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Douglas Newby insights on Architecturally Significant Homes, Neighborhoods, and the Evolution of Cities

Impact on Homes That Make Us Happy

Douglas Newby is a national award-winning realtor who identifies architectural significance, value, and homes that make people happy. Insights offered in these articles include the nuance and evolution of neighborhoods, cities and Dallas. If you are interested in purchasing an Architecturally Significant Home, go to Douglas Newby & Associates real estate site DougNewby.com.

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Favorite Douglas Newby Blog Articles

Short-Term Rentals are Assault on Homeownership and Single-Family Zoning

Short-Term Rentals are Assault on Homeownership and Single-Family Zoning

Why do single-family occupied homes matter and need to be protected? Homeowners are the heart and soul of the city. When homeowners start leaving a neighborhood, the neighborhood declines. When homeowners have confidence in the future of a neighborhood, they buy a home in that neighborhood or reinvest in the home they already own in...

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City Manager Ward System Form of Government Needs Reform

City Manager Ward System Form of Government Needs Reform

The City Manager form of government always seemed to give Dallas an advantage. It seemed to prevent a Chicago Mayor style form of ward system government, creating a political machine ripe for corruption. Now Dallas has something even worse than a Chicago Mayor ward system form of government. Dallas has a City Manager ward system...

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4908 Lakeside Drive is Demolished – Start Saving Homes Now

4908 Lakeside Drive is Demolished – Start Saving Homes Now

4908 Lakeside Drive, Highland Park, Texas, should be the wakeup call that we should start saving homes now. “Start Saving Homes” should be the public cry. There is an understandable consternation when there is an onslaught of homes being torn down across the country, particularly one that has the significance of 4908 Lakeside Drive in...

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Organic Urbanism is the Cure for New Urbanism

Organic Urbanism is the Cure for New Urbanism

New Urbanism is Like a Virus New Urbanism is a virus that keeps coming back in mutated forms – Organic Urbanism is the cure – Douglas Newby Why Does New Urbanism Need a Cure? New Urbanism is like a virus. For 50 year it keeps coming back in mutated forms. It needs a cure. First,...

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Five Preservation Steps to Saving Historic and Architecturally Significant Homes in Highland Park and Across Country

Five Preservation Steps to Saving Historic and Architecturally Significant Homes in Highland Park and Across Country

From time to time, we hear of the demolition of an historic or architecturally significant home in the news. Inevitably there’s an outcry. Members of the community are understandably upset. Community leaders agree that “something must be done.” But what? Shaming a Buyer Who Tears Down a Home Has Never Saved a Home. These Five...

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Saving Homes – Preservation Step Two

Saving Homes – Preservation Step Two

In my last article I proposed five steps for saving homes that were historic from demolition, with a deep dive into the first step: identifying and illuminating historic and architecturally significant homes. In this post, I’ll take a closer look at Step Two of the next four proactive preservation steps that will save homes. Recap...

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Preservation Step Three and Four for Saving Homes is a Gamechanger

Preservation Step Three and Four for Saving Homes is a Gamechanger

Preservation Step Three comes after identifying and illuminating historic and architecturally significant homes and contacting and cultivating the homeowners like the owners of the David Williams designed home.  Preservation Step Three is a gamechanger.  Architects and interior designers can create a vision for a renovated home.  Inspectors, contractors and appraisers can determine the cost and...

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Preservation Step Five – Implementing Architectural Deed Restrictions Guarantee Saving Homes

Preservation Step Five – Implementing Architectural Deed Restrictions Guarantee Saving Homes

Historic and architecturally significant homes will be saved with each of the first four steps. But preservation Step Five is the most powerful step. It will guarantee that the historic or architecturally significant home will be spared from being torn down. This final preservation step perpetuates the life of a historic or architecturally significant home...

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Why There Is an Acceleration of Highland Park Homes Being Torn Down

Why There Is an Acceleration of Highland Park Homes Being Torn Down

For decades, Highland Park homes have been torn down, however, this year this activity has accelerated . Perhaps new residents have had an impact. For instance, the great influx of home buyers from California to Dallas has created many benefits for Dallas and has exacerbated some problems.  The greatest negative effect on our urban landscape...

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Highland Park Teardown or Architecturally Significant Survival?

Highland Park Teardown or Architecturally Significant Survival?

A Highland Park teardown is just another old, out-of-date house or it is an architectural accomplishment designed by one of the best architects in Dallas or the country, and the former home of prominent residents.  An insignificant Highland Park teardown makes room for a new architect-inspired home. An architecturally significant home that becomes another Highland...

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Sorority Home Saved at SMU

Sorority Home Saved at SMU

It never occurred to me until now that a sorority house is also a sorority home, and many times an historic home contributes to a campus or town. Homes are historic because of their architectural value or the residents that inhabited them or both. Sorority houses like this one, SMU’s Alpha Xi of Gamma Phi...

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Highland Park Preservation Success

Highland Park Preservation Success

Historically and Architecturally Significant Home is Celebrated and Saved in Highland Park Preservation Success is achieved in Highland Park! Many consider this Highland Park home designed by Mark Lemmon to be the most historically significant home in Highland Park and maybe even in Dallas and North Texas. Highland Park, University Park, the State of Texas,...

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Browse 100 Compelling Articles by Douglas Newby

Douglas Newby Expertise

A life long curiosity and interest in art, culture and economics, and how they impact homes, neighborhoods and cities shape the prescient understanding Douglas Newby has for evolving real estate markets. His uncanny ability to see which homes and neighborhoods thrive and which will lag and when has been immensely beneficial to his clients and to the city. Ultimately, what is most important is homes that make us happy.

  • Featured Douglas Newby Blog Articles
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Realtor Douglas Newby

Douglas Newby understands the economic and aesthetic impact of homes and neighborhoods that make us happy better than anyone in the county. I hope you enjoy my thoughts on architecture, home, desirable sites, neighborhoods, and the evolution of cities. Ultimately what is most important is a home that make you happy. If you have an interest in buying or selling a home or questions about the evolution of Dallas, call me at 214.522.1000.

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Douglas Newby created the concept of architecturally significant homes and has registered trademark Architecturally Significant® and Architecturally Significant Homes®.

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A home an architect designed for himself and his f 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
I have always been a huge advocate of the City Man 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
What is one going to do when one becomes fond of t 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 #sartorialgardener
Urban planners and architects often create digitiz 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
An exhibition in a museum with an enjoyable scale, An exhibition in a museum with an enjoyable scale, mask optional, beautiful paintings, presented in a way one learns more about the artist, the artistic period, and the history of its time is my favorite way to view art. The MoMA exhibition, “Matisse: The Red Studio,” captures all these positive components. Sometimes looking at a series of paintings in a museum can make one a bit weary. This “Matisse: The Red Studio” exhibit exhilarates and energizes the viewer. It also propels one to see the other floors of the permanent collection with a fresh eye and a deeper insight on how to look at and think about art. “The Red Studio” becomes a studio index for the other paintings on the walls surrounding the 6 foot x 7 foot Red Studio panel.  MoMA was successful in assembling and displaying all the paintings pictured in “The Red Studio.” This commissioned painting of a studio was originally painted in the natural colors of the studio’s blue and green walls and wood floors. Matisse then did a reset of not just this painting but of his art. He rapidly repainted all the walls, ceilings and floor in red. His patron who commissioned the piece, upon seeing it, rejected it as did the art critics when the piece was exhibited in Paris, the Armory in New York, and at the Art Institute of Chicago. Matisse, who was a favorite fauve painter at the time, was ridiculed for this piece that went unsold for years. Hidden from view for years and only some 20 years later, found a buyer who placed it in his fashionable nightclub. Matisse did not include any of his earlier fauve paintings in “The Red Studio” but instead included his more recent calmer and more decorative paintings that he hung on his studio wall, some shown as you scroll through. Creativity is ideas that come in many forms. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes years, and sometimes generations for an expression of creativity to resonate with the public at large. “The Red Studio” resonates with us now. Congratulations to MoMA for another great show. *Studio Index
 
@MuseumofModernArt #TheRedStudio #MuseumofModernArt #Matisse #ArtExhibition #ModernArt
Doors will open and the new owners, a delightful y Doors will open and the new owners, a delightful young couple, will be embraced by a warm, sun-filled home, designed by architect Max Levy, that will provide them generational happiness. The front five-foot wide frosted pivot door opens to an entertainment gallery that links the glass-walled wings of the home—the open kitchen, dining and living areas, and the two-story wing of bedrooms. From almost every room there is a visual connection to every other room, the garden, and at least one of the five mature live oak trees framed by a window. Across the gallery from the front door, is a wide, sliding glass door, framed in white oak, that opens to a room surrounded by windows on three sides that protrudes into the garden.  Above the center room is a screened room only accessible to the garden, making these two stacked rooms the center of this residence and the center of the property, so one can fully enjoy nature and the trees that inspired the design of this modern home in Greenway Parks. No wonder many consider this the finest home sited on less than .5 acres in Dallas. *Doors Open
 
#Modern Home #GreenwayParks #DallasNeighborhood #HomesThatMakeUsHappy #ArchitecturallySignificantHome #ArchitecturallySignificant #ModernHome #Dallas #Architect #Architecture #MaxLevy #ModernDesign #DallasContemporary #DallasModernHome #DallasModern

Architecturally Significant Homes® and Significant Homes® and Architecturally Significant® are registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office. Text, Images, Photography - Copyright © 1994–2022 Douglas Newby. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Douglas Newby. Douglas Newby & Associates | 25 Highland Park Village #100-592, Dallas, TX 75205 | (214) 522-1000. Text, Images, Photography - Copyright © 1994–2022 Douglas Newby. All Rights Reserved. Website design by webplant.media