For the restoration of the mural in the home’s foyer, architect Yong Pak and designer Tammy Connor called on artisans intimately familiar with architect Philip Trammell Shutze’s work, as well as that of artist Athos Menaboni, the Italian-born painter commissioned by Shutze in 1939. Athens artist Jill Biskin spent more than four months painstakingly completing the restoration of Menaboni’s dogwood mural. The lamp, chest and mirror are from Parc Monceau. Rug, The King’s House Oriental Rugs.
A large Oushak rug anchors the formal living room, part of the home’s original footprint. Connor kept the color palette neutral and the windows bare, so as not to compete with the intricate architectural details. Cocktail table, Parc Monceau.
Connor transformed an antique console into a beautiful powder room vanity.
Connor transformed a French trumeau mirror into a headboard by adding side panels. Windows—painstakingly rebuilt to imitate the originals, with shutters that fold neatly into pockets in the window jambs—were left unadorned, as the shutters provide for privacy.
The master bedroom, part of the ground-floor addition, opens to a small garden.
Elegant Calcutta Gold marble on the floor and in the shower creates a unified look in the brand-new master bathroom. A stand-alone tub from Waterworks makes the room as elegant as it is relaxing. A painting by Pierre Bittar hangs on paneled walls designed by Pak Heydt & Associates.
The breakfast area opens onto a cutting garden with a fountain, while a pair of custom paneled doors conceals the wife’s office.
The original kitchen was more utilitarian. The renovated space—which now includes a new kitchen, breakfast area and family room, all of which open up to each other—needed to suit the modern needs of a busy family of six. “This is the part of the house the family really lives in,” says Connor. The kitchen cabinets are painted in Farrow & Ball’s Pigeon. The range is by La Cornue and the stools are from English Accent Antiques.
The family room is an inviting place to take a seat and relax.
A painting by Winslow Homer hangs above a French console. The room’s paint color is Benjamin Moore’s Bleeker Beige.
One of the most endearing things about this house, says Connor, is the seamless transition between indoors and out. In the dining room, three sets of French doors open to an outdoor courtyard, creating a perfect circulation pattern for entertaining.
Exquisitely designed locker-style cabinets keep clutter to a minimum just outside an unexpectedly chic laundry room. Wallcovering, China Seas.
The mudroom, part of the new addition, provides a seamless transition between indoors and outdoors.
Connor, who received the Shutze Award from the Southeast Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) earlier this year for her work on another Shutze project, says this refined farm-style home was originally designed to have the appearance of being built over time—making it the perfect candidate for a sensitive renovation.
In front of the estate’s gun house—which contains a living area, bar, office and recreation room—is a vegetable garden. “One of the biggest compliments we’ve received from friends of Mrs. Carr is that she would have loved what we did,” says the homeowner of the property’s meticulously designed gardens, which she “inherited” from of one of Atlanta’s most devoted horticulturists, Anne Carr.
A pair of tennis courts was removed from the property to make room for a pool and poolhouse. Jill Biskin, the artist commissioned to restore the Menaboni painting inside, was also responsible for creating the swimming pool design, inspired by a David Hockney painting. “It’s extremely modern and not at all what you would expect would go on the property,” says the homeowner of the hand-laid tile “scribble,” but they couldn’t be more pleased with the result.
There’s a great sense of responsibility that comes with owning a Philip Trammell Shutze-designed house. One of America’s finest classicists, he designed residences from the Swan House at the Atlanta History Center to the Italian Baroque Calhoun estate in Buckhead, each boasting a level of craftsmanship and grandeur that have become part and parcel of Atlanta’s collective architectural heritage.
In the rare case that a Shutze-designed house changes ownership (many, like this one, change hands without officially landing on the market), it’s with bated breath that Atlanta’s modern-day tastemakers hope a historically sensitive renovation will ensue.
Indeed, the current owners of the Shutze-designed Patterson-Carr House, a 1939 Colonial Revival on Northside Drive, recall project manager James Jordan of Pak Heydt & Associates breathing a visible sigh of relief when he witnessed part of the interior design installation—two years after the couple embarked on a renovation of the historic home. (As a young man, Jordan had spent time at the house; maintaining a renovation appropriate to the standards of previous owner, Atlanta grande dame Anne Carr, was imperative to him, as well.)
“This house is complex in its subtleties,” explains Birmingham-based interior designer Tammy Connor, who worked in conjunction with Yong Pak to revive the home’s glory days. Those subtleties would require calling on artisans with encyclopedic knowledge of Shutze’s nuances as well as that of Athos Menaboni, the Italian-born painter commissioned by the architect to create a mural for the foyer which, due to water damage, was not exactly ready for its close-up when the current owners moved in.
Because this refined farm-style home was originally designed by Shutze to have the appearance of being built over time, modifying the floorplan and putting on an addition was a no-brainer, says Connor. In fact, an untrained eye might find it difficult to discern where the original floorplan starts and stops.
The owners, parents to four teenagers, set out to modernize the house for their busy lifestyle, blowing out the back of the house to make room for a combined kitchen, family and breakfast room, along with a fourth bedroom upstairs and a new master closet and bath. Outside, they were particularly sensitive to the grounds’ luscious gardens, the product of previous owner Anne Carr—a longtime champion of horticulture and founder of the Cherokee Garden Library at the Atlanta History Center. Though they opted to remove tennis courts to make room for a pool and poolhouse, the owners worked with landscape architect Richard Anderson to transplant boxwoods, hydrangeas and more elsewhere on the property.
One of the most endearing things about this house, says Connor—in addition to its harmonious proportions—is the constant conversation between inside and out. “The home was designed on an axis so that the surrounding landscape and formal gardens could be seen from various focal points inside the house,” she says.
The designer established a natural, earthy palette for the interiors that would not only invite the outdoor gardens in, but also allow the home’s spectacular architectural bones to regain their rightful place. And that desire to respect, not overshadow, the estate’s aesthetic integrity will prove the home’s enduring legacy.
