Douglas Newby Insights - Page 24
Urban Edge
Swiss Avenue is known for being the grandest street in Dallas and in the middle of rejuvenating neighborhoods, only 22 blocks from downtown Dallas. While the perfect proportions of these architecturally significant homes and deep uniform setbacks from the wide landscaped boulevard convey a majestic grace, many do not realize how the large lots and mature trees create a serene setting for these architect-designed homes. Many think of Swiss Avenue on the urban edge, I think of Swiss Avenue homes as having layers of trees, and gardens and paths, like this home that becomes one of the quietest, protected settings in Dallas. Swiss Avenue homes are also more embraced by nature because the historic ordinance design guidelines prevent the building of neighboring homes that could dominate the site or impair the views of nature. Swiss Avenue homeowners in the 1980s recognized early the historic value of the Swiss Avenue homes and how the neighborhood could be revitalized. The prices on Swiss Avenue have been tethered by this generation of owners who always have emphasized the historicity of the homes and almost a self-conscious proclamation that this is really a good neighborhood. As these long-time homeowners are moving, the next generation of Swiss Avenue homebuyers recognize the modernity of Swiss Avenue homes, the timeless grace of the architecture, and the abundantly green setting in the most vibrant neighborhood of Dallas. The last generation brought the street back. The next generation of homeowners will be the ones that realize the economic appreciation and full value of these Swiss Avenue homes and neighborhood. *Urban Edge
#SwissAvenue #Garden #Dallas #UrbanEdge #Landscape #LandscapeArchitecture #UrbanNature #Tree #DallasNeighborhood #Neighborhood #HistoricDistrict #Design #MungerPlace
Township Edge
A serene edge between the home of the late Margaret McDermott and the middle of, the epicenter of Highland Park—Highland Park Town Hall, Fire Department, library, and park. Here a few of Mrs. McDermott’s grandnephews and nieces and their children found a quiet corner of her garden in the bustling celebration across the rest of the landscape following the packed memorial service at the Meyerson Symphony Hall a year ago. Arthur Berger created the landscape design for Mrs. McDermott’s Scott Lyons-designed home. This landscape design allowed her to be in a peaceful environment as she welcomed and incesssantly entertained guests from Dallas and around the world. Margaret McDermott loved gardens and flowers—flowers she grew or arranged, wildflowers along the highway or at her farm, or flowers planted at the Dallas Arboretum. Margaret McDermott helped inspire, cultivate and massage gardens much like she cultivated and groomed Dallas, always encouraging, nurturing, and giving credit and acknowledgement to others. *Township Edge
#HighlandParkDallas #Dallas #HighlandParkTownship #TownshipEdge #Landscape #LandscapeDesign #Garden #ArthurBerger #LandscapeArchitect #HighlandParkNeighborhood #OldHighlandPark #HighlandParkTownHall #Architecture
Van Gogh → McDermott+Berger → DMA+Dior
Dress for Painting II. This pairing at the Dior exhibition at the DMA reminded me of Mrs. McDermott’s love of gardens and architecture. Margaret McDermott gave this Vincent Van Gogh painting Riverbank in Springtime to the Dallas Museum of Art in memory of the fabulous landscape architect Arthur Berger. I have always associated Arthur Berger with his exquisite landscape design and siting of a small, exquisite, modern home O’Neil Ford designed on the Turtle Creek Bluff at 3900 Stonebridge in Turtle Creek Park. It was fun for me to hear her reminisce about O’Neil Ford, Arch Swank, and Arthur Berger who were some of her earliest and favorite friends. She became a patron of them and their work and remained friends through their lifetimes. It is nice to be reminded of their friendships with the gift of the Van Gogh painting that she made in memory of Arthur Berger. It is perfectly paired with a Dior dress at the Dallas Museum of Art exhibition Dior: From Paris to the World. If you slide to the next image, you will see an earlier post of Beverly Freeman in a green coat that matches perfectly with a Jonas Wood painting shown in his exhibition that opened earlier in the year at the DMA across from the Dior exhibition. Both pairings of Dress for Painting, one curated, the other spontaneous, show the impact and correlation of landscape on painting and fashion. *Van Gogh → McDermott+Berger → DMA+Dior
#Dior #DiorFromParisToTheWorld #DallasMuseumOfArt @DallasMuseumArt #MargaretMcDermott #VincentVanGogh #VanGogh #RiverbankInSpringtime #Museum #MuseumOpening #MuseumExhibition #Gallery #ArthurBerger #Landscape #LandscapeArchitect #Art #Artist #Design #Fashion #Designer #OpeningNight #ArtsDistrict #Dallas #Neighborhood @JonasbrWood #DressForPainting #joyspotting
Arboretum Point
This White Rock Lake site is a wonderful example of the point I made in my TEDx talk Homes That Make Us Happy, it is not how much land your home is on, but what you are next to or across from, a park, a lake, a meadow, a trail… This East Lawther lot is across from and next to all of the above. It is on 0.5 acres but it has a view very similar to the four-acre lot that I sold on the other side of the lake. This home site is on a point at White Rock Lake that was once owned by the Dallas Arborteum. The home with first and second floor porches wrapping around it is also embraced by Winfrey Point, a meadow, a trail, and a boat ramp at the edge of the lake. The friendly sounds of a baseball field further down the lake accentuate the atmosphere of a park setting. I love sites that are right in front of us but no one seems to notice. Locations come and go, but good sites are forever. *Arboretum Point
#WhiteRockLake #WinfreyPoint #EmeraldIsleNeighborhood #Dallas #Park #Architecture #Porches #Balconies #BikeTrails #GoodSite #Neighborhood #dallasneighborhoods
Woven Entanglement
Tangles create Clarity! Fierce conversation begets resolution. Savage binds in lyrical shapes and vivid color convey an animated conversation. Is there a French expression for—it is so messy it is beautiful? Artist Sheila Hicks puts one totally at ease with the sculptural mound of soft shapes and joyful colors that one first sees upon entering the exhibition at the Nasher Museum in Dallas. A primordial respect and attraction is then generated by this piece. Subliminally, the majestic colors and tactile beckoning of this tangled composition connotes beauty and optimism. As you walk in, or zoom in closer, and look deeper, the material becomes surprisingly fluffy and comforting. You will depart this work as when you first entered the gallery, with ascending joy! *Woven Entanglement
@NasherSculptureCenter @AtelierSheilaHicks @HastingsHicks #NasherSculptureCenter @TempleShipley #Artist #Art #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #Design #ArtsDistrict #DowntownDallas #Museum #MuseumExhibition #SheilaHicks #ArtMuseum #Gallery #Sculpture #Weaving #Weave #Textile #Tactile #SoloExhibition # TanglesCreateClarity #HastingsNebraska #JoySpotting @GalerieFrankElbaz #NasherMuseum
Interpretative Weave
I am incredibly drawn to this Sheila Hicks piece at the Nasher. The more I look at it, the more captivated I become and visually pleased. Weaving created the medium—long, loose, narrow, textured banners of luscious color reminiscent of hand-fired glaze. These interlaced banners now serve as the palette and the design of this loosely woven piece that fills the room with energy. These two dozen interchangeable banners create a powerful design of rich color. It reminds us of the thousands of threads that create the subtle variations in color and texture that makes the medium and the effect of this piece so powerful. Whether you look at this work from a distance or in visual vignettes or up close, there is a majestic quality Sheila Hicks brings to her art. It is nice that those of us in Dallas don’t have to wait until October 21 to see a Sheila Hicks installation exhibited at the MoMA. *Interpretative Weave
@NasherSculptureCenter @GalerieFrankElbaz @TempleShipley @AtelierSheilaHicks @HastingsHicks #NasherSculptureCenter #Artist #Art #Dallas #Neighborhood #Design #ArtsDistrict #DowntownDallas #Museum #MuseumExhibition #SheilaHicks #ArtMuseum #Gallery #Sculpture #Weaving #Weave #textile #democraticdesign #Hastings
Hastings Origin
Dallas will forever know Sheila Hicks from her exhibition, opening at the Nasher this evening. Many now will always associate the Nasher Sculpture Center with Sheila Hicks’ vibrant work that makes one step back and admire, walk around and absorb, dive in closer, increasingly mesmerized by the visual tension of the details. I will always associate the avant garde brilliance of Paris-based, Yale-educated Sheila Hicks with Hastings, Nebraska, her birthplace. Many associate Nebraska with the swaying wheat and cornfields her grandfather pointed out extended as far as the eye could see, the reason America would never go hungry. I associate Hastings with the 2:42 a.m. Denver Zephyr trainstop in the middle of the country that both Sheila Hicks and I took in our youth to visit our respective grandparents. My grandfather owned the bank, her grandfather owned the general store, where I recall my grandfather buying important provisions when I discovered a squirt gun for sale. Hastings also was my introduction to culture, the Pioneer Museum/House of Yesterday and fascinating people. I recall Betty Kostle McBride, my mother’s closest childhood friend and Carleton College roommate, visiting Hastings where her father was the doctor. She glided across the living room of my grandparents’ architect-designed 1952 modern home with long hair, bare feet, and brightly painted red toenails. What I thought elegant as a child, my mother mentioned was a bit unusual. It made sense when years later I discovered the McBrides were managers of Allen Gingsberg’s City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, the epicenter of the Beat and counterculture generation. Tractor tire tubing with the McBrides gave me farm cred with Allen Ginbsberg when he visited SMU. Another Hastings contemporary of our grandfathers was Patricia Shinn’s grandfather, the owner of the Hastings title company. Patricia and James Shinn came to Dallas as Director of International Affairs after their prestigious and elegant postings in the diplomatic corps. The Nasher conveys the rich texture of Hastings and the magic of Sheila Hicks. *Hastings Origin
@AtelierSheilaHicks #Artist #Art #JoySpotting #Dallas #NasherSculptureCenter
Fitzhugh!
As John Reoch said when he moved from Philadelphia to Munger Place decades ago, “Driving down Fitzhugh was like visiting the United Nations.” Many countries from around the world were represented in small shops, micro-restaurants, and recently arrived immigrants inhabiting crowded, dilapidated housing. I recall 20 years ago, James Shinn, the Dallas Director of International Affairs, asking me where I specialized when he was discussing having me represent Patricia and him on the sale of their Turtle Creek Park home. For the first time, I said with a smile, I specialized in the Fitzhugh corridor. My answer might have been considered a counterintuitive pitch at the time since Fitzhugh probably conveyed the most negative connotations of a street in Old East Dallas. However, it spoke directly to Turtle Creek Park, which is bordered by Fitzhugh (along with Turtle Creek and Rock Creek). And despite Fitzhugh being so sketchy, it bordered many of my favorite neighborhoods including Northern Hills, Cochran Heights, and the Swiss Avenue, Jefferson Peak, and Munger Place historic districts. Now, the Beverley restaurant is an exclamation mark on the transformation of Fitzhugh and Old East Dallas. Recently, with Jim and Carole Young, two of the most respected people in Dallas, we celebrated a special occasion, on the patio at the Beverley reflecting the changing perception of Fitzhugh. A charming manager and staff, good food, and surrounded by what some might even classify as beautiful people, Fitzhugh has become a destination rather than an international trek through cultures. Slide through to see the Beverley and vestiges of the early Fitzhugh. *Fitzhugh!
#Beverley #Fitzhugh #FitzhughCorridor #Dallas #DallasNeighborhoods #CochranHeights #JeffersonPeak #TurtleCreekPark #NorthernHills #MungerPlace #SwissAvenue #OldEastDallas #HistoricDistrict @BeverleysDallas #Transformation #Revitalization
Tremont Trees
Which expresses the decline of a neighborhood more—peeling paint on houses, broken curbs and sidewalks, or barren parkways? One of the early Munger Place neighborhood initiatives was to plant parkway trees. One of the homeowners went through the 12-block neighborhood with a backhoe, scooping out a place for the cedar elms that cost the homeowners $25, or a red oak that cost the homeowners $35, with other Munger Place neighbors helping place a tree and covering the root ball with the excavated dirt. Neighbors also bought these inexpensive trees for the houses on the street owned by absentee owners. Immediately, these saplings gave life, definition, and a sense of the future for the neighborhood. Now these trees provide a majestic feel to Munger Place. Having grown up riding my bike on the tree tunneled streets of Hinsdale, these arching trees are both nostalgic and help define the success of the neighborhood. The early Dallas City 312 low-interest renovation loan program made no impact on Munger Place. Code Enforcement made a miniscule impact on the neighborhood. However, bond money and block grant money for new curbs, sidewalks, street paving, and antique street lights replacing the telephone poles and electrical wires propelled the revitalization and renovation momentum. Neighborhoods improve when there is physical evidence of a better working future. *Tremont Trees
#treetunnel #Trees #CedarElm #RedOak #MungerPlace #Dallas #AntigueStreetLights #pathtosmu #pathtotrinitygroves #Revitalization #Renovation #NewCurbs #NewSidewalks #Neighborhood #HistoricDistrict #ParkwayTrees #DowntownNeighborhood #SingleFamilyHomes
Counterintuitive Real Estate Ideas
Dubious Real Estate Clichés and Real Estate Myths were discussed in a Conversation at the Barry Whistler Gallery. Surrounded by the fabulous art (slide through to see) of artists including Tom Orr, Linnea Glatt, Jay Shinn, and Allison V. Smith, the room was filled with friends who I think have the greatest real estate instincts, who are either visionaries or have a keen curiosity that quickly grasps concepts contrary to the real estate mantras passed down for decades. This conversation and reception also reminded me of how powerful art is for engaging people, generating interaction of people, and reminding people of the importance of aesthetics to a home or site. Many thanks to Barry Whistler, Allison V. Smith, and Fernando Alvarez for opening the Barry Whistler Gallery for this conversation. As I said at the Barry Whistler Gallery in the Design District that evening, “We are in the safest space in Dallas. Any real estate agent has been required to check their license at the door. We are in a real estate license-free zone.” This was a fun evening of ideas and art! *Counterintuitive Real Estate Ideas
@BarryWhistlerGallery @TomOrr @Jay_Shinn_Art @allisonvsmith @Linnea_Glatt #ArtGallery #DesignDistrict #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #CounterintuitiveRealEstateIdeas #DubiousRealEstateCliches #RealEstateMyths #art #artist #sculpture