Private Quarters: California architecture but Southern feel

By Special

For the AJC

By Scott Dean

For the AJC

Justin and Jennifer Beals, natives of Georgia, built their modern dream house in Atlanta while always keeping the South and it’s culture in mind.

Justin, the senior product designer for Macmillan Publishers, and Jennifer, who is currently starting two new software companies, bought a small house in 1996 located north of Tilford Yard that was built in the early 1900s for railroad workers.

“We had two rules when buying our house: It had to be in town, and it had to be something we could afford,” Justin said. “For the amount the mortgage company gave us, it was one of the few that had a floor and the electrics still intact.”

The Beals moved to California for a couple of years and maintained the property while away. After returning to Georgia and witnessing many of their friends move to East Atlanta, Justin and Jennifer decided to stay on their property and build a modern home with a California feel.

“We love the modern California architecture, which is what inspired us as we started sketching plans. We built the silver part in the back of the house first, which we call ‘the tower,’ onto the original home,” Jennifer said. “After seeing the two styles together, it didn’t look like what we wanted, so we hired an architect to help finish the project.”

Justin and Jennifer completed the final phase of their home with the help of architect William Carpenter, CEO of Lightroom, an interdisciplinary studio in Atlanta focusing on architecture, and website, print and identity design.

“The Beals are truly urban pioneers, and they were great collaborators,” Carpenter said. “They are very supportive of the modern ethos and are modernists, not ‘modernish.’ ”

“Bill really brought the whole project together. He took our vision and captured what we really wanted,” Justin said. “He incorporated some of the concepts about living in the South, which I think is very important even though this is a very modern house.”

The original house was torn down to make room for the structure that the Beals call home, but the large outdoor chimney pays homage to the original house that once stood in its place. The cinder-block chimney stands alone on the front patio, just as many old stone homestead chimneys stand years after a houses have fallen apart.

“The most unique reaction we got was during a modern home tour when people said that this looks like a house where people actually live,” Justin said. “We like shifting people’s opinions about the South.”