Life in Dallas - Page 2
Tom Orr Goes Public at the Nasher
Artist Tom Orr has delighted us with his sculptures and drawings seen over the years in galleries, museums and public spaces. This July in 2025, you can see the recent sculpture titled “Atlas” in the Nasher Public Window Gallery. One of the best things about the Nasher Sculpture Garden is often you can see the sculptures from the street even before you enter the galleries or the garden. Tom Orr is a perfect artist to have his work displayed in the Nasher Public Window. His work always combines a sense of strength, fragility, and lyrical forms that create a captivating presence.
Artist Tom Orr “In Balance” Exhibition at Barry Whistler Gallery
While Tom Orr was installing his “Atlas” exhibition in the Public Window of the Nasher, a show of his work, “In Balance,” was exhibited at the Barry Whistler Gallery in the Dallas Design District. This exhibition was a wonderful preview of his sculpture seen at the Nasher Sculpture Garden Public Window.
Wilson Fuqua is Star Panelist on Institute of Classical Architecture and Art Panel
Joining architect Wilson Fuqua on the panel were his son, Porter Fuqua, AIA; Anthony Catalfano of Anthony Catalfano Interiors, Interior Designer; Ryan Johnson of M.M. Moore Fine Gardens and Masonry, Landscape Designer; and Marcus Taylor of English Heritage Homes, Custom Builder.
The Institute of Classical Architecture and Art has made a major impact on the understanding of building homes, renovating homes, and preserving homes with its series of panels featuring architects, contractors, interior designers, and landscape designers. Those attending included other professionals in the construction and design fields and those who were interested in preservation, architecture and design. I am grateful to Mary Peyton Burgher, the Texas Coordinator of ICAA, for inviting me to moderate the panel. Out of all those in attendance, I might have learned the most.
Lauren Smyth and Porter Fuqua Represent Generation Shaping Dallas During the First Half of the 21st Century
Porter Fuqua is a residential architect who is the son of noted architect Wilson Fuqua, who has designed many important homes and designed the renovation of many architecturally significant homes like the Hal Thomson designed home previously owned by Dan and Cookie Owen. While Wilson has helped shape the aesthetic taste of Highland Park during the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, Porter Fuqua has been helping shape Highland Park and the aesthetic of achievements of Dallas during the 21st century. It is exciting to see Porter Fuqua, who grew up in Highland Park at the architectural knee of his father, now make a great impact on the preservation of architecturally significant homes in Highland Park with his renovation design. He recently wowed the audience as an ICAA panelist discussing the renovation of 4915 Abbott Avenue, in which he was an important contributor. Porter Fuqua has both the talent and background to become a leader in his architectural field and make a great contribution to Highland Park and Dallas through the first half of the 21st century.
Commercial real estate attorney Lauren Smyth represents the type of talent that SMU first attracts to Dallas, in this case Lauren Smyth was raised in Nashville. At SMU, she was a Kappa, a double major, and graduated magna cum laude before she spent a year in France working both in fashion and foreign affairs. She returned to Dallas to attend SMU Law School and now is a key partner at Bradley Law Firm. Lauren Smyth has emerged as an attorney real estate developers and real estate brokers go to in order to make their visions and tentative transactions into a reality. Lauren Smyth is known for her creativity and precision to turn complex questions, leases or operations into simple transactions.
As Dallas increasingly becomes an international city, this generation with global sophistication, talent, aesthetic intelligence, and business acumen is a magnet for other people who want to continue developing Dallas and those moving to Dallas who want to invest in North Texas. Fifty years ago, Dallas was a brash, energetic, optimistic city ready to explode with growth and innovation. This generation, which includes Porter Fuqua and Lauren Smyth, will add additional expertise that will help make Dallas truly an international city and a major city in the center of the United States.
Blair Pogue of Blantyre Homes is the Finest Highland Park Home Developer
Blair Pogue of Blantyre Homes is a native of Highland Park who has developed a home with the type of Highland Park homebuyer in mind that he grew up with. Rather than relying on generic contemporary styles that are currently so commonplace, Blair Pogue selected the Spanish Revival style that evokes the best of Highland Park. This Spanish Revival style includes a little bit of Spanish Colonial Revival and Mediterranean style elements. The avant-garde and affluent in the 1920s selected the Spanish Revival style for their homes, and the avant-garde and affluent desire this style today.
Maybe most importantly, Blair Pogue recognized that a great appeal of Highland Park is its large lots interspersed with parks and parkways. Having been raised around the corner from 4400 Belfort Place, Blair Pogue recognized that a nearly one-acre lot on the corner of Belfort Place and Armstrong Parkway is considered the best of Highland Park – the privacy of Belfort Place and the forested parkway presence of Armstrong Parkway. Few realize that there are only 36 lots that are one acre or larger in Highland Park. When so many new homes are being built in Highland Park, it is refreshing to see a developer like Blair Pogue of Blantyre Homes to develop a home with the architectural grace and precision of 4400 Belfort Place. This Spanish Revival style home certainly fulfills Blair Pogue’s goal of elevating the architectural landscape of Highland Park while building on its earlier traditions.
It was great fun to join real estate attorney John Reoch and Blair Pogue at 4400 Belfort Place. I helped John Reoch and his wife buy their first home in Dallas when they moved from Philadelphia decades ago. John Reoch’s first client was the legendary developer Mack Pogue, who founded Lincoln Properties. Before John Reoch retired, his last transaction he worked on was the acquisition of the nearly one-acre lot at 4400 Belfort Place where Blair Pogue has developed this home. John Reoch, who has owned several architecturally significant homes, was delighted to see the success of this home that Blair Pogue has developed.
It is a great honor to represent Blair Pogue and Blantyre Homes as the listing broker selling 4400 Belfort Place. Blair Pogue has developed the finest new home in Highland Park. Since I specialize in architecturally significant homes, this is the only occasion where a developer has built a home to sell that has the same architectural significance of the homes in Highland Park designed by the finest architects in Highland Park in the 1920s.
Laura Brady is a Great Example of Young Dynamic Business Leaders that Dallas Attracts
Laura Brady is a great example of the dynamic business leaders that Dallas attracts. Here her success building Strive and her contributions to Dallas are being celebrated. Harvard graduate, Captain of her college hockey team, her contagious success inspires all who meet her. No wonder Dallas keeps building on its success when it attracts this type of talent!
St. Thomas Aquinas Neighborhood Church and School
For Catholics and non-Catholics alike, St. Thomas Aquinas is an Old East Dallas landmark that is found in the Wilshire Heights neighborhood. The church serves a vibrant Catholic population spanning several generations of Lakewood and Old East Dallas residents. The St. Thomas Aquinas school is a valuable educational resource for both Catholic and non-Catholic students who live in the nearby East Dallas neighborhoods. The church has been expanded in a graceful way over the years, enhancing versus diminishing its architecture. Regardless if one is a member of the church, one can think of the church fondly as part of their neighborhood and part of their life.
Dinner Under the Stars at Cafe Pacific for Interior Designer Stars
How can one have a more elegant and fun evening than joining gracious and clever interior designers that are the best in their field in Dallas and across the country exchanging ideas, stories and past hijinks. Cafe Pacific on the patio was the perfect setting for this April dinner under the stars.
Dallas City Councilperson Bill Roth Takes Office
After his first day in office as a City Councilperson, Bill Roth is celebrated by community leaders at a reception hosted by the Allyn Company. I served with Bill on the Metrotex Association of Realtors Board of Directors. He filled a position on the board reserved for commercial brokers. I found him to be dedicated to service and a thoughtful board member. When MLS was considering selling all of the images in MLS to the Dallas Morning News, I expressed my concern at several meetings and at the MLS meetings. This was also at a time when MLS would use a photograph already on file if the current agent had not submitted one. The board attorney and other board members were unconcerned with the copyright issues and liability because this had not previously been an issue. Bill Roth was the only board member who took an interest in this issue which to this day I appreciate. Ultimately, I flew to the Chicago National Office of Realtors and spoke to the chief attorney. He agreed with my opinion and assessment of the issue. He wrote an opinion and directive to the Greater Dallas Association of Realtors that required them to change course, which they did.
Blair Pogue is Highland Park Home Developer with Best Experience and Greatest Insights for Architecturally Significant Homes
Visiting the Dallas Mayor at City Hall
Riding the elevator up to the fifth floor office to visit Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, I realized he was the tenth mayor that I had personally met with, most of them at some point at their Mayor’s Office at City Hall. When I arrived on the fifth floor, there was a row of photographs of every past Dallas mayor. These images brought back memories of my first visit to Mayor Robert Folsom’s office and my visit to the mayor’s office when Starke Taylor was mayor. It was fun to see in Mayor Taylor’s office a 12-inch walnut spool of copper wire with two tin cans at the respective end of the wire that had been presented to him when he presided over a Restoration House of the Year Award on his first day in office. This was given to him as a hotline to the neighborhoods of East Dallas. Looking at the pictures on the wall made me recall many of the conversations I had with each of these mayors in their office. It was a treat to meet Mayor Eric Johnson in his office, as I so admire how he has continued to build on the success of the previous mayors. Under his leadership, Dallas has never been stronger. There has also been much written recently about the I.M. Pei designed-City Hall building. It was fun to see the city from the balcony that I.M. Pei designed for the Dallas Mayor.
