Fresh Loaf

Architecture society DOCOMOMO’s Georgia chapter and the Young Architects Forum of AIA Atlanta will host a presentation and self-guided tour of downtown Atlanta’s central library on March 11 at 6:30 p.m.

Atlanta's central library

The library is the final work of famed Modernist architect Marcel Breuer and has been at the center of a heated preservation effort after Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts said he wanted to sell the building or move the library’s collection to a new facility near Centennial Olympic Park.

For more information about the event, part of the Atlanta Preservation Center’s Phoenix Files series which showcases the city’s “living landmarks,” visit the site. (The series, which includes tours of The Wren’s Nest and the Olmstead Liner Parks, is worth a look.)

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Architecture magazine Metropolis this month profiles the effort by Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts to raze — or is it renovate? — the historic Atlanta-Fulton County public library located downtown.

The library, completed in 1980, is the final work of famed Modernist architect Marcel Breuer and considered a masterpiece. The architecture community, enraged by the idea, wants to preserve the building.

From the magazine:

Having secured $85 million last November through a bond referendum, Pitts hopes to incorporate retail, dining, and performance space into a high-visibility property. An early choice was a site facing Centennial Olympic Park, a tourist destination bordered by such attractions as CNN Center, the Georgia Aquarium, and the World of Coca-Cola. But opening a new main branch would mean abandoning the existing one—a design that many argue is already a world-class piece of architecture.

It’s an excellent article and worth your time. Read it in full at Metropolis’ site.

To read more about or to join the preservation effort, visit local artist Max Eternity’s website.

(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

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Relocated in fresh digs, Saltworks Gallery opened its new Westside space last month with Perfect Distortions, a solo installation show by Atlanta art world fixture Avantika Bawa. Bawa mines the territories of architecture and abstract sculpture. The current exhibit takes on a pair of Atlanta’s Midtown icons: Ikea and Home Depot. Bawa is a professor in SCAD’s School of Fine Arts and is based in both Atlanta and New Delhi, India.

Describe the work that’s at Saltworks right now.

What we have at Saltworks is a combination of installations, drawings [and] sculptures that seem functional but push the boundary of functionality. A lot of this comes from my previous work, which was kind of interested in modular structures, minimalism, and the intersection of architecture, furniture, sculpture and dysfunction. And, being that this new gallery is very close to Ikea . . . I thought it would be interesting to bite the bullet and address Ikea as fodder. And that’s what I did. Ikea and Home Depot play a major role in this. (more…)

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