Fresh Loaf

If the City of Atlanta runs out of water, I say we stink - and we would be the first large American city to allow it to happen.

– Ashley at Random Atlanta, in a post titled “This lack of water thing is freaking me out”

I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna start referring to the drought as “this lack of water thing.”

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Imagine an ice cream cone upside down lined with rooms and squashed a little so its cross section is more oval than round… Then make it 500 feet tall and take the elevators up to the 41st floor (higher ones need keys).

– Chris at Food, Travel And Exercise is impressed by the Marriott Marquis Downtown, designed by Atlanta architect John Portman. The atrium he describes is the supposedly the world’s tallest.

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The pushback here-the claim that those of us who dare to suggest that Marshall support this legislation are just short of being socialists-is a classic Roverian technique, and in this instance has strong overtones of race-baiting. It’s not working.

Do the right thing, Jim. Vote to override.

– Amy Morton at Georgia Women Vote wants Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., to vote to override President Bush’s veto of legislation funding health care for uninsured children.

What a coincidence. So do I.

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Last night the Sandy Springs Board of Zoning Appeals rejected developer John Portman’s plan to build a 69-foot-tall, 27,500 square-foot palace on Northside Drive. Sandy Springs limits the maximum height of private homes to 40 feet.

Atlanta’s alternative daily is on top of this. Check out this telling passage from this morning’s great story by Cynthia Daniels.

After all, [Portman] said, he could have built a 40-foot-high home closer to the street — at the land’s highest point. Instead, he decided to hide the home in a ravine so that although its average height would be 69 feet, it would sit lower than a 40-foot-high home built on the ridge.

Or, he could have subdivided the 12-acre property for a five-home cul-de-sac.

Translation: Oh, lowly neighbors, you should be grateful to me for wanting to build this monstrosity. Think of all of the things I can build there that you’ll hate even more.

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John Portman wants a bigger house.

The 83-year-old architect and developer responsible for Peachtree Center, as well as most of the big buildings surrounding it, is asking Sandy Springs for a building variance so he can build a 70-foot-tall, 27,500-square-foot home at 5193 Northside Drive.

City ordinance caps the heights of single-family homes at 40 feet. Portman will be at Sandy Springs City Hall on Thursday at 7 p.m. where he will argue that rules made for single-family homes shouldn’t necessarily apply to palaces.

No word yet on whether Portman’s new home will be connected to nearby buildings via elevated, see-through walkways.

(Note: If you’re wondering what the title of this post means, you should click here and then here.

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