Douglas Newby Insights - Page 17
TEX-DEC
Just look up in the Hall of State building and see the elevated design of art modernity. Art Deco in Dallas celebrating Texas permeates Fair Park, especially in the Hall of State building. My out-of-town guests were fascinated by the names, plaques, emblems, icons and inscriptions on the buildings that in themselves offered pages of Texas history. Undergoing renovation, one can get a fresh look at this aesthetic icon representing the triumphs of Dallas and Texas. *TEX-DEC
#HallOfState #Ceiling #ArtModerne #ArtDeco #TexasDeco #Dallas #Texas #Neighborhood #FairPark #Art #Design #Architecture #TexasHistory #ArchitecturallySignificant #Design #Historic #HistoricallySignificant #Modern
Esplanade Private Performance
Entering an empty Fair Park is such a treat. The magnificent 1936 Art Deco buildings are a timeless look at Dallas and Texas. My visiting friends often go on National Trust for Historic Preservation exhibitions and have a great love of history. As soon as we walked down the esplanade, the fountains began their vertical dance. I told my friends that I had arranged the performance specifically for them. The fountains did add magic to the fabulous buildings and their 1930s muraled facades. The Hall of State is undergoing renovation and future plans for Fair Park are being formalized. Seeing Fair Park now is like going on a private tour of a museum on a Monday when it is closed to the public. Fair Park is an asset that no other city has or could create. *Esplanade Private Performance
#FairPark #Esplanade #ArtDeco #Preservation #TexasDeco #1936 #Murals #Dallas #Neighborhoods #DowntownNeighborhoods #Renovation #Fountains #Art #Painting #History #Park #Architecture #Design #ArchitecturallySignificant #HistoricallySignificant
Philanthropists Explore Dallas
Last month good friends, philanthropists and world travelers, who I met on the front row at the TED conference over a dozen years ago, visited Dallas. Their network of leaders in education, preservation, health and other disciplines is amazing. Knowing their fondness of food, taking me to great restaurants in their hometown of Chicago, and to the best restaurants in Vancouver, it was with confidence our first stop was Khao Noodle. They loved it. Our second stop was ice cream—another way they judge a city. When I show friends and clients Dallas, I am exhilarated by their reaction to the city. Museums are fabulous, but what is interesting to me in a city are the neighborhoods. The city’s pattern of neighborhood development is like rings on a tree. Understanding the neighborhoods allows one to understand the history of a city and its future. The gentleman requested a route for his 4-mile audiobook speed-listening morning walk. My recommendation was similar to the same path where I take people first. Walk down Turtle Creek to the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed theater center, down the private drive of Turtle Creek Park where one sees a John Allen Boyle-designed Mediterranean home across from a Frank Welch designed modern home, on through the neighborhood and through Northern Hills to Knox Street, and then jump on the Katy Trail back to the John Allen Boyle designed Mansion. With his wife, we then weaved through the Fitzhugh corridor lined with historic and conservation districts and modest neighborhoods infiltrated by architect-designed modern homes and way too many generic apartments. Swiss Ave on to the Arts District just 20 blocks away, through Deep Ellum, Fair Park, Lakewood, White Rock Lake, SMU, Highland Park, Greenway Parks, Volk Estates, Bluffview, Preston Hollow, and interspersed subneighborhoods. Their overriding impression was how clean Dallas was and how low the buildings were. In Dallas we often forget how clean our city is and how many neighborhoods we still have that are only two stories, filled with gardens and trees. *Philanthropists Explore Dallas
#Dallas #DallasNeighborhoods #TourOfDallas #City #DallasVisit
Entrance to Dallas
Visitors arriving in Dallas for the first time were visually greeted by a deteriorated building ravaged by time and destruction—at the entrance to downtown Dallas. This might be a common sight in struggling older cities, but not expected in the gleaming city of Dallas. On the visitors’ next trip, instead of seeing this, the leaning tower that would not fall, they will see a shining new $7 billion development—a more fitting look for Dallas. *Entrance to Dallas
#LeaningTowerOfDallas #DowntownDallas #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #UrbanDecay #Demolition #Deterioration #UrbanRenewal #FirstImpression #EntranceToDallas #Architecture #Engineering #Design #Development #DallasDevelopment
Niche Neighborhood
My favorite neighborhoods are niche neighborhoods. My real estate business started exclusively in niche neighborhoods and much of my business continues in niche neighborhoods, most of them having fewer than 100 houses, from Turtle Creek Park to Mayflower Estates. These neighborhoods all have expensive homes but, more important, they are filled with homes of charm, character and architectural significance nestled into nature. I recently posted a video of Northern Hills on my Architecturally Significant Homes YouTube channel that discusses the reasons Northern Hills is a favorite neighborhood. *Niche Neighborhood
#DallasNeighborhoods #NicheNeighborhoods #Dallas #NorthernHills #NorthernHillsConservationDistrict #KatyTrail #TurtleCreek #ArchitecturallySignificantHomes #HistoricallySignificantHomes #Cragmont #OrganicUrbanism #architecure #architects
Feline Perspective
This is the only art video exhibition that I have seen of changing video sequences that feel more like daily life than a video art installation. The neon tube structure is so captivating that one almost accepts the changing video vignette as everyday life in a neon house. A lounging cat does suggest what many already suspect—that humans are subordinate to their pets. It is certainly cats that claim homes on their own terms. *Feline Perspective
#Feline #Cat #VideoArt #ModernArt #ContemporaryArt #ArtOpening #DMA #ArtExhibition #Dallas @DallasMuseumArt #DowntownNeighborhood #Design #ContemporaryHome #ModernHome #Modern #Art #JoySpotting
DMA Collection
There are many people responsible for acquiring an art museum’s collection and making an exhibition of some of that collection come to life. Dallas has many great art patrons. Dallas Museum of Art also has a fabulous director and innovative curators, along with a collection committee that acquires local, national and international work. Here, one enters this chapel sculpture, and I, by chance, had the opportunity to meet the artist and see the chair of the Art Acquisition Committee of the DMA admiring this work. It was fitting that I was in this sculpture of a chapel as I occasionally pray that the artwork buried somewhere in the Dallas Art Museum is unearthed and displayed. It was fun to see how excited Gayle was to see this piece of art in person that she had only previously seen in slides. What better way to view the graphically illustrated interior of this structure than with the artist and chair of the Art Acquisition Committee. *DMA Collection
#GayleStoffel #Chapel #GraphicArt #GraphicIllustrations #ArtMuseum #ArtInstallation #DallasMuseumOfArt #DMA #Art #Artist #DallasNeighborhood #Dallas #Modern #GraphicArt #GraphicIllustration
Narrow Perspective
Many acclaimed houses project a rather narrow perspective. They emphasize the architecture, design, art, engineering, technology, the latest materials and many windows. This piece of art captures all of that successfully, visually drawing me to it. However, the rugged modest representations of dwellings and space still have a more lingering effect and lasting impression on my imagination. *Narrow Perspective
#ContemporarySculpture #Design #ContemporaryArt #ModernArt #ArtMuseum #ArtCollection @DallasMuseumArt #DMA #Dallas #DallasArtsDistrict #Design #Contemporary Design #downtownneighborhood #dallasneighborhoods
Primitive Look at Houses
An artist pictures the life of a home that does not show up on an architect’s drawing board. This painting quickly caught my attention as one of my favorite clients who is from New Orleans has a painting by this female artist in her home. When I first saw it in her home I did not know the name of the artist. It was not prominently displayed over the fireplace, but it had museum quality about it. Sure enough, this artist was collected by the Dallas Museum of Art and displayed in this art exhibition about houses. The foremost quality of a home is that it should make people happy. The artist captures the happiness this home generates. *Primitive Look at Houses
#LouisianaArt #PrimitiveArt #PaintingOfHome #House #LouisianaNeighborhood @DallasMuseumArt #DMA #ArtCollection #Painting #Art
House of Illumination
Lighting is so critical for a home. In a forest or on a lake, a home might be illuminated by moonlight. In Highland Park, lighting designer John Watson invented moon lighting in trees that became a signature look of Dallas. Clear white light inside a home pleases homebuyers. Art lighting focuses attention on spaces or objects that are desirable attributes of a home. Windows create a desire to look inside a home, and once inside look out. What is better than multilight windows providing a glimpse of cupid inside that suggests pleasant residential dreams. In this art installation of a house, lighting is not serving as an amendment to the house, but it is the house. *House of Illumination
#NeonHouse #NeonVideo #VideoArt #ModernArt #ContemporaryArt #ContemporaryDesign #ArtOpening #ArtExhibition #Sculpture #Dallas #Neighborhood #DowntownNeighborhood
#DMA @DallasMuseumArt #Design #ContemporaryHome #ModernHomeCity #JoySpotting