The Highland Park home at 4400 Belfort Place was the only home selected this year to be featured in both the Wall Street Journal and the Dallas Morning News. How do editors select a home to feature? There are 30,000 homes for sale in MLS in the Dallas region and there are 2,000,000 homes for sale in MLS across the country. Why did they feature this Highland Park home for sale?
The Wall Street Journal is comprised of the finest editors and journalists with a great eye and a great ear for stories. The Wall Street Journal is so well respected that, by and large, they have their choice of homes to feature. My impression is they liked how the Highland Park home at 4400 Belfort Place related to the Highland Park community and to the real estate market. This Highland Park home is the vision of the developer, Blair Pogue, who knows the market of the community because he grew up in it, and how this home would appeal to Highland Park buyers’ desire for quality and design. The approach of Blair Pogue is the opposite of an investment group trying to pre-sell a spec home. There have been hundreds of new homes built in Highland Park over the last few decades, but there has not been a new home developed with a bespoke approach to specifically elevate and contribute to the architectural landscape of Highland Park, one of the most beautiful townships in the United States. The reason the Wall Street Journal could be given an exclusive is that, unlike spec houses, this Highland Park home was developed to go on the market after the home was finished and the vision was realized.
Spanish Revival has Always Appealed to the Affluent and Avant-Garde
The choice of the Spanish Revival architectural style for this Highland Park home is interesting as it was seldom chosen 100 years ago but was the style of choice for the affluent and avant-garde and still is today. Also, this Spanish Revival style evokes the best of Highland Park. In addition, the much-admired Highland Park Village and Highland Park Town Hall are also designed in the Spanish Revival style, setting the subliminal architectural tone for the neighborhood.
The Dallas Morning News, with Great Dallas Insight and Knowledge, Featured This Highland Park Home
Every day, as I open my newspaper, I am grateful for the Dallas Morning News, consistently the best regional newspaper in the country. The Dallas Morning News also featured this Highland Park home at 4400 Belfort Place and promoted this much read article online. A young journalist, Mackenzie Sheehy, wrote the story and it shows the quality, depth and importance of having a strong Dallas newspaper.
The Wall Street Journal did a great job giving this Highland Park home a national perspective and background in its Friday Mansion section. The Dallas Morning News was able to provide even greater insights about the home and pricing that would resonate with the Highland Park, Dallas, and regional reader. I was particularly impressed that the Dallas Morning News emphasized the lack of inventory for one-acre lots in Highland Park. Those in Dallas are very aware of the exclusivity of Highland Park homes, but by citing that there are only 36 one-acre or larger lots in Highland Park, it brings attention to the fact that even for those with unlimited resources, a lot with nearly one acre of land might be otherwise unobtainable. A good reporter can take a local subject — like a Highland Park home, a topic many people are familiar with — and offer an insight or statistic the reader didn’t know. That is exactly the case in this Dallas Morning News article that emphasizes that there are only 36 one-acre or larger lots in Highland Park, most of which already have either new large homes or millions of dollars invested in the renovation of a historically significant home. The Dallas Morning News was able to offer a deeper understanding of a subject we all felt we knew.
Dallas Morning News Illuminates the Design Team that Created this Highland Park Home
The Dallas Morning News was also able to link to Architecturally Significant Homes, that provides information on an unparalleled design team for creating a traditional Highland Park home that blends into and elevates the architectural rhythm of the street and the neighborhood.
Landscape Architect Harold Leidner Visually Connects the One-Acre Site to Armstrong Parkway
Armstrong Parkway is one of the five most iconic streets in Dallas. Landscape architect Harold Leidner was able to create a landscape environment that started with the massive live oak tree that anchored the 4400 Belfort Place lot and has interlocking branches with the live oak trees on Armstrong Parkway. His landscape design further accentuates the Spanish Revival architecture with its layered outline of the front of the home and its dramatic expression of the Spanish Revival style seen throughout the house, with its octagonal star pattern parterre surrounding the pool.
Architect Larry Boerder’s Design of This Highland Park Home Looks Like it Could Have Been From the 1920s
Architect Larry Boerder is responsible for designing a Highland Park Home that looks as if it could have been built in the 1920s in Highland Park and still has the detail and nuance that enticingly mesmerizes a person looking at the home. One sees hand-troweled stucco, artisan-crafted wrought iron, elaborate carved stone and marble, an undulating barrel tile roofline with graceful chimneys and towers, balconies and a motor court adding to the allure.
Interior Designer Margaret Chambers Accentuates Spanish Revival Style
Interior designer Margaret Chambers took the Spanish Revival style of the home and emphasized its Spanish Revival elements, including Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean style spaces. Each room is distinct but with a recurring motif expressed in many ways that adds continuity to this open programmatically modern home.
There is a Reason There is so Much Excitement and Respect for this Highland Park Home
Both the Wall Street Journal’s and the Dallas Morning News’ instincts were correct about this home and the general reader’s interest and buyer’s interest. There are many homes that are similarly priced and others that are priced at twice the listing price of 4400 Belfort Place. However, these other homes don’t generate the same level of appreciation or interest as they do not have designs as fresh or as interesting as what has been developed by Blair Pogue. One cannot say enough positive things about Blair Pogue, who was raised around the corner from this home and was determined to continue his family’s reputation for excellence.
