Passersby on Virginia-Highland’s leafy Drewry Street have wondered in recent months what a bold, black-painted, modern structure that’s replaced a vacant lot could be.

A laboratory? A custom boutique office building? An elementary school from the future?

Turns out it’s none of the above—but instead the neighborhood’s latest (but certainly not only) example of a large-scale residence with overtly contemporary architecture.

Building permits indicate the single-family dwelling at 791 Drewry St. NE—situated about two blocks east of the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail—will be a 4,143-square-foot, single-family home with an in-ground pool and spa at its core.

Contributed photo

Google Maps

It’s being built by veteran Atlanta-based developers The Braden Fellman Group, the company initially expected to spare Newport’s South Downtown buildings from foreclosure. (Recent Braden Fellman projects include downtown’s Revival Lofts—previously an abandoned eyesore for nearly two decades—and the adaptive-reuse of Adair Park’s Abrams Fixture Corporation complex.)

In Virginia-Highland, the .3-acre site in question was previously vacant, apart from a few trees. (Complaints had been filed alleging the lot was being used for illegal parking for an adjacent apartment building, but no violations were found, per Department of City Planning records.)

Braden Fellman officials confirm the project will be a private residence. And that its designers are Atlanta-based Choate + Hertlein Architects, the firm responsible for some of the most envelope-pushing and eye-catching modern home projects around Atlanta, in addition to work on Ponce City Market offices, the Revival Lofts, and the 1200 Ponce church conversion, among other work.  

Facade of a single-family residence that stands out despite muted color schemes in Virginia-Highland. Contributed photo

The 791 Drewry St. site in question, prior to construction in early 2022.Google Maps

With its towering chimney, roof ladder, Darth Vader motif, and atypical geometry, the modern house will stand out among Drewry Street’s cottages, Tudors, and larger traditional infill dwellings. But is that a bad thing?

Find more visuals in the gallery above.

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