Architect Philip Trammel Schutze, FAAR 1920 (1890-1982) is currently in the news in Atlanta, where his practice was centered. The new owner of a 1937 Shutze mansion in the Buckhead area was planning to demolish the house, but after learning about the history and importance of Schutze’s work is reconsidering. There is hope the house will survive.
Schutze was a Georgia native, born in Columbus. He joined the firm Hentz, Reid & Adler, known as the founding fathers of the Georgia school of classicism, upon his return from Rome in 1920. He became a partner in 1927 after Adler died.
His first major project was a villa, the Calhoun-Thornwell House, completed in 1923. It’s a legendary building in Atlanta, known locally as “the Pink Castle.” Described by an unidentified writer as a “foreboding Old World Italian-style villa,” it “holds all the mystery and intrigue of a good romance novel or the perfect location for a horror film.” Indeed, its current owner rents it as a location to film makers. The interior looks quite like the Villa Aurelia.
At the height of his career Schutze was called America’s greatest classical architect. His style was a good fit for Atlanta where the classical style remains popular. His oeuvre includes public, commercial, religious, and residential buildings. One of his best known buildings, Swan House, is now a museum, the Atlanta History Center. It contains the Schutze Decorative Arts Collection—the pottery, porcelain, silver, furniture, rugs, and paintings that Schutze collected during his lifetime.
See more on the work of Philip Schutze, buy American Classicist: The Architecture of Philip Trammel Shutze by Elizabeth M. Dowling (Rizzoli, 1989), or rent the Pink Castle.
David Mayernik, FAAR 1989, is teaching an architecture course online. The Meaning of Rome: the Renaissance and the Baroque City will address the ways Rome's urban form, art, and architecture projected the image of the city to the city itself and to the world. The free course is being offered by the University of Notre Dame. It goes live on March 15 and runs for six weeks.