Douglas Newby Insights - Page 15
Neighborhood of Theaters
There are few buildings that I am as sentimental about as the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed theater. Listening to the talk by the architects of Diller Scofidio+Renfro and the Dallas Theater Center artistic director Kevin Moriarty, I realized sometimes architects come across as boring and pedantic, but when they are speaking from a Frank Lloyd Wright stage, it comes across as a thrilling performance. As I reflected on the many plays that I have seen in this space, I think I could watch someone read out of a phone book in this Frank Lloyd Wright theater and be mesmerized. The message from the architects was that they want to make this site an urban attraction by renovating the Frank Lloyd Wright theater and adding two new theaters. They also want to respect the natural beauty of the Turtle Creek site. The architects reviewed many of their projects where their designs and programs took clues from the site, whether they were subtle, like grass growing between broken concrete, or obvious, like a large body of water. May I suggest for this project they take their architectural clues from the Turtle Creek Park niche neighborhood right across the street from the theater? Here is a neighborhood of just 39 homes that draws residents from many blocks away that want to walk or jog through the neighborhood to enjoy the delightful forested topography of this hidden neighborhood. Nature is the draw for this neighborhood that is also the closest to the most enticing vibrancy of Dallas. It is backed up to the Katy Trail and just around the corner from many of Dallas’ favorite retail districts. The next niche neighborhood along Turtle Creek is Northern Hills. It also combines nature and vibrancy. Hopefully, this new Turtle Creek theater neighborhood will be as successful combining nature and vibrancy, not disturbing this corridor of Turtle Creek niche neighborhoods but becoming one of them. *Neighborhood of Theaters
#DallasTheaterCenter #KalitaHumphreysTheater #FrankLloydWright @Diller_Scofidio_Renfro
#FrankLloydWrightTheater #TurtleCreek #NicheNeighborhoods #TurtleCreekPark #NorthernHills #KatyTrail #Dallas #Theater #Neighborhood #ArchitecturallySignificant #HistoricallySignific
Consortium of Community
While we stay at home, others are staying at home advancing the plans for the Frank Lloyd Wright theater. Many people have been incredibly involved and through their inspiration, passion and diligence propelled the preservation plan for the Frank Lloyd Wright theater project to this step of hiring the architectural firm of Diller Scofidio+Renfro. On stage at the end of the program discussing the approach to this Turtle Creek site and renovation of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed theater are some of the key people that the baton has been passed to. They will be critical to the success of this project. I am pleased that the three lead architects are from New York but with Texas and Dallas roots. This project falls in a district of city councilperson Dave Blewett who understands the nuances of neighborhoods, Suzanne Smith is the Art Commissioner, Kevin Moriarty as the artistic director of the Dallas Theater Center is also a leading voice for theater in Dallas, and in the center is the chairman of this project. This good looking group is the tip of the iceberg for all the people who have worked on the project and for all of the people who will be needed for this Frank Lloyd Wright theater project to come to fruition. *Consortium of Community
@Diller_Scofidio_Renfro #DillerScofidioRenfro @DallasTheaterCenter #DavidBlewett #SuzanneSmith #FrankLloydWright #FrankLloydWrightTheater #FrankLloydWrightTheaterRenovation #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #TurtleCreek
Organic Urbanism
This striped woodpecker is enjoying foraging on the trunk of a walnut tree in front of a home a young family purchased from their church 50 years ago for less than $10,000. The great grandparents still reside here, as do occasionally members of succeeding generations. The best affordable homes are structures that can be patched together, fixed up and become a home through successive generations that enjoy the tall trees, front porches, birds, flowers and wildlife that also enjoy an organic urban neighborhood. *Organic Urbanism
#Woodpecker #OrganicUrbanism #HistoricHome #UrbanBirds #Family #Neighbors #Neighborhood #CityLife #Dallas #HistoricDistrict #PrairieStyle #WalnutTree #Home #AffordableHousing
Hidden in Plain Sight
With the trails packed with people, now is the time to enjoy alternative walks like those along the original boulevard at SMU that leads to Dallas Hall. In the middle of the boulevard is the newest building disguised by the Georgian motif found on campus. A month ago, I discovered what was beyond the façade. Brad Cheves, the best university development director in the country, gave me an inside look at the indoor football practice facility prior to an SMU Town and Gown meeting being held in the adjoining dining room. In the next image you will see SMU professor, former law school dean and SMU faculty athletic advisor Paul Rogers put on a smiling face in front of this addition to the campus. I say “hidden” because you would never really guess this building, right next to the dorms and across the street from the Meadows School of the Arts, in the prime spot on the boulevard leading to the Dallas Hall, is a full-length practice football field. I say “in plain sight” because it is just a few feet away from my first floor McGinnis Hall freshman dorm room window. Every day for decades I used to swim in the 50-meter pool which now would be between the 10- and 35-yard lines. *Hidden in Plain Sight
#SMU #PaulRogers #TownAndGown #SMUBoulevard #SMUIndoorFootballPracticeField #SMUNeighborhood #UniversityPark #Dallas #ParkCities #SMU #highland park
Luxury and Nuance
The Barry Whistler Gallery is the last gallery I visited before I was sent home. The drawings by Jay Shinn still leave an impression. Seldom is so much done with what looks like so little. This drawing subtly shimmers, shines and radiates as this pencil drawing merges the silver and gold fine pencil strokes into a framed piece of art that draws one to it like a magnet until one finds their nose near the glass admiring the visual texture created by the exquisite hand of artist Jay Shinn, shown by appointment at the Barry Whistler gallery. *Luxury and Nuance
#JayShinn @Jay_Shinn_Art @BarryWhistlerGallery #BarryWhistlerGallery #DallasNeighborhood #DesignDistrict #Dallas #Art #Design #Drawing #Exhibition #ContemporaryArt #ModernArtGallery #Artist
LawnMowerOverkill
A cedar elm-shaded street makes parkway grass hard to grow. But as the lawn man says, “No matter how small the yard or how thin the grass, I will mow it.” And, “You can count on me to give you an honest five minutes’ work.” As anthropologists note, the smaller the village, the bigger the festival. Maybe the smaller the yard, the bigger the mower. This paltry patch of parkway grass might not be special, but the Mercedes-ornamented mower certainly is. Across the street, the high-tech engineer opts to propel a very old-school hand-push reel mower. A study in lawn care contrasts. *LawnMowerOverkill
#Overkill #DallasLawn #Lawnmower #SitDownMower #SmallerTheLawnBiggerTheMower #HonestFiveMinutesWork #Mercedes #Lawncare #DallasHome #Dallas #Neighborhood
State of Hall
Craftsmen and contractors last month were working on the crevices of the building and re-stabilizing major components of the building. Several years ago at the invitation of the late Rita Clements, the wife of Texas Governor Bill Clements, I served on the Executive Committee of the Dallas Historical Society for almost ten years. During this time, along with the late Robert Hyer Thomas, we pushed back against the proposal to discontinue the possession of the historical artifacts collected and owned by the Dallas Historical Society. The executive director had proposed photographing the collection and putting it online so that there would be no more responsibility for the preservation and maintenance of the individual objects. In fairness, this proposal was precipitated by the Hall of State building that still had an aura of majesty on the inside and outside, but was crumbling from within and out. Roof leaks were being patched with tarp and plywood. Buckets would be catching water dripping from 30 feet above. The problem was decades of leaky finances and leaky roofs. The storage spaces for the collection looked like a garage sale before it was organized. It is comforting and exciting to see the renewed interest in Fair Park. Its management is being put into private hands and the public supported city designated bonds to pay for the renovation of the Hall of State. There might not be any other place in Texas that so fully embodies and feels so embued in Texas history as the Texas Hall of State. *State of Hall
#HallOfState #FairPark #TexasHistory #Renovation #Murals #Dallas #CityOfDallas #HistoricallySignificant #ArchitecturallySignificant #ArchitectDesigned #Neighborhood#Design #Historic #History
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