Douglas Newby Insights - Page 20
European Interpretation
Often when in Europe, I see homes that offer a delightful surprise. Just as some modern homes have living spaces linked by outside pavilions and European homes might have an auxiliary cottage close by, the central corridor of this home is covered by the second story but is open at both ends. This open corridor allows one from the wrought iron front gated door to see through the house to the garden, park, and White Rock Lake. Proceeding through this open corridor, doors facing each other, one opens to the main living areas and bedrooms, and the opposite door opens to additional living spaces and two guest bedrooms. Wraparound terraces, porches, balcony porches, and second floor terraces link the primary spaces of the home with the guest spaces. These balconies and terraces also provide spectacular views of the park and White Rock Lake. These views are shared by the informal and formal living rooms and bedrooms. This design allows a neighborhood home to become a home removed from the neighborhood with only views of trees, parks, and the lake. It is fun to see a home on .5 acres that has an environment one would associate with several acres and one that would cost several million dollars more. *European Interpretation
#WhiteRockLake #ArboretumPoint #Architecture #DallasNeighborhood #Dallas #EmeraldIsle #Design #PathToSMU #PathToDeepEllum #PathToTrinityGroves #landscape
Discover a Muse
Go over a stone bridge and find a hidden neighborhood, climb a curving hill, and proceed to a bowed street that ends, and along the way you might notice a small hidden spur, engulfed by vegetation and a canopy of trees, that disappears. Right before this fragment of street disappears, you will discover this hidden muse. No wonder I love this neighborhood. *Discover a Muse
#Muse #HiddenNeighborhood #Neighborhood #Dallas #Architecture #LandscapeArchitecture #Architect #DowntownNeighborhood #DallasNeighborhood #Design
Preservation versus New Urbanism
Single-family zoning preserves affordable housing—New Urbanism multifamily zoning destroys affordable housing. Single-family zoning preserves two-story Prairie style homes, one-story Craftsman bungalows and small cottages, duplexes, fourplexes, and small 1960s apartment buildings. Multifamily zoning unleashes the bulldozers as property owners disinvest in their homes and buildings of affordable apartments as they wait for a developer to purchase the property for new development and massive density. The first image shows one of the next blocks on the way to being torn down and the last image is a view from right around the corner to downtown Dallas. Here you can see small houses and small apartments on the way to bulldozer land. Just last week Chris Leinberger at a D CEO Magazine New Urbanism lecture said single-family zoning is good for homeowners because it makes the property appreciate, but it is bad for society. He said that Dallas needs to change single family zoning to multi family zoning. He proposes that an acre of land with normal sized lots (six houses) should be torn down and replaced with 60 apartments. Preservation promotes a diversity of architectural styles and sizes. New Urbanism requires architectural homogeneity and economic diversity through different levels of rent subsidies. Good intentions and sounds good—looks and lives bad! *Preservation versus New Urbanism
#Preservation #NewUrbanism #Bulldozer #SingleFamilyZoning #MultiFamilyZoning #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #Architect #Architecture #EconomicDiversity #ArchitecturalDiversity #SovietBlocHousing #DowntownHousing #DowntownNeighborhoods
Summer = Shakespeare
Shakespeare in the Park is a summer tradition and a personal tradition. From Shakespeare in Fair Park where I saw the costumes designed by Giva Taylor and T.A. Taylor carrying spears on stage while commemorative T.A. Taylor Shakespeare T-shirts were being sold , to Shakespeare now at Samuell Grand Park where one finds the brilliant T.A. Taylor in leading roles. This summer my enjoyment of Shakespeare in the Park continues. The performance of As You Like It more effectively transports one to a different place than other forms of entertainment. One experiences highbrow theater and lowbrow comedy, effete aspirations and lawn seating. There is enough mental concentration needed for one to get into a groove of understanding the play, but a plot that is fun to see unfold. I always judge whether a Shakespeare performance is good if I can follow the plot line. I could—it’s good—you’ll enjoy! *Summer = Shakespeare
#ShakespeareInThePark #ShakespeareDallas #TATaylor @T.A._Taylor @ShakespeareDallas #SamuellGrandPark #Dallas #Summer #Shakespeare #DallasPark #DallasNeighborhood #Theater #Art #Costume #SetDesign #Design #AsYouLikeIt
Urban Steps
I love nature and I love cities. Vibrancy and solitude within steps of each other. In some cities you might find this in a walled villa, or maybe a hidden garden in a hotel, or an expanse of a lush park when you didn’t expect one. A stone path leading to stone steps helps one deliberately and subliminally make the transition from purpose to something even more important. *Urban Steps
#StoneSteps #StonePath #Nature #DallasNeighborhood #Solitude #Garden #SwissAvenue #MungerPlace #City #Neighborhood #Dallas #Design #LandscapeDesign #Architecture
Hurricane Harvey Prompts Preservation
The Texas Legislature assembled over $9 million to preserve, restore, and study damaged buildings and sites as a result of Hurricane Harvey. The Texas Legislature authorized the Texas Historical Commission, Texas Preservation Trust Fund to award this money to the most worthwhile preservation projects. I was elected by the Commission to serve on the professional advisory board which reviewed the 50 projects applying for the grants and the staff evaluations and background on each project that were candidates to receive these resources. This board included a place for two architects, two archeologists, two preservationists, two non-profit organization preservationists, one lawyer, and a real estate broker, which is the place I filled. The Texas Preservation Trust Fund staff is dedicated and knowledgeable. They provided fabulous information on each site that ranged from monumental county courthouses, to one-room frame schoolhouses, to private residences, to abandoned cemeteries. The conversations, thoughts and discussion of the board were vigorous, interesting, and collegial. I was pleased to be able to second a motion that directed a majority of the funds and make a motion that also passed prioritizing the distribution of the funds for the incredible worthwhile projects that did not score as high. It is always disappointing to see historic and architectural buildings and sites compromised but it is encouraging to see how much money is being discharged to put these buildings and sites back in good or better order. *Hurricane Harvey Prompts Preservation
#TexasPreservationTrustFund #HurricaneHarvey #Texas #TexasPreservation #HistoricBuildings #HistoricSites #SiteSurveys #Architecture #Architects #Archeologists
Porch by Park
There are many enticing environments and views. One of my favorites is looking into the tops of trees. I am not fond of heights, so the idea of climbing a sequoia 500 feet to explore a whole different ecosystem is something beyond my physical and mental capability. However, the sense of living within the architecture of trees is romantically primordial. Fluttering leaves, swaying branches, large and small birds swooping in and out, and wildlife cavorting brings a special appreciation of life. Of course, as sailors know, the higher up the sail, the stronger the wind. On a still day, balconies still enjoy cooling breezes and especially when they are filtered by a surrounding forest. *Porch by Park
#Balcony #Park #Arbor #Breeze #Forest #WhiteRockLake #ArboretumPoint #Nature #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #Architecture #porch #Architecture
Summer Joyspotting
A car rapidly slows down and quickly pulls over as two women spot a cherry-painted wall. Of course, what would any joyspotting woman, dressed in a two-piece cherry print ensemble do—handstands in front of the matching wall! Ingrid Fetell Lee reminds us, summer also includes the joy of seeing others joyspotting. *Summer Joyspotting
#Joyspotting @AestheticsOfJoy @LindsayAttaway #Notation #Yoga #GraffitiJoy #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #VickeryPlace #Urban #CityLife #Art #Design #CherryEnsemble #City
Penguin Repair Tool
Artist David McManaway and my father, the recipient of this art piece, shared a July 12 birthday. The Penguin Repair Tool was first exhibited at DW Gallery. At the opening I told David I would like to buy this piece if he would consider including an instruction manual. He agreed. (slide through to see the image of the instructions on how to use a Penguin Repair Tool. It is pure David McManaway and has the tone of notes, missives, and letters his friends received for years). D magazine later that month did a long feature on David McManaway including a photograph of the Penguin Repair Tool. SMU also borrowed the Penguin Repair Tool for the David McManaway Twenty Year Retrospective that it mounted two years later. Besides loving this piece, I thought it would be an appropriate birthday present for my father who was taking a two-month sabbatical from work as his health recovered. He was a naturally muscular man with a barrel chest, narrow hips, strong legs, long torso, which in a white shirt and blue jacket, if his children positioned his feet just so, could take on the look of a penguin. He disagreed but was a good sport. My father was also very adept at mechanical reasoning and appreciated the instructions that I would immediately toss aside with the Christmas paper, he would then retrieve the instructions and assemble the toy for which they accompanied. Thus, the instruction manual became an important part of this piece. Executed on foldover glossy manual and appropriately signed, only a faded photocopy now remains but the sentiment and directions are clear. The Penguin Repair Tool went on permanent display in the living room except when it was on loan for an art exhibition. It, of course, helped repair my father’s health, who lived a vibrant life for another 15 years. It is also a wonderful remembrance of my father’s generous spirit and that of David McManaway. *Penguin Repair Tool
#DavidMcManaway #TremontArtists #WilliamHNewby #Art #Artist #DMagazine @DMagazine #Dallas #DWGallery #Penguin #PenguinRepairTool #RepairTool #MedicalDevice #DavidMcManawayTwentyYearRetrospective #Instructions #InstructionManual #Assemblage #Birthday #July12 #Hinsdale #Chicago #Jomo
Mount Hood as a Cloud
An early departure from Oregon reminded me of my 8:00 a.m. science requirement class, Climatology, first semester at SMU. I lifted the airplane window shade to see if we had left the runway after a short nap. Seeing clouds, I realized we were in the air and I thought, “I took Climatology, I should know what type of clouds these are.” However, the early hour of an 8 o’clock class, sitting in the back row needing glasses that I still didn’t have, made seeing projected cloud images on the screen a bit blurry, as was my state of consciousness. This resulted in my only collegiate D, but it put me in a great position for Most Improved GPA when I graduated on the High Dean’s List. Looking out the window, not surprisingly, no Climatology knowledge kicked in. Fortunately, I took another course to satisfy my other science requirement—Geology. As you can see when you slide to the second image, at the same visual elevation as the clouds in the foreground, is what looks at a glance to be a cloud in the background. I wasn’t fooled! My keen university study of geology allowed me to successfully identify that this was not a cloud formation but a rock formation—Mount Hood. Thank you, SMU! *Mount Hood as a Cloud
#Climatology #Geology #CloudFormation #RockFormation #MountHood #MountainViews #CloudViews #Mountains #Clouds #WindowViews #Photograph #Design #Oregon