Douglas Newby Insights - Page 4
Reclaim Dallas
Michael Lee, a brilliant designer and a Highland Park native, has reclaimed Dallas as his home and continues to reclaim Dallas architectural components and artifacts from architecturally significant homes and merge them into new spaces. A celebration at his new retail space at Nick Brock on Slocum in the Design District provided the opportunity to see how a collection of individual pieces offered for sale were placed in a graceful composition that was as enticing as each individual piece. Additionally, sunlight illuminated the space. When Michael moved to Malibu, his genius was quickly recognized. His California work was featured in Architectural Digest and he was the talk of the town. Simultaneously, his projects in Dallas were equally revered. It is so fun to have Michael and Gatsby back in Dallas. When you see them, you are bound to see many of the most talented and delightful people in town. Here we see the Director of the Dallas Opera, the North American CEO of Christie’s Auction House, and Carol Lee, who with her late husband John Ridings Lee, lived and entertained in iconic modern and historic homes that were the toast of the town. From business leaders to aesthetic leaders and interior designers, this space glowed with talent and love that always surrounds Michael Lee. *Reclaim Dallas
#NickBrockAntiques #Antiques #GatsbyGeerts #DallasDesignDistrict #ArchitecturallySignificant #ArchitecturalArtifacts #Retail #DallasCelebration #Dallas
Celebrating Home
Pure ice on the first day this architecturally significant historic home was on the market. Today, my clients are enjoying their new home on a sunny day. Ice is a buyer’s best friend.
My clients said ideally they would like a historic home, an architecturally significant home, a home on around a half acre of land, looking across from a golf course, and in the next six months before they were to be married. There has been virtually no inventory of homes for sale over the last six months. Where would you have recommended? They bought this home, a historic 100-year-old home, an architecturally significant home, on almost a half acre, overlooking a golf course, the day before their wedding.
As I told this beautiful couple – NEVER a doubt! *Celebrating Home
#DallasIce #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #HistoricHome #ArchitecturallySignificantHome #CentennialHome #100YearOldHome #neighborhood
Entrepreneurial Art
The Dallas Museum of Art and Director Agustin Arteaga continues to inform and delight with a wide and deep spectrum of exhibitions. Recently opening was “Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks.” Art history is more than the history of artistic technique or expression, it is history itself. We heard from Dr. Katharina Van Cauteren that the 16th century paintings in Antwerp and Flanders was the start of the art market. Artists began painting speculatively rather than painting solely on commission. An art market broadens the subject matter of paintings from predominantly portraits to landscapes, still lifes, and other vignettes that were in demand. The paintings seen are primarily curated from The Phoebus Foundation collection with strong Flemish paintings from the DMA interspersed. Oil paint was invented during this period, allowing the intense detail we are seeing in these paintings. An entire wall is dedicated to 20 prints that portray inventions and processes of the day, such as the machinery pressing olive oil. The beauty of art can be emotionally elevating, but the history of art and why it was made can illuminate our history. *Entrepreneurial Art
#DMA #FlemishArt #Flanders #OilPaint #ArtMarket #Dallas #ArtHistory #ArtDistrict #ArtOpening #PhoebusFoundation
Ford and Cece
Ford and Cece are in the house when you see a yellow Corvette. For decades they have driven a new model yellow Corvette. In Highland Park Village at Cafe Pacific you see so many Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and Maybachs lined up it is hard to know which car belongs to whom and yet when you see a yellow Corvette, you know the owner. Ford and Cece are the only couple in Dallas where either one of them can be referenced by first name only – Ford or Cece – and people will know to whom you are referring. Cece Smith founded the largest retail specialty venture capital fund. Cece has been on many corporate boards, is a past chair of the Dallas Federal Reserve, and current chair of the Dallas Symphony Board. Ford Lacy is the Highland Park resident intellectual, a Highland Park and Harvard graduate, he was a successful Akin Gump attorney and continues to dazzle others with his vast source of knowledge and insights on myriad subjects. Maybe the greatest contribution of Ford and Cece is their founding of the President’s Research Council (PRC) at UT Southwestern over 35 years ago. PRC grants annual distinguished research seed grants to promising young researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center. These funds are generated by community members of PRC who convene quarterly to hear about exciting research taking place at UT Southwestern. Lectures by the immensely talented clinicians, doctors and faculty at UT Southwestern provide the most exciting lecture series in Dallas. Often emerging technology and medical breakthroughs are heard here years ahead of the TED Conference presenting them. Recently, Ford and Cece were honored at iconic Cafe Pacific for a fun PRC Appreciation Dinner for their founding PRC and underwriting the PRC annual dinner announcing research grants with PRC members seated with Nobel laureates, past PRC speakers and distinguished members of UT Southwestern. Among many honors Ford and Cece have received is being selected as academicians in the Academy of Raffination. *Ford and Cece
#Raffination #CafePacific #CeceSmith #FordLacy #PRC #PresidentsResearchCouncil #YellowCorvette #highlandparkvillage
Orbit of Jim Young
Jim Young, 40th employee of EDS, is presented first ever Texas Business Hall of Fame Distinguished Service Award and given tribute by Morton Meyerson. In fact, Dallas icon Morton Meyerson, the 57th employee that became the EDS President and CEO, gave the finest and most important personal and historical tribute I have heard. Morton Meyerson said he had never told Jim Young this before, but when he arrived at EDS, which was only about two years old, it was a cold, stiff organization still trying to get established, where he felt out of place. Jim, with his elegant, warm, inclusive and supportive sense of humor, allowed him to survive and thrive at EDS. He credited Jim Young with creating a company-wide atmosphere of humanity and opportunity for the thousands of employees around the world. Pictured here are his wife, Carole Young, who has also made an incredible impact on Dallas and Texas, with even a Texas prison named after her; and Dale Petroskey, the President and CEO of the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce, who wrote a definitive LinkedIn post on Jim receiving this award. Dale is a good example of the incredibly successful people in Jim Young’s orbit that include Jim as a mentor, friend and inspiration, as I do. Jim Young has always placed his family (who have all been incredibly successful, including his daughter Kelly Stoetzel, who headed the TED conferences for several years and selected the TED speakers for 15 years, and his son Jim Young who received a Master’s Degree at University of Cambridge and started his own successful business) first, and treated those young and old around the world as if they were family – Jim was always incredibly interested, and generous with his thoughts, guidance and encouragement. The world is a better place because of Jim Young and everyone that knows Jim Young has benefitted. Thank you Jim! *Orbit of Jim Young
#JimYoung #CaroleYoung #DalePetroskey #OrbitOfJimYoung #Dallas #TexasBusinessHallOfFame #Mentor #Leader #Inspiration @TexasBusinessHallOfFame
History of a Highway
Crosstown Expressway connecting Interstate Highway 30 to Central Expressway was imminent. Its dedicated path included Munger Boulevard as it was supposed to cut through a dozen Old East Dallas historic neighborhoods. Before the Trinity Toll Road proposal, before the Klyde Warren deck park, and before any movement to reduce or eliminate roads, the homeowners in Old East Dallas did what seemed impossible – they stopped Crosstown Expressway. Crosstown Expressway was eliminated and Munger Boulevard actually had two lanes of traffic removed to enable a landscaped median to be installed reflecting the Munger Brothers original development. Further, Collett and Fitzhugh, that had been one-way couplets, were returned to two-way residential streets interspersed with stop signs. In a neighborhood where a highway had been planned, high speed through-traffic streets were returned to residential streets. The transportation travesty of Crosstown was transformed to a corridor of nature. Please note the 20 miles per hour school zone sign allowing children to walk to school. *History of a Highway
#MungerBoulevard #CrosstownExpressway #Fitzhugh #Collett #MungerPlace #OldEastDallas #HistoricNeighborhoods #DallasHistory #Dallas #DallasNeighborhoods
The Courtauld Update
Whenever I go to London I try to stop by The Courtauld Institute of Art. It was the first London museum I visited years ago on my initial visit to London. The Courtauld resonated with me for many reasons. I love the architecture. Sir William Chambers in 1775 designed the building that replaced the original 1552 home of the Duke of Somerset. The paintings were predominately lit by natural sunlight in a salon-like setting of dark wood floors, enormous ceilings and tall windows. In the first room on one wall was A Bar at the Folies-Bergere by Edouard Manet. I had first seen this Manet painting when it was on loan at the Chicago Art Institute for a blockbuster exhibition. Ropes were placed eight feet away from the painting enclosed in glass. People were standing three deep. On my first visit to The Courtauld, when I approached an almost empty room, I asked the guard how close could I get to the painting. The guard replied, “Oh, about six inches.” How can you not love a museum that has a fabulous ceremonial staircase, a living room/salon setting for a lovely Manet that one can view at an unhurried pace from any distance. On my last visit right before the pandemic, The Courtauld was shut down for renovation. This trip was my first return. The building and approach is still magical. It brought back memories of seeing then Prince Charles just a few feet away getting into his Jaguar as he departed the museum. The interior of the renovated museum is now opened up with art lighting and light wood floors. Paintings share spaces with several other paintings on the extended walls. The renovation was necessary. It now has a much better event space for fundraisers, private dinners, events and parties. The galleries are better lit and feel more up to date. However, it reminds me of why homeowners go back to their original home and wonder why it has been changed. On this visit, Chinese nationals for their London university art class, asked me to write my feelings on a photocopy of the painting. I wrote “highlighted and hidden.” *The Courtauld Update
#TheCourthauld #SomersetHouse #London #ABarAtTheFolies-Bergere #ArtMuseum #Art #Architecture #History
Hierarchy of Stairs
Builders use staircases trying to reflect, in their traditional spec homes, the grandeur of great European houses. Bill McKenzie, an editorial board member for the Dallas Morning News in the 1990s, asked me, for an editorial he was writing, for examples of the difference in “Big Hair Houses,” starting to dominate Dallas streets, with architect designed homes. As always, Bill asks thoughtful questions that had me reviewing homes with this question in mind. I provided examples including: architects used real bookshelves in the library off the front door, while builders might use bookshelf wallpaper. Where builders would often stack 16 inches of ceiling molding, architects might design 8-inch moldings – more expensive to create but more elegant. However, what I most remember were these Big Hair houses in University Park in Dallas on standard size lots often had two staircases just as one might find in a European estate home. The difference was that the two staircases in Big Hair builder homes, only a room or two away from each other, were almost identical in size, rise and treads. While in architect designed estate homes, the primary staircase was much grander and the servant stairs were steep and narrow indicating a hierarchy of stairs. The best example of this in Dallas is the Crespi Estate, designed by architect Maurice Fatio in 1939. In London, I was reminded of this in the Somerset House now housing The Courtauld Institute of Art. The primary staircase is elegant and inviting, making it enjoyable to walk to the third-floor galleries. As you slide through the images, you will see the secondary stairs, steep, narrow and forbidding. Generic builders often build spec homes just for show; architects design homes for show and purpose. *Hierarchy of Stairs
#Stairs #TheCourtauld #Architect #ArchitectDesign #EstateHomes #BuilderHomes #HierarchyOfStairs #London #Historic #SomersetHouse
London Light
London light, uninterrupted by tall buildings, illuminates the architectural detail and relief of London’s significant historic buildings. Luminescence prevails even on damp days. A blue sky is a welcome change in the monotony of a grey London landscape. Bright lights and Christmas lights add ornamentation to architecturally significant buildings already heavily ornamented with stone carvings and architectural detail. I have decided London light is more profound because it is distributed in a judicial way, somehow only illuminating the best historically significant buildings, leaving the flat-faced generic ones cast in dull shadows. Even the glitz of New Bond Street has a patina of glimmer. *London Light
#Light #Shadow #Luminescence #London #ArchitecturallySignificant #HistoricallySignificant #NewBond #Historic #Architecture #Historic #LondonLandmarks
Tunnel of Color
Trees announce a neighborhood. One immediately recognizes Highland Park as the most expensive neighborhood in Dallas because of the abundant trees that grace the architecturally significant homes. One cannot see the good police and fire departments or good teachers, but one can immediately enjoy the trees lit by landscape lighting in the summer or Christmas lights in December. When Munger Place was at its nadir, the few artists and urban pioneer homeowners in the neighborhood planted parkway trees – the first sign of revitalization. New curbs, sidewalks, antique streetlights replacing telephone poles and lamps created additional confidence for new homeowners returning divided up renthouses back to single family homes. I grew up with tree-tunneled streets in Hinsdale and visualized the same for Munger Place. Now, every season I marvel when I ride my bike through this Munger Place tunnel of color – bright green buds in spring, deep dark greens in summer, and yellow, oranges and reds in the fall. *Tunnel of Color
#Tree #ParkwayTrees #MungerPlace #Revitalization #Dallas #DallasNeighborhood #HighlandPark #TreeTunnel #autumncolors