a periwinkle blue door from Home Depot that the previous owners had installed. The one thing we didn’t do was change out the door’s hardware. At the time, it seemed like it would take more time and money than we had.

The old door hardware wasn’t really anything people noticed from far away.

ourhouseApr2012small

We saw it every time we walked through the front door, though, and finally decided to do something to change it. Since we moved in, we’ve never had locks that matched on all our doors, so getting everything on one key was another goal.

DSC_0391

I really didn’t like any of the locks/knobs available at the big hardware stores. I also didn’t want to pay hundreds of extra dollars from websites that specialize in “mid century” design. I was surprised when I was looking on Amazon and found a version of the Schlage “Orbit” door knob from its “Century Collection – it included a rectangular “Escutcheon” – exactly what we wanted at a reasonable price.

For the back and side door, we got matching orbit door knobs without the escutcheon plus a complimentary deadbolt. When they arrived, I took everything down to Home Depot, and they were able to rekey all 6 items (3 door knobs and 3 deadbolts) for less than $25!

DSC_0399

We’re very happy with the end-result. I feel like we have something that would not have been completely out of place when our home was built in the early 50s, but that still has a clean, modern look that looks great to contemporary eyes.

DSC_0397#1

December 22, 2012

Christmas Lights in Oakcliff 0

by Joseph Geierman • Doraville Spotlight, Midcentury Architecture

Photography by Ashley B.

After seeing our previous post about Christmas Lights in Doraville’s mid century Northwoods neighborhood; Ashley B., a resident of Oakcliff (one of Metro Atlanta’s first split level subdivisions), sent in some Christmas light photos from her own side of Doraville.

Lots of great displays here – great to see families continuing the traditions started in the 60s when the neighborhood was founded!

DSC_8779

DSC_8799

DSC_8800

DSC_8810

DSC_8814

DSC_8816

DSC_8820

DSC_8824

DSC_8835

DSC_8836

DSC_8839

DSC_8843

DSC_8844

DSC_8850

DSC_8858

And it wouldn’t be Doraville if there wasn’t someone doing something cool with their mailbox… our Christmas winner of the Doraville Mailbox of the Week:

DSC_8860

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 »

Livefyre Not Displaying on this post