For $1.6M, ridge-topping 1960s Buckhead modern has storied past, city views

Set back on a double driveway, atop the ridgeline for which Randall Ridge Road is named, this carefully updated 1963 contemporary with intriguing history manages to harken California, Italy, and Atlanta’s more sophisticated modern dwellings of today.

Feature on the cover of House Beautiful magazine in 1966, the nearly 6,000-square-foot, stucco-clad property on a lush, 1.3-acre lot was once the home of internationally renowned, Grammy-winning conductor Robert Shaw.

Per the listing, recent renovations aimed to preserve the unique architectural spirit of the five-bedroom home in Mount Paran, accentuating Buckhead skyline views via steel-framed windows from a perch of nearly 1,000 feet above sea level.

Highlights include a fresh kitchen (with unexpected brick flooring), cozy den, and the 17-foot ceilings that flow out into airy terraces, which then overlook understated backyard gardens and the city’s green canopy.

The listing calls the views of Buckhead’s growing skyline “mesmerizing,” though in photos, at least, the towers appear as distant nubs. It also notes: “The vista provides constant interest and is ever-changing throughout the day, the night, and the seasons.”

The house listed this week at $1.63 million. Property records indicate it last traded 14 years ago, for about $300,000 less.

Calling the property “inspiring” for someone like Shaw probably wouldn’t be hyperbole.

From 1977 until his retirement in the late eighties, Shaw was artistic director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which he was credited with blossoming into one of the country’s finest.

Upon his death in 1999, the native Californian and longtime choir director was called the likely “greatest choral trainer of the century.”

• 3897 Randall Ridge Road [Buckhead.com]