Douglas Newby Insights - Page 29
A Place Apart
Architect Max Levy is a master at connecting separate structures with porches, terraces, breezeways in both his city and country houses. In 2017, he designed a place apart from the main house but still part of the architectural composition. The “sweet spot” of the site amidst the canopies of trees were selected for a second story porch with a fireplace that is only accessible by an outside stairway, separating it from the main house, making it a place apart!
#APlaceApart #MaxLevy #Architect #Architecture #ModernHome #ScreenPorch #Oak #Design #Dallas #CityHouse #Modern #greenwayparks
Command site
Five oaks of strong character command this flat suburban site. Architect Max Levy designed this 7,000 s.f. home in University Park in 2017 to defer to the trees. Acoustical aquatic fountains are dispersed through the site to ameliorate sounds associated with a city and that accentuate a tree-filled site.
#Oak #LiveOak #Dallas #SuburbanHouse #CityHouse #Dallas #ModernHome #Modern #Design #Architect #Architecture #MaxLevy
Texas Modern Sunshine
Turning the harsh Texas sun into an asset is, I think, the defining element of Texas Modern architecture. Good architects in any region are aware of the environment and site when they design a home. In Texas, architects often keep windows on the west side of the home to a minimum and open the house to the east with glass to enjoy the softer sunlight. The virtuosity of an architect can be seen when both the east and west façade of the home are glass and the sun is shielded and captured in an enticing way. In this home on Vanguard Way, architect Joshua Nimmo deployed a deep, angled slatted porch to provide shade in the summer and allow the low winter sun to stream all the way across the interior of the home in the winter. Patterns of sunlight and shadow provide visual interest, and on a cold Texas winter day the sun warms the home and the soul. One of the most rewarding opportunities of listing an architecturally significant home like this one is getting to spend time in the home thinking about why the home resonates with me in such a powerful way. Sometimes it is proportions, or the materials, subtle details, the site, or all of this and more, that contribute to its aesthetic success and to a home that makes one happy.
#JoshuaNimmo #ArchitecturallySignificant #ModernHome #VanguardWay #Dallas #BikePath #PathToTrinityGroves #PathToWhiteRockLake #Neighborhood #ModernNeighborhood #Architect #Architecture #Contemporary #Brise-Soleil #Porch #Trellis #SunlightAndShade #TexasModern #Sun #Sunlight #Interior #OpenHouse #Texas #TexasArchitecture #HomesThatMakeUsHappy #FeaturedListing
Living Pavilion
Each distinct pavilion of this home Max Levy designed in 2014 has glazed walls and doors providing views of a site surrounded by trees. The glazed bridges allow uninterrupted views as one traverses from one pavilion of the home to another pavilion of the home.
#MaxLevy #Contemporary #InteriorDesign #Tree #GlazedWalls #Architect #Architecture #Dallas #ModernHome #Design #modern
Glazed Bridges Connect
Max Levy connected three pavilions by glazed bridges that step around and through trees. Rather than create a presence on a flat featureless lot, here Max accentuates what a tree-dominated lot gave him. The architectural result was Max Levy creating a home in 2014 people love.
#MaxLevy #GlazedBridge #Pavilions #Contemporary #Modern #Design #Dallas #Tree #Architect #Architecture #modernhome
Design Within Trees
Cedar trees dominate this site. No trees were put down. The gently sloping lot was regraded creating the canvas for the Max Levy designed home in 2014. Looking through this house from the inside or outside, one’s view continues into the trees.
#CedarElm #MaxLevy #Tree #Design #Modern #Architect #Architecture #ModernHome #SuburbanHome #Dallas
Direction of Dallas?
Is wealth creation for low-income families thwarted by the city moving them to high-income North Dallas? Is a fashionable renter society of transients good for Dallas or does it subvert middle-income neighborhoods? Should middle-income neighborhoods, the lobby for good public schools, police and city services, be a priority or should they be allowed to continue to dwindle? Should affordable homes be built in South Dallas where low-income people now live or they should be built in North Dallas closer to jobs? Is it better for a low-income family to have higher income in North Dallas or a chance of wealth creation in South Dallas. The SMU/George W. Bush Institute conference on Policies To Promote Inclusive Urban Growth provoked these questions? Cullum Clark and Joel Kotkin pictured above, initiated the conference and invited speakers from across the country to discuss cities. You can see my summary of the thoughts and ideas that were generated at the conference on the Dallas Architecture Blog Direction of Dallas and Urban Growth: http://douglasnewby.com/2019/02/direction-of-dallas-determines-growth/
#GeorgeWBushInstitute @TheBuchCenter @SMUDallas @SMUCox #JoelKotkin #Cities #InclusiveGrowth #UrbanGrowth #UrbanEconomics #Dallas #CityConference #DallasDirection
Katy Trail Kitchen
A kitchen might almost seem superfluous in a house next to the Katy Trail that leads to many of the best chef-owned restaurants in Dallas. A Max Levy kitchen and breakfast room framed by the nature of the Katy Trail does entice one to stay home. This Northern Heights modern home built in 2012 adds to the collection of architecturally significant homes in Northern Heights.
#Max Levy #NorthernHeights #DallasNeighborhood, #CityNeighborhood #CityHouse #Kitchen #BreakfastRoom #Modern #Architect #Architecture #Design #Modern #Contemporary #Dallas
Lifted Living Spaces
Architect Max Levy designed a linear progression of rooms to give each one views of trees and dense foliage. Proceeding through the floor plan culminates in a screen porch on the second floor. The open and screen porches found in many of Max Levy designed homes, I often think of as the Holy Grail of Max Levy architecture.
#LivingSpaces #KatyTrail #MaxLevy #Architect #NorthernHeights #ModernHome #CityHouse #Architecture #DallasNeighborhood #Contemporary #Modern #Design #InteriorDesign #Dallas
#PathToTrinityGroves
Trail House
Swaddled by the Katy Trail foliage on one side and an allée of trees on the other side, Max Levy designed this home in 2012 to be immersed in urban nature. Lifting the principal living spaces to the second floor allows the homeowner to look over the trail with a view filtered by the treetops. Northern Heights is the first neighborhood where architects designed award-winning attached single family modern homes. This Max Levy designed single family modern home solidifies the architectural importance and modernity of Northern Heights.
#MaxLevy #CityHouse #KatyTrail #Dallas #NorthernHeights #Architect #Architecture #DallasNeighborhood #Contemporary #Modern #Design #architecturallysignificant #modernhome #pathtotrinitygroves