Assignment 8: Adam

Park Place South (PPS) is a residential development located approximately 3.5 miles south of Atlanta on Pryor Rd SW, just north of Aaron’s Amphiteatre at Lakewood. It appears as if the development has been completed in stages over the past 8 years, the single-family houses being the most recent construction (2006-7). Their on-line advertisement sums up their conceptual approach and hints at their target market:

As a neighborhood designed for every lifestyle, Park Place South has a wide variety of quality condominiums, townhomes and single-family residences. A leisurely afternoon stroll along the wide sidewalks is a great way to relax at the end of the day.

Every detail of Park Place South has been carefully thought out. Park Place South offers ample green spaces and community gathering areas encourage a sense of community. Get to know your neighbors at the large Community Clubhouse and picnic area, the neighborhood gathering place for family barbeques, weekend parties and refreshing afternoon swims.

The ad repeats the name of the development (like a TV commercial) and uses buzz words like “leisurely”, “relax”, “refreshing”, “community”, and “gathering”. When reading the ad and thinking about the development in light of John Chase’s definition of consumerist architecture, I became increasingly aware that all observations I would make could be applied to a million developments; and this is precisely the point. PPS is a small development in a nationwide residential real estate market which mass produces nearly identical communities across the country. As such, and in line with Chase’s interpretation of consumerist architecture, PPS markets a product, housing, and an emotion, “a sense of community”. PPS is actively being marketed (as there still remain empty lots and available units) to people who value a sense of community, which is optimistically vague. Appeal to the widest possible market and hope you make the sale.

The development itself is fairly compact, and their statement “ample green spaces” is deliberately misleading. The majority of the development is asphalt. The curvilinear roads are wide enough to park on, and every townhouse and condominium building had parking garages behind. Landscaping is abundant, but open space is not green. The development does not announce itself from Pryor Rd SW and trees have been planted to obscure views of the houses and other units. In fact, I could not find a “monument sign” announcing the main entrance from Pryor Rd. The only sign declaring the developments name I found was on the community building located within the development. Interesting: giving off a more urban than suburban vibe. But it is an intown development.

There are only a handful of single-family houses and they are spatially segregated in the south of the development. The houses are closely packed and have little in the way of surrounding yards. Trees are used to screen the houses from Pryor Rd. The houses incorporate a variety of vague historicized elements. Their style is of the “handcrafted earthiness” variety borrowing battered columns from early 20^th century Craftsman style and a variety of cladding materials and asymmetrical facades reminiscent of late 19^th century Victorian styles (like Shingle). The feel is American, no doubt, and there are little design elements which suggest otherwise. The light posts also relate a vague historicism but are comically out of scale and proportion. Their presence is also likely to add a sense of security. There are far more condo and townhouse buildings. An on-line search revealed 2-3 bedroom townhouses in PPS selling for 59-67k. These units are arranged in a manner reminiscent of row houses. Differences in elevation give the row a more urban feel while projections break up the street-wall. The whole development is a mash-up of architectural styles, but it also provides both urban and suburban elements.

The overall appeal is difficult to say and PPS has incorporated three housing options with communal living amenities (the pool and community house, etc). In a way, they have hedged their bets by providing living arrangements that attract different domestic ideals. Regardless, the overall feeling is one of sensibility. PPS I think reflects popular cultural values in that it relates a conservative visual language in an understandable format. The architectural language of vagueness appeals to the collective memory of the population.