Tastemaker Building Blocks

Building BLOCKS

Architect Blake Segars playfully marries exterior landscape with interior function

STORY: Nicole Letts

It all began with a LEGO. At least, that’s what Buckhead-based architect T. Blake Segars says of his passion for design. “My parents joke that if I had LEGOs in the womb, I would have played with them,” he says.

Today, the stately Buckhead homes designed by Segars’ eponymous firm are a far cry from toy bricks, but Segars says he never forgets to seek his inner-child when working on a project. “I’ve learned that we don’t have to take ourselves so seriously in design; we can have fun,” he says. Here, Segars shares more about his architectural and landscape design history, as well as how to build the real-life home of your dreams.

You have trained alongside several renowned architects including Atlanta’s Norman Askins. How did Askins and your other mentors influence your work? Right out of the University of Georgia, I landed an awesome job opportunity in Nashville with [landscape architects] Ben Page and Gavin Duke. During that time, I was exposed to a clientele and a world that was not familiar. I grew up in Rome, Georgia with working class parents. I cut the grass; I’m the one that planted the shrubs. All of a sudden I’d landed this job with Page|Duke, where we had clients with multi-million dollar budgets for their landscape alone. I learned what a landscape architect is capable of doing. To this day, that experience helps me push the envelope. Later in my career, Norman helped me to push myself out the door. He was not one of those ego-driven employers. He was more of a mentor who was trying to build the next generation. What is your signature style? I’m very traditional. I’m Southernbased, and I like our columns, textures and colors that are associated with quintessential Southern design. I like to implement those classic elements in a new, updated, 2021 manner. For example, I like to use trim work, but it’s streamlined and edited for today.

If budget allows, why is it important to work with an architect, a designer and a contractor simultaneously? I always tell people to formulate the team early on. To me, the most fun jobs and the most successful jobs are team collaborations. I humbly tell people all the time that I don’t know all of the answers, so it’s a lot of fun to get in there with other professionals like interior designers because it makes for a more cohesive process. What are we going to see trending in architecture in the future? One thing we are doing quite frequently is the scullery, also known as “the glorified pantry.” Regardless of how much time and money you spend on doing a fabulous family room, people are still going to gravitate to the kitchen. The goal is to create the kitchen in such a way that the small and large appliances can be tucked away. Think of it as a dedicated area, such as a coffee bar, where everything that comes along with the coffee bar lives: the sink where you can fill up your carafe, a hidden trash can for your sugar packs and pods, and a refrigerator for your creamer. A scullery is something I advocate for in every design.

You specialize in both architecture and landscape architecture. How is landscape just as important as a home’s exterior and interior design? The first thing someone sees when they pull up to a home is going to be the landscape. My goal is that when one walks to the front door, they’re experiencing a number of sensations that evoke a sense of hospitality: the crunch of the gravel, the feel of the shrubs, the sounds of the bees buzzing and wind rustling through the foliage of a tree. Those things make your arm hair stand up and make you feel welcomed. Everything from the blade of grass to the front portico to the window is methodical. n

T. BLAKE SEGARS ARCHITECTURE & LANDSCAPES

404.550.5812 blakesegars.com

SIMPLY STYLISH

TASTEMAKER Facials for Everyone P44

Entrepreneur Ansley Bowman opens affordable facial studio at Westside Provisions District.

“Faced the Facial Studio was truly born out of me, as a customer, looking for something in the industry and not finding it.” —Ansley Bowman

Photo: Brittany Wage

HAT’S OFF

Stacey Sidles Ollinger debuts an answer to handsfree accessories

STORY: Lauren Finney Harden

Good friends make promises and hold each other to them, and that’s exactly what led Brookhaven resident Stacey Sidles Ollinger and her business partner and friend, Carley Faircloth, to launch their brand earlier this year. Faircloth was diagnosed with cancer, and Ollinger promised that “should Carley survive, we’d bring her design of a hat- and bauble-carrying high-end accessory to life.” Faircloth beat the odds, and the resulting product of Ollinger’s promise is Sidecar, an innovative way to keep your hands free of often cumbersome but necessary accessories, such as hats and masks, when you take them off. The brand’s name is a mashup of their own—Stacey’s nickname is “Side,” and “Car” is from Carley.

Sidecar is made up of a sleek, functional clip and premium leather strap that can be worn six different ways, including cross-body, over-the-shoulder and backpack style, making it versatile for your outfit and destination. “Sidecar is a jewelry-grade, 24K goldplated and patented clip paired with premium leather,” Ollinger explains. “It’s practical and encourages ease as a companion accessory, making traveling with hats, masks, scarves and ‘baubles’ much more stylish, whether headed to the baseball fields or to The St. Regis Atlanta.” Ollinger and Faircloth, who grew up together in Scottsdale, Arizona, had a specific vision of who their end-user would be: both busy career women and busy moms. “Carley now lives in New York and London, and I’m here in Atlanta,” Ollinger says. “Carley represents the career woman who is a globetrotter and very fashionoriented. I’m a married mother of two, with a laid-back, California style that has influences of Southern color and prep.” The two women have very different lives but realized they both were looking for a wearable solution that was both stylish and functional to a common fashion problem.

“We were certain we could create this accessory as a gorgeous statement piece that would not sacrifice utility in the design,” Ollinger says.

Ollinger, a hospitality marketing and sales veteran who has worked at iconic properties across the country including Hotel Plaza Athénée in New York and Thompson Beverly Hills before working on Sidecar full time, admits it’s taken “several designs, triumphs and failures,” but that the resulting product has been worth the wait, just in time for soaring summer temperatures and outdoor events.

“Sidecar is our small way of inspiring people to get out there and explore their own backyards and connect and support each other, in great style, of course,” says Ollinger. “It’s for the festival goer and concert lover, for biking on the Beltline, lunching at Le Bilboquet, watching tennis matches and baseball games, and everything in between. Sidecar goes where you go.”

Later this year, Sidecar will launch a silver nickel version with black leather, and additional companion products are in the works. In the meantime, you might catch Ollinger around Brookhaven, sporting her Sidecar while enjoying time with her husband and two sons. n

Sidecar is a stylish way to keep your hands free this summer.

SIDECAR