Douglas Newby Insights - Page 10
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
Triple Crown
Here is a historic home that is a Triple Crown winner of Dallas historic and architecturally significant home recognition. In 1997, the Dallas Chapter of AIA selected this 1915 historic home built for the first SMU Bishop as a 50 Significant Home. In 2008, Willis Winters, Virginia McAlester, and Prudence Mackintosh selected this historic home as one of the homes they featured in Great American Suburbs: The Homes of the Park Cities, Dallas. And now Preservation Park Cities has selected this historic home at 3444 University Boulevard as one of the Top Ten homes to save in the Park Cities. Maybe the greatest distinction this University Park home has received is that it is part of SMU English Professor Bonnie Wheeler’s book she wrote, The Block Book: HISTORY AND RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 3400 BLOCK OF UNIVERSITY BOULEVARD. In this book, the home at 3444 University Boulevard and its history is recounted as is the history of every home on the block. The late Gloria Wise, the former Executive Director of the Dallas Chapter of AIA first brought my attention to this home as she and her husband had restored it and wanted to preserve it in the future. They found the perfect buyer, their son! Their son Philip Wise has done a beautiful job further restoring and preserving the home. This is another preservation success story. *Triple Crown
#Preservation #ParkCities #UniversityPark #Dallas #SMU #Historic #DallasNeighborhood #UniversityParkNeighborhood #HistoricHome #TheBlockBook #UniversityBoulevard
Fresh Look
This image of the C.D. Hill architect-designed Dallas Municipal Building gives us a fresh look at Dallas—past and present. Here is an architecturally significant downtown Dallas building that we have all been to but seldom see. The current side entrance distracts us from seeing this fabulous building which exemplifies the architectural chops of architect C.D. Hill. Downtown buildings like this one built in 1914 mark the establishment of Dallas as an important city. It also marks the revitalization of downtown and the architectural talent Dallas had in the early 1900s. Architect C.D. Hill also designed many other important downtown buildings and some of the most important homes in Munger Place and Highland Park. Many great architects like C.D. Hill are responsible for both architecturally significant buildings downtown and in our neighborhoods. When we recognize and appreciate one of these architect’s works, we can better appreciate their other architectural contributions. It is fun to take a fresh look at the glorious downtown buildings and neighborhood homes architect C.D. Hill designed. *Fresh Look
#Historic #Dallas #DowntownDallas #OldCityHall #DallasMunicipalBuilding #Architect #Architecture #CDHill #DallasNeighborhood #HistoricDesign #ArchitecturallySignificant #NeoclassicalArchitecture
Sorority Home Save
It never occurred to me that a sorority house is also a home and the Gamma Phi Beta house at SMU is an architecturally significant home designed by architect Mark Lemmon. This Mark Lemmon-designed home will be further preserved because of the leadership of Rebecca Melde, a Gamma Phi SMU graduate. She discovered that her sorority home was designed by Mark Lemmon and is raising money with other Gamma Phi’s to preserve the history and architecture of their sorority house. What is additionally exciting is the possibility of a national movement to research and discover the individual architects who designed sorority houses across the country. My guess is that many of them are designed by prominent architects like Mark Lemmon who did very little residential work. My experience has been that many homebuyers looking to purchase a historic home grew up in a historic home. It is fun to think about the impact that this SMU Gamma Phi Beta Sorority House had on the historic home interest of thousands of SMU girls. There are millions of sorority girls, now women across the country, who have been influenced by the history and architecture of their sorority houses. Further research, discovery, and preservation of sorority houses across the country will heighten the preservation interests across our national communities. It would be wonderful if every sorority house in the country researched the architect that designed their collegiate home. This collective research project would illuminate important architects and architecture across the country. See blog article for more information on the Mark Lemmon architect-designed Gamma Phi Beta Sorority House at SMU. https://douglasnewby.com/2021/11/sorority-home-saved-at-smu/
*Sorority Home Save
#SororityHouse #SororityHome #GammaPhiBeta #AlphaXiHouse #Preservation #DallasArchitecture #MarkLemmon #DallasArchitect #Dallas #SMU #Historic