Atlanta’s most unique new house is finished, and nobody’s renting it

In the works for more than three years, an Old Fourth Ward project called Haus Gables near Krog Street Market is challenging what modernistic housing in Atlanta can be, from its exaggerated roof structure and atypical window placement to a subterranean garage that could be described as sexy.

But as one neighbor observed this week in an email to Curbed Atlanta, the home was finished in the autumn but hasn’t seen much in the way of habitation since. Haus Gables is bucking the local trend of for-sale spec construction and being offered for rent—at $6,500 monthly.

CLARIFICATION: The Haus Gables project was intended as a family home for the architect and never meant to sell on spec, according to people familiar with the project.

“Maybe the reason it’s been for rent so long,” she wrote, “is because there is no front door?”

That’s plausible. (Although it does have a backdoor at the kitchen, along with garage entry). But could the overall approach be too much for bungalow-hungry Atlantans, stylistically speaking? Or too little, in terms of space for the price? (Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, one outdoor patio, with about 2,100 square feet).

What’s certain is that Haus Gables’s composition was—and is—anything but ordinary.

Atlanta and Boston-based architect Jennifer Bonner, director of MALL, designed and developed the project based on her “Domestic Hats” format, as she told Curbed Atlanta in 2015.

The buildable area Bonner had to work with was a mere 18-feet wide. And it’s only the second house in the U.S. to be made entirely of cross-laminated timber, or CLT, a strong material constructed by gluing layers of lumber together in alternating directions.

The materials came by way of Austria in three shipping containers, and the bulk of the home rose over Sampson Street in a couple of days last spring. Its name is a nod to the daring, gabled roof design up top.

Sean Keenan, Curbed Atlanta

Inside, it’s a puzzle of interesting dimensions, surprising colors, and faux finishes. Find black terrazzo kitchen counters and faux marble finishes in bathrooms that’ve been described as purposefully cartoonish, all atop the most elegant Atlanta garage in recent memory

The approach is a contemporary interpretation of “deeply rooted traditions and examples of faux-finishing found in the Southern architecture,” Bonner said.

This photo by David Moore, MALL; via Open House Atlanta

The finished package is marketed as a three-story “contemporary masterpiece,” outfitted with Bosch and Wolf appliances, alongside Moen, Kohler, and American Standard fixtures.

It’s unclear exactly how long the Haus has been for rent, though listing photos appear to depict the early fall. Short-term renting is evidently not an option.

A similar monthly rent would score, for instance, a 3,000-square-foot house at the doorstep of Piedmont Park, or an updated midcentury dwelling with five bedrooms in tony Pine Hills.

Find more photos of the Haus Gables property here.

• 169 SAMPSON STREET NE [Harry Norman Realtors/Above the Line Housing]