Douglas Newby Insights - Page 40
Alley divides New Urbanist from Urban Forest
The differing sensibilities of urban residents could not be more apparent than those on both sides of this alley. On one side are the New Urbanists that favor density over trees. They built two-story backyard rental houses (granny flats) wider than their primary Prairie Style home. They removed all the old growth pecan trees in place in the process. Further, to eradicate the naturally seeded trumpet vines that profusely propagated, these property owners sprayed the entire back fence line with RoundUp. One of the homeowners even installed a strip of crushed concrete along the alley to impede any growth of wild flowers or weeds. To avoid any contact with an urban alley, these New Urbanists all elected to put their garbage bins out in front of their house once a week rather than have their trash picked up in the alley as the original 1905 development intended. On the other side of the alley, the neighbors treat the alley as a transition from the layers of trees in their backyards to this service street. On this side, the blooming crape myrtles, flowering orange trumpet vines, bamboo, overhanging cedar trees, and arching pecan trees, soften an urban edge and make it a wonderful hunting ground for birds, butterflies, and bees. On one side of the alley is the disciplined, dispassionate approach of property owners desiring urban density and suburban sterility, and on the other side are neighbors who prefer the natural fecundity and messy edge of an urban forest.
#GrannyFlats #BackyardRentalHouses #Density #UrbanForest #NewUrbanist #SuburbanSterility #Alley #TrumpetVine #Bamboo #CedarTree #PecanTree #Pollinate #Habitat #Environment #Neighborhood #City #Dallas #HistoricDistrict #Neighbors #PathToTrinityGrove #Birds #Butterflies #Bees #Natural #Edge #UrbanEdge #CrapeMyrtles #Fecundity #Architect #Architecture
1960s Modern Turns Corner
A historical challenge of architecture is how to gracefully and proportionally wrap columns around a building. One of my favorite solutions is the one provided by Philip Johnson when he designed this 1960s modern home in Preston Hollow. The concave arched columns provide a lightness and grace to the architecture. This modern home is also a good example of a collaboration with an excellent architectural firm, Bodron+Fruit, and an excellent contractor, Sebastian Construction Group. Together they were able to preserve, burnish, and exalt the original and current architecture culminating in this 21st century architectural success. This is another example of Sebastian Construction Group’s contribution to architecturally significant homes.
#Architect #Architecture #PhilipJohnson #Dallas #PrestonHollow #City #1960s #ModernHome #DallasModernHome #ArchitecturallySignificant #Design #Contemporary #EstateHomes #Arches #CornerArches #Art #Neighborhood #Windows
@SebastianConstructionGroup #sebastianconstructiongroup
West Texas View
What a better place to remind one that they are in West Texas than in the four-story high observation room looking over the West Texas horizon. This modern home was designed by Turner Boaz and built by the Sebastian Construction Group in West Texas. Both the architect and contractor have built many luxury modern and traditional homes in the city. Here they collaborated to bring the precision of construction and design and the quality of materials to a home that contributes to West Texas landscape.
#WestTexas #Observation #ObservationTower #TexasModern #Modern #TexasHome #sebastianconstructiongroup #TexasModernHome #Architect #Architecture #Design #SecondHome #Contemporary #Stone
#Luxury
@SebastianConstructionGroup #design #view #texas
Ranch Home on a Ranch
The population of Dallas exploded in the 1950s, along with the popularity of the suburban ranch house. Few people realized that Charles Dilbeck took credit for developing the genre of the ranch house. Simultaneously with David Williams and O’Neil Ford, Charles Dilbeck was using indigenous Texas forms and design even in his European-looking cottages. O’Neil Ford followed by Frank Welch, Lake Flato, and others kept moving Texas Modern architecture forward. We have so many good Texas Modern Homes in the city we forget there are also very good Texas Modern ranch houses built on a ranch. I find it remarkable how many of the architecturally significant Texas Modern homes Sebastian Construction Group has designed in the city, and then also takes the authenticity of this design back to the country. What better place for a ranch house than on a ranch.
#RanchHouse #design #RanchHome #CountryHouse #RanchHouseOnARanch #TexasModern #CountryContemporary #Design #Texas #Modern #Ranch #Indigenous Texas #TexasArchitecture #Architect #Architecture
@SebastianConstructionGroup #sebastianconstructiongroup
Protégé Revisits O’Neil Ford Site
On the Bluffview site that O’Neil Ford designed a small home and separate Texas Modern studio for artist Jerry Bywaters, is now this large Texas Modern home designed by the architectural firm Lake Flato. Ted Flato and David Lake both started their career working with O’Neil Ford in his firm in San Antonio. Just as O’Neil Ford brought attention to Texas with his Texas Modern Home, Flato and Lake have brought attention to Texas with the modern homes they have designed in Texas and across the country. @Sebastian Construction Group, they have been able to build this home that captures the imagination of the architect, the beauty of the site, and allows a large home to imbed itself in the bluff.
#TexasModern #Modern #ModernHome #TexasModernHome #Art #Bluffview #Dallas #Neighborhood #Architecture #architect #sebastianconstructiongroup #ArchitecturallySignificant #City #Urban #Bluff #Contractor #Site #Design #contemporary #city
Architectural Bridge over Terrain
This contemporary home embraces the site as the home bridges the creek. A triangular shaped topographically challenging lot with a creek running through it challenges and inspires both an architect and contractor. My emphasis has always been on the architect but increasingly I have understood the importance of the contractor in creating an architecturally significant home. An architect’s design can be pushed further forward and implemented when working with a talented contractor. I have seen examples of architecturally significant homes that are more successful because of the contribution of the Sebastian Construction Group. In a series of Instagram posts I will share examples of how their work has contributed to the architectural achievement of a wide variety of homes.
#Architect #Architectural #Contemporary #Modern #ModernHome #UniversityPark #Dallas #EstateHome #Design #Art #Bridge #Topography #City #Neighborhood #ArchitecturallySignificant #Stone #Contractor #LandscapeDesign
@SebastianConstructionGroup #architecture #pool #window
Summer laps, Greenway Parks
Greenway Parks is one of the most popular neighborhoods in Dallas and one of my favorites. It bridges the neighborhood gap between downtown and the private school corridor. Even more enticing, the greenways and boulevard parkways traverse this small protected neighborhood. Architect David Williams knew what he was doing when he laid out this plan. The best site is this one in the middle of the neighborhood. It is an estate size lot, almost an acre, surrounded by green. The lap pool is over 35 yards!
#LapPool #Pool #SwimmingPool #Site #GreenwayParks #Architect #Architecture #DavidWilliams #ConservationDistrict #Dallas #PrivateSchools #City #Urban #Swimming #Neighborhood #LandscapeArchitecture #BackyardTree #Cypress #Landscape #Green #Terrace
#GuestCottage
Aquatic Perspective
The aquatic perspective point of the courtyard that architect Lionel Morrison, FAIA, designed disappears into the trees and gardens of a Preston Hollow site. The 30” x 60” black slab granite terrace and pool is built on a pedestal system that will make this surface along with the continuous interior black slab granite floor as level as a pool table. As a result, the swimming pool does not need coping and does not create any impediment to the smooth surface of the water and interior and exterior granite. The pristine perspective point is preserved. Looking forward to completion of this @morrisondilworthwalls
#LionelMorrison #swimmingpool #MorrisonDilworthWalls #BlackGranite #Granite #Pool #Perspective #PerspectivePoint #Level #Architect #Architecture #Modern #Stone #Arch #Contemporary #PrestonHollow #EstateHome #ModernHome #Courtyard #Design #LandscapeArchitecture #City #Neighborhood #Dallas #AIADallas #DallasEstateHome
@morrisondilworthwalls architects
Inner City Neighborhood Lemonade Stand
Lemonade stands bring images of 1950s suburbia and friendly neighbors stopping to buy a glass of lemonade from neighborhood children. I remember painting wood apple boxes red and giving out green stamps on my lemonade stand. Isn’t it something that an inner city neighborhood just 20 blocks from the downtown Central Business District can still have a suburban feel. Many cities that keep increasing density have cars parked bumper-to-bumper on their residential curbs. These cars would block any view of a lemonade stand or access to it. When other cities were adding density, Dallas took the opposite approach. Rezoning was passed that gradually decreased density over time. A trend towards more single family homes allows some Dallas neighborhoods the best of both worlds, a diverse urban neighborhood and a friendly suburban-like neighborhood filled with trees.
#LemonadeStand #1950s #HistoricDistrict #SingleFamily #Density #Revitalization #Suburbia #InnerCity #Urban #Family #Children #TexasFoodBank #Philanthropist #Dallas #City #Neighborhood #Neighbors #Charming #Adorable #lemonade #WhereIsTheBeach #pathtotrinitygroves #fundraiser
40 years of gentrification still affordable options
Gentrification—neighborhoods evolve slowly. Some well intentioned people decades ago were in high panic about where low income renters could live if artists started moving into the most deteriorated neighborhoods. Even here in Dallas in the most successful revitalization neighborhood in the country, there are still vacancies and low cost housing opportunities for the less fortunate 45 years after the gentrification began. Here pictured is a fellow who has a woman riding in front of him as they are in the process of moving their things from one inexpensive apartment to another. A diverse range of Dallasites still populate “gentrified” neighborhoods in Dallas.
#Gentrification #Density #Neighborhoods #City #HistoricNeighborhood #Gentrified #RentABike #VBike #CityBike #Moving #HouseMoving #AffordableHousing #AffordableApartments #Diverse #Evolve #Revitalization #Artist #Dallas #Architect #Design #architecture