Douglas Newby Insights - Page 37
Bus Stop Cheer
As Henderson, the surrounding historic districts, and houses in the conservation districts become more fashionable, what doesn’t change are the smiling faces at the bus stops that dot the area. Urbanists don’t consider Dallas to have inner city housing because the homes 10, 20, or 30 blocks from the Dallas Art Museum have front porches and tall backyard trees. Still, for the last forty years of rejuvenation, gentrification and renovation, the bus lines running straight from the downtown Dallas streets through the neighborhoods every few blocks have remained constant. Even when the City Council voted years ago to rezone 100 blocks of Old East Dallas to single family zoning as the economic foundation of its revitalization, the planners were able to keep Columbia zoned for new apartments so that historic homes could be torn down and new apartments added to increase bus ridership. I haven’t seen an increase in bus ridership. With the cost of Uber increasingly competing with the cost of a bus ticket, we can only anticipate less bus travel in the future. In the meantime, one of the joys of living in an older neighborhood, regardless of how many suburbanites fretted about gentrification, is the diverse strata of the economic means and lifestyles one sees on the streets of an urban neighborhood.
#BusStop #EastDallas #OldEastDallas #Gentrification #Revitalization #Dallas #Urbanists #MassTransportation #Urban #Henderson #Downtown #CityBus #HistoricDistrict #ConservationDistrict #Neighborhood #DowntownDallas #Michigan #UniversityOfMichigan #michiganshirts #Cheer #CocaCola #StreetScene #Portrait #Kickingback
Every Town Needs a Quinlan Terry
Almost every town has modern homes, historic homes, and generic homes. But I have come to realize every town needs a Quinlan Terry designed home to put everything else in perspective. While sorbet is considered a small refreshing serving between courses, this large monumental home almost serves as an architectural palate cleanser. Its simple materials, elegant, smooth-faced stone construction, and clean lines overlook an immense piece of property as an architectural breath of fresh air. Imposing but relaxed, it exudes architectural significance with dignity.
#QuinlanTerry #Architect #Architecture #ArchitecturallySignificant #HighlandPark #ArchitecturallySignificantHome #CityHome #Neighborhood #TurtleCreek #EstateHome #sebastianconstructiongroup #Design #Art #Stone #Dallas #Neighborhood
Bridge to Tradition
Architect Robert Johnson Perry was a dynamic mid-century modern architect in Dallas who designed many significant modern homes. Here he designed a home for the Schepps who lived much of each year in France and loved the French aesthetic. I love when I find a traditional home designed by a modern architect. At first glance it looks traditional. A more penetrating look sees modern influences of the floor plan, proportions, and the home’s relationship to its environment. This home with a footbridge over White Rock Creek to the front door is universally enticing. It has captured imaginations for decades and has survived because this architectural design is still so well suited and well placed in the 21st century.
#RobertJohnsonPerry #PrestonHollow #MayflowerEstates #Architecture #Architect #HomesThatMakeUsHappy #ArchitecturallySignificantHome #Neighborhood #Dallas #Historic #Preservation #MidCentury #Design #ResidentialBridge #Footbridge #WhiteRockCreek
Bridge to Architecture
Hidden in Highland Park is a modern home designed by architect Antoine Predock. It incorporates an elevated bridge extending above the property overlooking a forest in Turtle Creek. This residential bridge visually connects the home to the property in an intimate way. This bridge also connected the Dallas community to a better understanding of good architecture, inspirational design, and the possibilities of connecting homes to sites.
#AntoinePredock #Architect #Architecture #FootBridge #ResidentialBridge #ModernHome #Design #Art #HighlandPark #Dallas #Neighborhood #TurtleCreek #ArchitecturallySignificant #ArchitecturallySignificantHomes
Bridge to Gone
This modern mid-century home designed by Jim Wiley and Bud Oglesby in Highland Park might have been the best known home with a footbridge in Dallas. It was a small home tucked in by Turtle Creek just a few doors down from Highland Park Town Hall. A footbridge led to the front door that when opened would reveal a two-story concert hall with balcony bedrooms that also served for seating to listen to the chamber music performed in this 2,000 sf home with abundance of windows looking across the creek. This modern home was charming and enticing. After 50 years the home was torn down but the bridge still served as an inspiration for the modern home that would take its place. The new home incorporates a room over the water that serves as a bridge that connects the home and the land.
#BudOglesby #ResidentialBridge #HighlandPark #TornDown #JimWiley #MidCentury #FootBridge #ModernHome #MidCenturyModern #TurtleCreek #Historic #Architecture #Architect #Neighborhood #Dallas #DorotheaKelley #ChamberMusic #historic #preservation
Back Yard Bridge
There is a certain magic to a home that has a bridge. The small 1950s home that architects Jim Wiley and Bud Oglesby designed in Highland Park, the modern home architect Antoine Predock designed overlooking Turtle Creek, and the architect Robert Johnson Perry designed house with a bridge over White Rock Creek in Mayflower Estates all come to mind. This backyard bridge adds to the romance of a small modern home on East Lake Highlands Drive in the Peninsula neighborhood. This footbridge also expands the .21 acre lot by adding a more dramatic sense of topography and areas to explore.
#FootBridge #ResidentialBridge #Architect #Architecture #LandscapeDesign #Backyard #Patio #ModernHome #PrefabricatedHome #Carport #PeninsulaNeighborhood #WhiteRockLakeNeighborhood #Dallas #CityNeighborhood #PathToTrinityGroves #Design #Contemporary
Confluence – Site, Architect, Land
Here in the heart of Greenway Parks is a home and site that cannot be replicated. First, this architect-designed home is on the largest lot in Greenway Parks – .951 acres. Beyond being on the largest lot, it is on the corner of the Greenway Parks Blvd. extending the green views. In addition, it is next to the flag-flying triangle park which further buffers the home from other residences. Besides being on a Preston Hollow estate sized lot, the lot is extremely wide, pushing any other houses out of sight. In fact, from the backyard it is hard to see another home. The width of this lot also creates the space for maybe the largest residential lap pool in Dallas—30 meters. The attractive proportions and design of the home can be attributed to architects Fooshee & Cheek. These are the architects best known for designing Highland Park Village shopping center and large, gracious, Highland Park homes. Fooshee & Cheek were originally partners with architect Hal Thomson, considered the godfather of architects who designed prominent Dallas and Highland Park classic homes. By 1951, Marion Fooshee and James Cheek were the most important and elegant architects in Dallas. They understood large rooms, rooms even larger than many of the rooms found in today’s 10,000 sf homes. Fooshee & Cheek were also accustomed to creating double and triple passageways between the rooms so one could look out and see sunlight in four different directions as you can in the middle of this home. This home has more windows than most modern homes of similar size. Extraordinarily talented interior designer Allen Kirsch designed the interior finishes and the exterior living spaces including a porch with electric screens, air conditioning, and a fireplace to be enjoyed according to the seasons.
#GreenwayParks #Fooshee&Cheek #Architect #Architecture #Historic #ConservationDistrict #Design #Neighborhood #Parkway #Dallas #Porch
Mary Vernon looks back, forward
What fun to visit a retrospective exhibition of Mary Vernon at SMU. Mary is an iconic figure at SMU from her vibrant and legendary art history lectures early in her career to being a teacher, mentor and professor in the Studio Art department including being its Chair. Finally, after 40 years, Mary is able to look forward to devoting all of her time to painting. An even stronger point of view and greater clarity is emerging in her fabulous work. Art and architecture are professions and pursuits where the eye becomes better and the life experience allows the work to dig deeper. I am excited about the future work that will emerge.
#ModernArt #Painting #MaryVernon #Art #SMU #Artist #Design #ArtExhibit #PollockGallery #HughesTrigg #MeadowsSchoolOfTheArts #Gallery #PathToTrinityGroves #Dallas #ValleyHouseGallery #universitypark #highlandpark #universityparktx
Portrait on Portraits
Photographer and SMU professor Debora Hunter explores the parameters of life at the retrospective SMU exhibition of her work. On parallel walls was a wonderful exhibit of babies on one wall shown in myriad environments starting life, and on the opposite wall portraits of the elderly in hospice finishing life. In the middle wall are portraits of people attending an NRA convention. Here Debora is shown laughing with a friend.
#Photography #Photograph #Portraits #ArtExhibit #Retrospective #universityparktx #universitypark #DeboraHunter @DeboraHunterPhotographs #SMU #Gallery #Art #Design #PathToTrinityGroves #Dallas #HughesTrigg #PollockGallery #Laughter #MeadowsSchoolOfTheArts
Terraced – Porch, Pool, Patio
Front porches have historically been the public link between the neighborhood and the home. Porches are the private/public space for the homeowner, friends, and neighbors. A porch can be used intimately or to vet a visitor. A terrace or patio is more often uncovered and intimates a use more likely reserved for the homeowner and specific guests. A pool is an even more personal space. At this modern home the terrace levels provide some of the distinction as the subsequent levels and the distance from the street help delineate the transition from more public to more personal space. When a homeowner entertains, the spaces become one with each level evoking a certain mood or emotion. These spaces also become an entry into different parts of the home. The integration of these interior and exterior rooms is what makes a small modern home live big.
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