Douglas Newby Insights - Page 6
Brick-Paved Street
Historic homes have a certain grace that is missing from new developments. Architecturally significant homes create an aesthetic elegance in a neighborhood. Brick-paved streets root the neighborhood in another era that seems almost unimaginable. As a young boy, the streets paved in brick meant more than a bumpy bicycle ride. These brick-paved streets created weight and substance to the homes I was riding by. This 7600 square foot Richardson-Romanesque style home at 306 E. 1st St. in Hinsdale’s Robbins Park Historic District was built in 1898. Its size and impressive architectural style expresses its prominence, as does the Richardson-Romanesque style Old Red Courthouse built in Dallas in 1892. This is another example of how, through similar architectural design and materials, early Dallas and Hinsdale expressed their aesthetic achievement and substance. When I see vestiges of streetcar rails in the Munger Place Historic District, it is almost like running across an arrowhead at a creek’s edge. Growing up around brick-paved streets provided an even slower pace to a village that already had a peaceful gait. *Brick-Paved Street
#BrickPavedStreets #HistoricHomes #ArchitecturallySignificantHomes #HistoricDistrict #MungerPlace #RobbinsParkHistoricDistrict #Hinsdale #RichardsonRomanesque #OldRedCourthouse #Dallas #Architecture
Architectural Cadence
I have often attributed my inspiration and interest in architecture, neighborhoods and community to my hometown. The architectural and aesthetic backdrop, when I was delivering newspapers in grade school while walking or riding my bike through the neighborhoods, made an incredible impression on me. Growing up on two ends of Park Avenue, the homes I passed were often a bit older than those in the Munger Place Historic District, but many were of the same age and reflected much of the same style. An architectural cadence was set in my mind and an aesthetic example of a lovely neighborhood has influenced me ever since. Here are a few of the homes I walked or rode my bike by every day. *Architectural Cadence
#ArchitecturalCadence #HistoricHomes #Neighborhoods #Inspiration #Hometown #robbinspark #Hinsdale
#MungerPlace #HistoricDistrict #Architecture
Hometown Honor
There is something about a hometown honor that allows one to also honor one’s classmates, friends and hometown. Convening on the football field brought back high school memories of serving as pep rally chairman, announcing the Homecoming Queen, organizing festivities for the weekend, and escorting one of the young women across the field at the Homecoming game. Returning, I enjoyed a fun weekend with incredibly successful, talented and generous people. *Hometown Honor
Village Hall
I loved growing up in a village where the Village Hall bell marked the passage of time with the number of rings, that drifted across the neighborhood, equaling the hour of the day. Every half-hour was identified by a single ring coming from the Village Hall bell tower. My early childhood home was walking distance to the library which was located within Village Hall and was across the street from the shops and stores of this tree-lined village. Village Hall was also where they crowned Miss Hinsdale, who went on to be Miss Illinois and runner up to Miss America. This environment created my first sense of vibrancy and nature – the essential attributes of my favorite places. *Village Hall
#VillageHall #BellTower #Neighborhood #Home
Architect at Opening
I have taken hundreds of architecture photographs of the splendid Art Deco buildings at the State Fair of Texas, but only when I took a photograph of architect Cliff Welch, FAIA, at the fair on opening day, did the backdrop of 1936 Art Deco buildings and fair goers look like an architect-generated computer rendering of a park and people. I think Apple iphones have become so smart, that with face recognition the camera reads that the shot is of an architect and immediately goes into an architectural rendering mode. It was fun to see Cliff and know that since his office is across the street from Fair Park, he can treat the State Fair as his personal neighborhood cafeteria, like on opening day when he is picking up a corny dog for his wife. *Architect at Opening
#Architect #Architecture #ArtDeco #StateFairOfTexas #ArchitecturalRendering #Dallas #CornyDog #Neighborhood
Everyone is a Winner
Since attending SMU, along with the livestock competition, the midway of the State Fair of Texas has always been a fun excursion. My favorite was the classic midway game that required knocking over three large fuzzy-faced cats mounted on popsicle stick targets requiring all three throws being successful. Some hinges were sticky and a direct hit would not knock over a cat. The carnies’ perfectly timed distracting shouts added to the adrenaline. Players would wind up like Nolan Ryan. I used a soft quick dart style throw, lining up directly in front of my targets rather than making cross-throws. Years of playing allowed me to become so proficient that to show off I would throw balls simultaneously with my left and right hand, knocking over two cats at a time. Alas, a few years before the pandemic, the game was removed that had been played at fairs across the country for a century. Still the plate throw remained where two plates placed close together provided a tempting target, but the bull’s eye to break the two required plates was the size of a quarter. Negotiating with carnies was part of the fun. I love rules and always verified them ahead of time so none of my successful throws would be disqualified, and better yet, some of my unsuccessful throws might be counted as a winner. My favorite rule was a chipped or cracked plate counted as a broken plate. Carnies often will turn a chipped plate upside down and treat it as an unbroken plate. On a close throw I would always ask the carny to pull the plate out to see if I chipped it, resulting in me being a winner. After several years, this game also disappeared from the midway. For the first time in many years I returned to the the midway on opening day and saw a new plate throw that required four broken plates on four throws. There is nothing more nostalgic than a carny barking out EVERYONE IS A WINNER as he hands you a stuffed animal. *Everyone is a Winner
#StateFairOfTexas #Midway #EveryoneIsAWinner
Architectural Legacy Ends
A home an architect designed for himself and his family is always one of my favorites. This architecturally significant and historically significant home at 4511 Highland Drive in Old Highland Park is even more special because it was designed by the iconic Highland Park and Dallas architect, Herbert M. Greene, who also designed the Cox/Beal Beaux Arts style estate home on Beverly and Preston. Adding to the legacy of this home overlooking Hackberry Creek and backing up to Lakeside Drive estate properties, is a home that was passed down successfully to family members over three generations. Until only recently when he died at 97, John Greene Taylor owned and lived in the home. I first met John Greene Taylor 20 years ago when he gave me a call and asked if I would like to see his home that his grandfather designed. I was thrilled to see this 1920s home with very high ceilings and graciously proportioned formal and informal rooms. The architectural detail and woodwork were still intact. Apparently, the beneficiary of the estate had no real interest in preserving the home, which does not bode well for its future. I don’t know if Preservation Park Cities has this historic home on their list of 100 Architecturally Significant Historic Homes? I do know that the high-profile real estate firms thought the home only had land value as a lot. Here is a perfect example of how an early proactive preservation effort might have made a difference. I will remember John Taylor Greene with admiration and appreciation for saving this architecturally significant historic home for as long as he did – his entire life. *Architectural Legacy Ends
#ArchitecturallySignificantHome #HistoricallySignificantHome #ArchitecturallySignificantHistoricHome #OldHighlandPark #HighlandPark #HighlandParkHome #HackberryCreek #4511HighlandDrive #HerbertMGreene #Architect #Architecture #HistoricHome #Preservation #Teardown #ArchitectHome
City Manager Ward System
I have always been a huge advocate of the City Manager form of government until now — I realized it exacerbates and feeds off of a ward system that needs reform. You can see my latest blog article, “City Manager Ward System Form of Government Needs Reform” on DouglasNewby.com. The current City Manager Ward System takes away the voters’ control, hinders the progress of Dallas priorities, and the Mayor’s initiatives. My conversion on this topic over the last two months has come from the Dallas Mayor’s good initiatives being thwarted, and the City Manager’s public and private disrespect for the Mayor and now many on the City Council. I wrote “City Manager Ward System Form of Government Needs Reform” before the Dallas Morning News broke the story that the City Manager’s future will be reviewed by the City Council when they meet on Wednesday. The reason this called meeting has been so long coming is because a majority of the City Council cannot fire the City Manager. The City Manager only needs to keep six City Council members happy to keep his job. It will be interesting if the Mayor and the four City Council members that are on record for wanting to fire the City Manager will have a super-majority of the City Council to do so. I have tried in my blog article to give a fresh perspective of the history of the City Manager form of government and single member districts, and what has been brewing at City Hall between the Mayor and City Manager. The current City Manager ward system form of government needs reform if Dallas is going to continue to flourish. *City Manager Ward System
#DallasCityManager #DallasMayor #DallasCityCouncil #CityManagerFormOfGovernment #CityManagerWardSystem #Dallas #DallasCharter #DallasGovernment #DallasCityHall #MayorEricJohnson
Cocktail Orchid
What is one going to do when one becomes fond of the orchid that comes floating in a pre-dinner cocktail, the Serrano, ordered in the gallery from Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle overseen by Manager Dimitrios Michalopoulos? When the drink is finished, rinse the orchid off in chilled water and place it in one’s lapel buttonhole for the evening’s dinner at Antonucci’s. Seated outside close by was a prominent hedge fund partner that I casually know from TED. I went by to say hello to him and his grown family dining with him. After a brief fun exchange, he complimented me on my orchid. This allowed me to explain the origin story of the orchid to him and his family’s amusement, which inspired this post. I did not mention that I now have an inclination where John Reoch sources his buttonhole flowers he wears when he knows paparazzi will be close by. *Cocktail Orchid
@RosewoodTheCarlyle #TheCarlyle #CarlyleGallery #BemelmansBar @BemelmansBar #Cocktail #Orchid #NYC #Manhattan #UpperEastSide #Design #ButtonholeFlower #CocktailOrchid
Three Bathers
Urban planners and architects often create digitized renderings to show how a plaza becomes a human space – a reflection pool, a piece of sculpture, spotted trees, and three people placed in the hardscape between buildings. And when I see these renderings, I say to myself, “Yeah, like that is ever going to happen.” And yet in real life at the MoMA, when I turned and looked at what seemed to be a large computer rendering, it was really a MoMA sculpture garden with a pool, a sculpture, spotted trees, and three sunbathers with their feet dangling towards the pool, with chairs strewn about inviting more to join them. Before long, as I often do when I am visiting the MoMA, I found my way to a chair under a tree with dappled light to relax and enjoy the day. The musing I have written across the photograph maybe should have been – “When life mimics renderings.” *Three Bathers
@MuseumofModernArt #MoMASculptureGarden #UrbanLandscape #SculptureGarden #ArtMuseum #Architecture #NewYorkArchitecture #LandscapeArchitect #UrbanPlanner #Renderings #SunBathers #Manhattan #MuseumofModernArt