Hops at the History Center: Ivey and Crook, Masters of Southern Neo-Classicism

Architects Ed Ivey and Buck Crook were leaders in what historian William Mitchell has called the Southern School of Classicists, designing smaller homes and suburban churches finely detailed, well proportioned, and grounded in traditions that reach back to American colonial architecture and beyond.  Temple fronts as porticos and multi-staged steeples dot the landscape of Atlanta in Ivey and Crook churches inspired by British architect James Gibbs, while cottages and smaller homes translate the neo-classical detailing of European stately country houses to the more intimate humane scale of Atlanta’s smaller homes.  The second phase of Emory University’s campus development is largely the work of Ivey and Crook.  There is a distinctive air of refinement and elegance in Ivey and Crook’s architecture, which will be surveyed in the next installment of Robert Craig’s lecture series on Atlanta architects.