Home & Real Estate Holiday Homes

The season is the reason for this guide to open house tours

If you’re looking for decorating inspiration or just like the idea of wandering through some beautifully decked out homes, Intown has an array of tours on tap this month.

VIRGINIA-HIGHLAND TOUR OF HOMES

The 23rd annual tour will be held Dec. 2 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Dec. 3 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There are eight homes on this year’s tour, including Craftsman Bungalows, American Foursquare, English Country Style and a former industrial office space transformed into a modern loft. The event will include food tastings at the homes on Saturday and Sunday between 2 and 4 p.m. from local restaurants including Atkins Park, Apres Diem, The Canteen, Cape Dutch, Fontaine’s Oyster House, The General Muir, Highland Tap, Marlow’s Tavern, Press & Grind, San Francisco Coffee, Saint Germain, Tapa Tapa and The Warren. Tickets are $25. Visit vahitourofhomes.org for more information.

Peachtree Garden Club Christmas Home Tour

The 2017 tour will feature four distinctive Buckhead homes on Dec. 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets are $30 at peachtreegardenclub.org.

Home For The Holidays

The annul home tour began in mid-November and continues through Dec. 10, benefitting Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. This year’s show house is at 1800 Garraux Street, and the English country estate-inspired mansion has been decorated by some of the city’s most noted interior designers. The home is open for tours Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. Tickets are $30. For more information, visit, atlantaholidayhome.com.

Grant Park Candlelight Tour Of Homes

The 37th annual Grant Park Candlelight Tour of Homes will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. each day on Dec. 9 and 10. This year’s tour includes a Saturday VIP Walking Tour of Oakland Cemetery and a Sunday Eventide Brewing VIP Holiday Experience. A festive trolley will be available to take visitors from stop to stop. An artist’s market and holiday concert are also on tap for the weekend. Tickets are $20 in advance ($25 after Dec. 8) at CandlelightTourofHomes.com

THE WREN’S NEST

The historic West End home of children’s author Joel Chandler Harris will be open Dec. 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a Victorian Holiday Open House. The Urban Youth Harp Ensemble will perform and Social Butterfly Catering will provide food. Admission is free, but a contribution is welcome. For more information, visit wrensnest.org.

AVONDALE ESTATES TOUR OF HOMES & HOLIDAY MARKET

The Avondale Estates Tour of Homes and Holiday Market will be held on Dec. 10 from 3 to 8 p.m. (the market is open noon to 6 p.m. at the Avondale Community Club). This year’s tour spans almost 90 years beginning with an Avondale “original” built when the city was established in 1926, a thirties bungalow, a forties Colonial Revival, two recently renovated 50s bungalows, and a new Arts and Craft home built in 2015. A point of interest on the tour includes the Little Tree Art Studios, located in the burgeoning Rail Arts District. Over 25 established and emerging artists working in a variety of disciplines will be showing their work. For more information, visit avondaletourofhomes.com.

Timeless Designs from a Trailblazer

Perspectives in Architecture

By Melody Harclerode

Tiny houses have made a big impact with the public. Thousands of people attended the Decatur Tiny House Festival this fall for the second year in a row to tour homes less than 400 square feet in size and to see presentations by leading professionals in this housing movement. HGTV has garnered solid ratings with television programs, such as “Tiny Luxury” and “Tiny House Hunters.” Many people are drawn to the idea of efficient, yet stylish homes. Leila Ross Wilburn, one for the first female architects in the State of Georgia, championed this design approach starting in 1909 when she opened her architectural practice in downtown Atlanta.

Undaunted by limited career opportunities at the time for female architects, this former student at Agnes Scott Institute (now Agnes Scott College) designed countless single-family homes and several commercial buildings and apartment buildings during her 55-year career. Her Wilburn House Condominiums, an architectural jewel on the National Register of Historic Places, sits next to Piedmont Park. In 1914, Wilburn wrote her first plan book, Southern Homes and Bungalows, to promote her designs for Craftsman-style houses. Latter plan books showcased designs and construction drawings for Colonial Revival and Ranch-style homes. This trailblazer wanted to create a “better class of small domestic architecture, one which shall provide us with homes more wholesome in their exterior appearance and more satisfying in their internal arrangement and finish.”

Architect John Busby FAIA, whose architectural firm Jova Daniels Busby was responsible for landmarks such as Colony Square and the Round Bank, has owned his Wilburn-designed home in Morningside since 1966. He and his wife, Maryanne, were “impressed with the inviting turret at the entry, the dark slate roof, and the circulation and efficiency of the interior spaces.” Although he made renovations to his brick house prior to the discovery of its historical significance, Busby retained the integrity and scale of Wilburn’s original design. He reused elements, such as doors, with the renovation work recognizing their beauty and quality construction materials.

Utilizing these plan books, contractors built homes designed by Leila Ross Wilburn across the metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, and the South; and as far away as Michigan. Wilburn died in longtime community of Decatur fifty years ago in November 1967, but her legacy endures with enthusiasts like Busby. He challenges current and future owners of Wilburn-design buildings to research her inspirational life. Even with the changing demands of living since the homes were built, Busby advises owners to appreciate the historical style of the structures. Preferences with building styles change over time, but the efficiency, craftmanship and elegance of Wilburn’s homes are timeless assets for residential building design.

No. 2 Opus Place condominiums obtained its official land displacement permit required by the city, enabling excavation work to begin last month on what will be the tallest residential tower in the city. Karen Rodriguez, Vice President of CITY HAUS of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties, said contractor Reeves Young, which worked on SunTrust Park for the Atlanta Braves, will handle excavation work on the 4.5 acre site at 98 Fourteenth Street, adjacent to the Woodruff Arts Center. Completion of the 53-story, ultra-luxurious development, designed by famed architect Richard Meier, is on track for completion in early 2020. The building will feature one- to threebedroom homes and penthouses. For more information, visit opusplaceatlanta.com.

Site work has begun on Bramley Park in the Village Park area of Brookhaven. The 23-unit townhome community will be comprised of four residential buildings surrounding a central park. Community amenities will include a dog park, homeowner bike share and pool. Designed by architects at TSW and developed and built by Harrison Development & Construction, the homes at Bramley Park will have will have between 2,500 and 3,100 square feet and start in the low $800’s. For more information, visit bramleypark.com.

The Turner Multifamily Impact Fund, a real estate investment fund managed by Turner Impact Capital designed to address the nation’s growing shortage of affordable workforce housing, has acquired the 302-unit Woodland Ridge and 440unit Sonoma Ridge, both northeast of Downtown. Each acquisition advances the fund’s objective of preserving rental housing for families who earn less than the area median income and live in densely populated, ethnically diverse communities. Wingate Companies has announced the second phase of the redevelopment of The Village of Bedford Pine. Station 464 will be a four-story, 96-unit affordable housing community that will be geared at families. The $26 million development will break ground next year at 464 Boulevard in the Old Fourth Ward.

Atlanta Communities Real Estate has announced that Jim Jarboe of Decatur has joined the brokerage as a Sales Associate. Jarboe has 30 years of experience and has received major awards including multiple appearances in the “Top 10” for the DeKalb Association of Realtors and “Top Producer” in his previous firm.