Douglas Newby Insights - Page 11
Start Saving Homes
Over 25 years ago, the AIA Dallas Chapter selected this Hal Thomson designed home pictured here at 4908 Lakeside in Highland Park as a Dallas 50 Significant Home for their 50th Anniversary. For 75 years before that, this Highland Park home had been considered the iconic home on Lakeside. The question should not be — when are people going to stop tearing down historic homes? – but when are proactive steps going to be taken to save historic and architecturally significant homes? Officially, for 25 years, we all have known that this Hal Thomson designed Highland Park home was historically and architecturally significant and needed to be preserved. Have any preservation steps been taken to show how the home could be renovated or expanded, maintaining its architectural facade and integrity while making the home more economically compatible with the value of the lot? In my recent DouglasNewby.com blog series, Five Preservation Steps to Save Homes, I discussed in Preservation Steps Three and Four how architects, interior designers, contractors, and appraisers can create a vision and validate the value of a renovated home of this elegance and importance to make it easier to save. It is hard to stop a home from being torn down when bulldozers are in place. Historic and architecturally significant homes can be saved if proactive preservation steps are taken. When are we going to start saving homes? *Start Saving Homes
#HalThomsonArchitect #HistoricHome #Preservation #HighlandPark #LakesideDriveHighlandPark #HalThomson #Architecture #Architect #NeoclassicalArchitecture #ArchitecturallySignificant #ArchitecturallySignificantHomes #HistoricHomes #OldHighlandPark #AIADallas #PreservationParkCities #Dallas #SavingHomes #curbappeal #DallasHistoricHomes #HomesTornDown
Dallas Salon
I consider the Harlan Crow Library the epicenter of history, political and economic discussions. This architect-designed, architecturally significant library, located in the middle of Dallas and Highland Park, with a serious collection of books and letters that Harlan Crow is intimately familiar with, is a perfect spot for those in Dallas, across the country, and from around the world to convene and exchange ideas. Recently, Douglas Bradburn, the President and CEO of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, came here to interview Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Atkinson and discuss his recent book, The British Are Coming, Volume One of the Revolution Trilogy. Hearing how George Washington was not a brilliant general but was a brilliant leader, and the overarching themes of the war and minute details of the participants, from two of our country’s foremost historians, was enthralling. Making it even more invigorating, was standing and listening by chance next to library shelves of early first edition books on George Washington. The Mount Vernon estate has been a historic and cultural symbol of the United States for over 200 years. It is also an architectural icon and we see many homes that are inspired by Mount Vernon in Dallas. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, who sponsored the event, organized by incredible Gloria Snead, purchased the Mount Vernon estate from the Washington family in 1858 and has welcomed 96 million guests to George Washington’s home. My family is descended from William Ball I, who was George Washington’s grandfather. William Ball V’s daughter, Elizabeth Ball, married William Newby, from which the Newby/Ball line descended, including William G. Newby, who donated William G. Newby Memorial Building to the Women’s Club of Fort Worth, founded in 1923. This is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The William and Elizabeth Ball Newby 500-acre farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley was deed restricted so it could not be divided up. When I visit Forth Worth or Virginia, I am tempted to go by my first name–William. *Dallas Salon
#mount_vernon #HarlanCrowLibrary #HighlandPark #Dallas #DallasArchitecture #ArchitecturallySignificant #Library
Farewell to Lights
A vintage 1979 Mercedes 450 SL, the color, vicuna with a chocolate brown top, in Highland Park always makes one either sentimental or envious of such a cool car. But what car would you expect of a nationally celebrated interior designer, Susan Bednar Long and her husband John, to drive to the village for dinner? I always love driving by their beautifully restored historic home on Beverly Drive and enjoy the look even more now when I see this car in the motor court. Also, one gets sentimental about the Highland Park lights. This image was taken on the last night of the Highland Park lights shining before they get turned off and then turned on next fall. As we say farewell to the lights, we know spring is on the way. *Farewell to Lights
@SBLongInteriors @jbrlong3 #Mercedes450SL #HighlandParkVillage #CafePacific #HighlandParkTX #DallasNeighborhood #HighlandParkNeighborhood #Design #InteriorDesigner #SusanBednarLong #JohnBRLong3
Contemporary Contrast
This home best illustrates the point I made in my TEDx talk, Homes That Make Us Happy, that it is not a particular style of home that makes one happy but the design of a home that makes one happy. Good design is good design. This Victorian style home might be the only new Victorian style home built in Dallas in the last 25 years. Its style is a severe contrast to the prevailing popularity of Modern and Transitional Modern. A new Victorian style home might even be considered architectural sacrilege by the professional intelligentsia. However, this home has good design and attracted many buyers, including those that have previously owned architect-designed Modern homes and others that live in Transitional Modern homes. These modern home lovers were all attracted to the wide front porch elevated high off the street, the rear porch, and the many windows. Mid-century Modern homes of this size generally have 8 ft. ceilings. Historic homes of this size have 8 ft. to 9 ft. ceilings. This Victorian style home built in 1996 has 10 ft. ceilings and wide double passageways with pocket doors opening to other large rooms. It also has a very wide gallery that runs the length of the home—perfect for entertaining. The floorplan programmatically feels modern. The home also attracted multiple buyers from New Orleans, which should not be a surprise. Many coming from New Orleans bought homes in Munger Place and Swiss Avenue, as they were attracted to the wide front porches and the balcony porches that they were raised with. D Magazine called this one of the “ten most charming houses in Dallas” in 2019. In 2022, modern home aficionados just called this a cool house with great spaces. *Contemporary Contrast
#Victorian #OakLawn #CurbAppeal #DallasNeighborhood #Dallas #Architecture #VictorianStyleHouse #Dallas Home #HomesThatMakeUsHappy
Modern Muse
The concept of a muse has always fascinated me—fashion designers often have their muse floating in and out of a studio and historically artists were known to paint their paramours as their subject. What I love about this modern muse is she is the wife of the very talented artist, Will Murchison. At a recent show, Will said, when I asked, that he was not trying to paint his wife when he was composing and painting this layered piece of organic shapes on an asymmetrical grid, but he agreed that there did seem to be a similarity between the female in the painting and his wife. Will Murchison’s work is both intellectually thought out and spontaneously painted. It is a delight to know that when Will goes into his deepest subconscious for inspiration, his beautiful wife appears. *Modern Muse
@ErinCluleyGallery #DallasArtist #DallasArt #WillMurchison #DallasArtGallery #Muse #modernartists
Preservation Step Five
Preservation Step Five discusses implementing architectural deed restrictions in my final article of my blog series, Five Preservation Steps to Saving Homes. This final step is the most powerful step and a way to guarantee the extended life of a historic home. The pictured Mark Lemmon architect-designed home in Highland Park is well decorated with historic markers and plaques from Preservation Park Cities, Texas Historic Commission, and the National Register. And yet what ultimately saved the home were architectural deed restrictions agreed to by a smart and concerned buyer and seller who were passionate about architecture, history and Dallas. Architectural deed restrictions save historic and architecturally significant homes from being torn down. *Preservation Step Five
#HistoricHomes #ArchitecturallySignificantHomes #DallasHistoricHomes #HighlandPark #PreservationParkCities #Preservation #SavingHomes #Architect #Architecture #MarkLemmon #Dallas #Neighborhood #ArchitecturalDeedRestrictions
Preservation Step Four
Interior designer Michael Lee recently mentioned to me that he always tries to find an old photograph, preferably black and white, of a historic home to show the original essence of the home when he meets with a client to discuss saving and renovating it. The reason for this is the original design, unencumbered by decades of modifications or landscaping grown out or proportion, provides a more compelling appreciation of the home. In my blog series, Preservation Five Steps for Saving Homes, I discuss in Preservation Step Three that at the beginning of my career my first transaction was negotiating 22 options on divided-up rent houses for the Historic Dallas Fund, which included the home pictured. The fund would re-sell these homes to homeowners who would return them to single-family. It was thought impossible to sell these divided-up rent houses, with 30 bad weekly tenants in a bad Dallas neighborhood, to a homebuyer. My solution was to retain an architect to draw a floorplan of the home reflecting the home when it was originally single-family, before it had four kitchens and bathrooms in the living room. This prompted me to continue to create floorplans even a decade later when I began selling some of the most beautiful homes in Highland Park and other parts of Dallas. I was the first Dallas realtor to create floorplans for listings, now it is standard practice for realtors. Also, I had an architect create a pen-and-ink drawing of the home, stripping away the deterioration, the three front doors, and adding back the original porch that might have been eliminated or closed in.
In Preservation Step Four of the blog series, I discussed how for the home pictured—one of the original Historic Dallas Fund houses—I had a contractor provide a bid to renovate the home back to single-family. It was subsequently renovated and actually resold eight years later for the same price as a larger brick Swiss Avenue home. A family has enjoyed raising their children in this Munger Place home originally destined for demolition.
*Preservation Step Four
#SavingHomes #Preservation #InteriorDesigner #Architect #Architecture #Dallas #Neighborhood #HistoricHomes #mungerplace
Preservation Step Three
Preservation Step Two—contacting and cultivating owners of historic and architecturally significant homes will save homes from being torn down. The home pictured is owned by sophisticated homeowners that are professional and amateur historians. They have a great affection and appreciation for the architecture and history of this home designed by architect David Williams. For many years they have had in place a plan to sell the home with architectural deed restrictions that will protect the home from being torn down.
Preservation Step Three of saving homes is having architects and interior designers create a vision for a home like this renovation that captures the original architect’s intent as if he were designing the home today. I recently posted on my blog all five preservation steps of saving homes. * Preservation Step Three
#SavingHomes #Preservation #DavidWilliams #Architect #Architecture #InteriorDesigner #OldEastDallas #Dallas #DallasNeighborhoods #HistoricHome #WhilshireHeights #Renovation
Preservation Step Two
After identifying historic and architecturally significant homes, the next step is contacting the owners and working with them to develop a preservation strategy for their home. In 1995, very few people were aware of the Crespi Estate–out of sight, out of mind. Virtually no one, including Dallas architectural historians, knew that the architect was Maurice Fatio of Treanor & Fatio, one of the most important architects in the country in the 1920s and 1930s. Since this historic and architecturally significant home was on 20 acres in Mayflower Estates hidden from the street, it was destined to be torn down for a housing development. I was introduced to Mr. Robert Wigley, the son of Florence Crespi and trustee of the family holdings. Bob Wigley had been Vice Chairman of E.F. Hutton and continued to be an accomplished money manager for many prominent families. Mr. Wigley was very receptive to a plan to preserve the Crespi Estate after his mother’s death. We put in place a plan to find the right buyer to preserve the home and even the eventual sales contract had deed restrictions that prevented the property from being divided for some period of time. I will be eternally grateful for my opportunity to work with Robert Wigley, an incredibly smart and honorable man. I will also always be grateful that Mr. Wigley saved the home with the preservation plans we put in place. While some of the property has now been divided, the Crespi Estate survives. My work with the late Mr. Wigley on this very complex transaction is my favorite collaboration. You can read more about preservation Step Two in my blog article, Five Steps of Saving Homes.
*Preservation Step Two
#RobertWigley #FlorenceCrespi #HistoricHome #CrespiEstate #SavingHomes #Preservation #ArchitecturallySignificantHome #MauriceFatio #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #CurbAppeal #Architect #Architecture #MayflowerEstates
First Preservation Step
Cities that have a tremendous influx of homebuyers moving in from other states are the most apt to suffer from an acceleration of historic and architecturally significant homes torn down. However, any village, town or city can take proactive steps to preserve their layered architectural lineage that gives depth, history and forward momentum to their community. My recent blog article, Five Preservation Steps to Saving Historic and Architecturally Significant Homes, provides proactive ways to save homes. The Hal Thomson architect-designed home pictured is on Swiss Avenue where Dallas took its first step in saving homes. *First Preservation Step
#Preservation #SavingHomes #HistoricHome #HalThomsonArchitect #HighlandPark #SwissAvenue #DallasNeighborhood #ArchitecturallySignificantHome #HistoricDistrict #mungerplace