English Style Home Epitomizes Highland Park Community

Highland Park Landscape

Landscape Architect Wilbur Cook emphasized parks, creeks and trees when he designed Highland Park in the early 20th century.  Architects skilled at designing the eclectic homes drawn from European precedents created block after block the most beautiful homes in Dallas.

Highland Park Architectural Styles

From the 1920s and 1930s both charming and majestic homes were built including Mediterranean style, Colonial, Georgian, Tudor and other English style homes.

New Highland Park Homes

Today we see new homes built in variations of these styles but in a much larger scale with heavier moldings and greater ornamentation to fill the voluminous space.  Simple Mediterranean homes are now being replaced with heavily ornamented Tuscan mansions. 

There is a grandeur and opulence conveyed with these newly - created Highland Park estate homes.  They are more the size and style of estate homes that are being built in the suburbs and across the country. 

Old Highland Park

All the new construction brings even greater attention to Old Highland Park and its sustained allure over the decades and its nationwide notoriety as an incredible place.  Visitors don’t ooohh and aaahh over the size of the houses, as large houses are ubiquitous.  Visitors are impressed by the bucolic quality, the beautifully designed homes, lovely gardens, azaleas along Turtle Creek and the tree moon lighting John Watson introduced to Dallas and the rest of the country, the parks and creeks and tree shaded streets that declared peace and prosperity and prestige!

Highland Park
New England Influence

While Highland Park was inspired by Beverly Hills, it also takes a cue from New England.  Many Highland Park residents attended East Coast prep schools and colleges.  Many Highland Park families have family homes and vacation homes in New England.

Highland Park Home Coming on Market

A Highland Park home that is coming on the market exudes the best of Old Highland Park and hints at the New England heritage of a certain part of Highland Park. 

This English style home at 3409 Princeton is beautifully designed.  Because it sits on a quarter of an acre of land and shares the street’s canopy of trees with other lovely and original Highland Park homes, a person has more of the sensation of a small New England town or the English countryside than being just a few miles from the Arts District downtown or a few blocks from the vibrancy of the retail and restaurants of Knox/Henderson.

More Chic than a Tudor, Larger Than a Cottage
While some of the neighboring Tudor homes look proud and stately, this home is balanced without the rigidity of cross-timbers or the urban privacy of small windows.

Large Divided Light Windows

The central design of this country English style home is the wide, bowed bank of divided light windows found in virtually every room:  the formal rooms, sitting rooms, sun rooms, informal living rooms and bedrooms.  Every room looks into a garden, view garden or flowing courtyard.

The two-story street presence and the wide dormers make the home much larger than a Tudor cottage, but the scale of this 4,000 sf, four bedroom home is more intimate and inviting than the homes with 2 1/2 story tall facades that share an English origin.

A Lovely Neighborhood is Highest Priority for Elengant Home Owners

Some neighborhoods just suggest old money, prestige, tranquility and aesthetic achievement.  Old Highland Park does and this English inspired home certainly contributes to the enduring appeal of this Highland Park community.

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Small and Efficient is Interpreted as Voluminous and Open

Midcentury Modern Home in Dallas

Midcentury Modern Homes are often hidden and never seen in remote neighborhoods or obscured by the landscape of the site. Here is a 2,000 square foot midcentury modern home found in Dallas on a very prominent neighborhood street.

Dallas Architect and Home Owner Designs His Own Modern Home and Studio

Architect and artist Glenn Allen Galaway designed this modern home as his own residence and studio. Remarkably, it is architecturally demure and respectful, at the same time it is architecturally bold and dramatic. This modern home is demure - set back on the site and fully integrated in the rich landscape of the setting. It is bold – a simple structure, with a dynamic design so tightly organized that it seems to “explode off the page,” exuding energy and becoming a visual magnet just as a sculpture would in a park.

Dallas Architect Glenn Allen Galaway Protege of Architect Philip Johnson

Glenn Allen Galaway’s friendship with Philip Johnson and the recipient of his architectural influence is apparent from the large public room with a wall of glass doors and glazed openings to the rear garden. The scale of the home and the transparent wall are reminiscent of Philip Johnson’s Glass House. It was a space where the cultural leaders of Dallas, artists, museum directors, professors, art historians, and designers convened socially.

Midcentury Home Emphases View into Gardens

Successful midcentury homes, often small, have efficient space. Glenn Allen Galaway designed a home with no extraneous space, but increased the volume of the rooms with tall ceilings and visually expanded the rooms with full length windows looking into view gardens.

Glass Walls Extenuates Modern Home In University Park

The surprisingly commodious feel of the home is also accomplished by rooms with glass looking across the terrace into rooms with glass walls.

The detail is spare and elegant. The built-in desk and drawers are sleek and inviting.

The 105 foot width of the lot allows for an additional 2,000 foot structure to be built on a hidden corner of the rear garden, minimally connected to the original house, which will also enjoy full views of the garden.

Architecture Awards

The American Institute of Architects Dallas Chapter identified this midcentury modern home as the finest midcentury modern home in University Park, and it is one of the finest midcentury modern homes in the U.S. This Glenn Allen Galaway home was first recognized by a committee comprised of the city’s most knowledgeable patrons, professions, and civic leaders in art, architecture and design, including the presidents of the organizations and museums dedicated to art, architecture and design. This committee surveyed the city and identified 50 significant homes to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dallas AIA Chapter. During the last year, the AIA Dallas Chapter awarded this home its rarely bestowed 25 Year Award for a home that is at least 25 years old and continues to inspire.

Midcentury Modern Home offered by Douglas Newby

Most important, this midcentury modern home, an architectural piece of art, is now available to purchase. Contact Douglas Newby of Architecturally Significant Homes for further information
214-522-1000.

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Landscape architect Dave Rolston and his wife Julie Cohn, an artist and textile designer, recently renovated their modern home on Tokalon Drive located in Lakewood.  This Texas modern home is on a street of Tudor, Georgian and Spanish Colonial homes.  It is always interesting when a single modern home such as this does not stick out on a street of 1920s and 1930s eclectic homes.  Here, the similar and respectful scale and setback of the home contributes to the streetscape.  The landscaping created by Dave Rolston does not hide the home, it accentuates the home while maintaining the visual rhythm of the street. 

Modern homes often are able to create views of verdant gardens or emphasize features of the natural site by the ample employment of windows and by the configuration of the structure to take advantage of the site.  With two artists orchestrating the design and landscape who have resources like architect Max Levy and other pals like architects Frank Welch, Dan Shipley and Ron Wommack, one would expect something special.  I did and it was a real treat when I visited the home Saturday morning.

Landscape Design

Just as Frank Lloyd Wright consistently fiddled with his Oak Park home, using his own residence as a laboratory, Dave Rolston will rework areas of his garden, a small creek will become a pond, sight lines will be improved.  Dave Rolston has created a garden of paths, ponds, quiet sitting areas, terraces and broad lawns for entertaining.  From every approach, new spaces become evident.  There is no single landscape feature that jumps out at you, but a series of pleasing surprises that leave the visitor exhilarated.

 
I might also note architects often find the best sites.  Who would ever know walking down Tokalon that behind this home is a several acre greenbelt separating this rear garden from White Rock Lake Park.

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Starting with Highland Park and Preston Hollow and many other of Dallas’ finest neighborhoods, Google street view maps have been added to the neighborhood section of Architecturally Significant Homes.

Identifying and discussing neighborhoods has been a life-long passion of mine.  In 1986, to celebrate the Texas Sesquicentennial I wrote and produced the book A Guide to the Older Neighborhoods for the Historic Preservation League.  Since then, hundreds of neighborhood associations have formed.

Developing the Dallas neighborhood section of Architecturally Significant Homes was my follow-up initiative.  Now adding street view maps to the neighborhoods will bring even greater understanding and enjoyment to those discovering and or learning more about Dallas’ finest neighborhoods like Highland Park.  One of the reasons I have had such an interest in neighborhoods is because all of the great homes are usually found in the great neighborhoods.  A great home might be one found on Beverly Drive and Preston Road in Highland Park,

obviously a great neighborhood, or it might be a Hal Thomson designed home on Swiss Avenue, the city’s first great neighborhood,

or Mayflower Estates, a mostly unheard of neighborhood but one that includes Dallas’ most important home, the Crespi/Hicks estate.

When one understands a neighborhood it is much easier to understand and appreciate a home, its context, intent, and achievement.

Neighborhoods are like the rings of a tree, concentric circles of development indicating the pattern of grown of an emerging city. 

The midcentury modern home designed by architect William Benson reflects a neighborhood being developed in the 1950s in Preston Hollow when Mockingbird Lane was the 1950s boundary of Dallas. 

The midcentury modern home designed by Glenn Allen Galaway (above) was one of the latter homes built in University Park,  but at 2,000 square Feet, it was a size popular with university professors, museum directors, and architects associated with a college community.  Now you can go to Architecturally Significant Homes/Neighborhoods and pick which neighborhood you would like to use Google street view maps.

You can see the boundaries of the neighborhood and enjoy a 360° view of each street.  So when you see a home you like you can see what is around it.  For example, 4421 Beverly is an original 4,200 square foot 1920s Highland Park Mediterranean style estate home offered for sale.  With street view you can see if this home is dwarfed on four sides by builder houses twice as large or if the neighboring homes are also original Beverly Drive estate homes.  In this instance, you can see 4421 Beverly enjoys looking at original Highland Park homes shaded by tall trees.

Since we were the first real estate firm to identify and write about Dallas neighborhoods, we are pleased we are the first real estate firm to offer street view maps with a discussion of Dallas neighborhoods.  I hope you enjoy using this neighborhood tool as you further explore Dallas’ finest neighborhoods.  Why don’t you first visit Highland Park and try it out.

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The incredibly talented, amusing, insightful Rob Brinkley wrote this article on University Park’s best midcentury modern home.  I first met Rob at the Edward Durrell Stone designed home on Park Lane.  His knowledge of Robsjohn-Gibbing furniture and his love of everything mod, well, at least everything midcentury, is quite impressive.  This piece is vintage Rob Brinkley.

Your brain says New Canaan or Palm Springs – but the map assures you it is (believe it or not) University Park. Tucked in a secluded greenspace of its own – amid UP’s Tudors, Tuscans and traditionals – sits a clandestine find we couldn’t believe ourselves: a stunning modernist masterpiece by the architect Glen Allen Galaway built in 1966 for himself, not only as a home, but as a gathering place for his cronies, who included artists, architects, museum folk and aesthetes – a salon for the ‘60s, you might say. It gets better: The 2,000-square-foot house is for sale, untouched since 1966, all lofty volumes, tall windows and marble floors. Even Galaway’s office is intact, with built-in flat files for his blueprints and views across the rear garde, a tranquil space just begging for a Henri Moore or two. We love the quit elegance of the place, with its Miesian moments Galaway was a pal and protégé of Philip Johnson, for whom Mies was a mentor) and its subtle mid-century swank. We’re not the only ones: In 1966, the Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Architects named it one of the city’s 50 most significant homes, and just last year, the house garnered the AIA Dallas Twenty-Five Year Residence Award, given to “only one residence a year” says Realtor Douglas Newby, “that continues to teach us about good design[and] great Architecture.” Current owners Eve Reid and Warren Weitman bought the house ASAP when they learned it was for sale by Galaway’s family, to protect it from teardown and preserve it for the next lucky owner. “An absolute gem,” Reid says of the house, “ in great tradition of Philip Johnson’s Glass House, Richard Neutra’s house in Palm Springs for Edgar Kaufmann and Georgia O’Keefe’s home and studio in Abiquiu, New Mexico.” Might it be you who moves into this local – and equally architectural – masterwork?

7010 Airline Road, information 214.522.1000 - dougnewby.com

Rob Brinkley

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Arnold Wayne Jones addressed modernism for the Dallas Voice, a newspaper with a strong following in Oak Lawn, a neighborhood with a rich history of modernism, from Bud Oglesby and Jim Wiley designing midcentury townhouses and condominiums in Oak Lawn Place to Lionel Morrison, Cliff Welch, Frank Welch and other modernist architects designing single-family attached homes in Northern Heights. 

Here is a link to article.

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You are probably wondering where the president is moving…

…so am I. This puts me in an akward position because as a real estate broker specializing in Highland Park, Preston Hollow and Dallas estate properties, I am often asked by friends and clients if I know where the President will be moving. Sometimes when I say no, I will be told by these same people where he is moving. Other times I get a strange look, questioning why I wouldn’t know, when everyone else seems to know where President Bush will be moving. Let me explain. When rumors first began, I spoke to the person who I considered closest to the President’s family and who I trusted most. I didn’t ask if the rumors of where he bought a home were true, but only if it was true that President and Mrs. Bush had already bought a property in Dallas.

Rumours proven to be untrue

I was told with certainty that they had not bought a property and had not yet begun to look. I decided then that eventually a rumor of a presidential purchase would be true, but I would rather be wrong once than wrong a dozen times jumping on every attractive rumor. That said, I think the President, at this time, may have already bought a property or is seriously considering his options. So I am going to do two things. First, share with you the least publicized rumor, one I heard 20 months ago, and my favorite, because it would have been a pretty good location for the President. This is a property on Meadowood, around the corner from Rockbrook. Here, there is a lot of land and a couple of structures that would work well for security. It is in Preston Hollow, his old neighborhood and where he lived when he launched his business and political success.

Dallas home most suited for George and Laura Bush

The second thing I will share is the property in Dallas that I think is best suited for George and Laura Bush.
In other words, if they were to call me and say, “We would like to buy a property in Dallas, what would you recommend?” After I assured them that it will be manageable for them to buy a property without word leaking, I would normally ask relevant questions about their lives, tastes, background, desires, previous homes, schools, interests, and family so I would have an intellectual and intuitive idea about what they would enjoy. Since this is the President and First Lady and we all know much about them, and since they are presumably busy, I would make the following recommendation right out of the chute.

Preston Hollow Estate Area

The house I would recommend is located in the Preston Hollow estate area on a hidden, little traveled street within a few blocks of major transportation arteries with quick access to airports, medical facilities or to Crawford.

Texas Modern

The home is architect designed which would be particularly attractive to Laura Bush as she is very interested in art and architecture.

The Texas Modern style, unassuming but aesthetically relevant, has over 10,000 square feet so it can handle fundraisers for the Bush Library, and is a gracious space for foreign dignitaries, or reunions for the extended Bush family.

Scott Lyons Architect

It has an architect designed 3,800 square foot guest house that would work perfectly for security detail or secretarial staff. It is built on bedrock with piers drilled deeply in the rock, in contrast to so many houses in Dallas sitting precariously on expansive Dallas soil.

Architect Scott Lyons, a protégé of David Williams and O’Neil Ford, designed the home, appealing to the indigenous qualities of early Texas homes. Scott Lyons is an architect responsible for some of the most important architect designed residences in Dallas, including the Highland Park home and the country home for the city’s leading philanthropists and civic leaders, Margaret McDermott and her late husband Eugene McDermott.

2.63 acres of trees, creek and lake

The potential Bush home sits on over 2.5 acres of land along a creek and next to a small lake. This beautiful site is also benefited by the neighboring 15-acre and 25-acre estate properties owned by supporters of the President. My thought is the neighboring estate owners would allow the President to develop an off-road biking trail through the woods of their property.

Ideal Space for Art Collection

The interior space is perfect for President and Mrs. Bush’s art collection. The ceilings are tall, walls of windows allow voluminous rooms to be filled with light, continuous interior and exterior walls of soft Mexican brick reflect the region, cross-cut white oak panels add warmth to the rooms and white gallery walls are ideal for the vibrant and colorful art collection by artist Pamela Nelson. This elaborately engineered and incredibly built home has been meticulously cared for by the original builder, who inspects the house twice a week to check on and maintain its condition. President and Mrs. Bush would enjoy this home, and their friends and family would enjoy them living here. It is a home that is pure Texas, modest but substantial, well-built and aesthetically refined, designed in an indigenous Texas architectural style, on plenty of land, and looking over ravines, creeks, lakes, and a distant view of residential private park land.

Can you think of a better home for George and Laura Bush?

There are many people who know the Bush’s better than I, but I remain confident that these people will agree that this would be the best home in Dallas for President and Mrs. Bush. However, so as not to close the discussion, I would love to hear from anyone who has an idea of a house that would be more suitable than the one that I have just discussed.

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D Magazine has just unveiled their special Green Issue at a celebratory reception at Barney’s. Just five years ago, green architecture suggested hay bail and subterranean houses.  Now, appreciation for green architecture is sweeping the country. 

Even the National Center for Policy Analysis, a free market think tank published an article recently, showing how energy usage could be curtailed (Electricity Deregulation:  Taking the Next Step:  http://ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba592/ ).  The article references studies that showed not only did electricity costs go down 20% with smart metering, but electricity usage went down on average 40% when smart meters, smart thermostats, and smart appliances reacted to real time pricing. 

The D Magazine special issue highlighted a green house designed by architect Gary Olp that would great modern architecture and design without the green emphasis.  Corporations, the city and the community are all embracing this movement towards preserving our resources and aesthetically improving our environment.

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The most important midcentury modern home in the Park Cities is going to be preserved. This Dallas modern home designed by architect Glenn Allen Galaway received the 2007 AIA Dallas 25 Year Residential Award, an award given each year to one significant home at least 25 years old that continues to exemplify meritorious architecture. When we are all too aware of the teardowns surrounding us, it is a great aesthetic victory when a small, beautifully designed modern home will be protected by a couple with perfect taste.

This Dallas midcentury home was designed by Glenn Allen Galaway as his own personal home. A commodious public space with a wall of glazed openings is surrounded by highly efficient modern spaces. Walking into the home and looking out onto the garden you are reminded of Philip Johnson’s Glass House in scale and elegance.

Philip Johnson Glass House

We are often better off when some of the homes from the 70s or 80s are torn down, but I am astounded every time an architect designed home that has several thousand square feet and is in good shape is demolished. My experience is that people are much more interested in sophisticated and articulated space than they are in square footage. It is easier for builders to quickly make an offer on a lot, but buyers and sellers are always happier when the house survives the transaction. This transaction that brought a new homeowner, should cause all of Dallas, and the architectural community across the country to wildly celebrate the good hands that have taken over this 2000 sq. ft. home. The cheering will continue once the renovation is completed as the footprint won’t change, but the design and structural integrity will be enhanced.

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For over three decades, I have been involved in home tours and have watched the number of home tours proliferate each year. Every now and then a tour will really resonate with me as it is informative, has a point of view, and offers houses that otherwise I might not see. Cliff Welch chaired an AIA Home Tour Committee ten years ago that did just this. Cliff named the tour 50s Cool because just recently, the public was unfamiliar with midcentury modern. This tour helped introduce and validate the importance and design of architect designed homes built in the 1950s.

This year AIA Dallas introduced a first to-be annual Modern Home Tour. This selection of homes was juried and represented a wide range of styles and locations from Oak Lawn to far North Dallas gated communities. Represented were well-known architects like Gary Cunningham, who designed a home on the unknown street of Spanky Branch Court.

Here you see his inventive use of materials, choice of a remote forested city sight, and an open linear floor plan lined with windows to take advantage of the sight. A person was able to see an award-winning pool house by Russell Buchanan that reminds us that a secondary structure can capture our imagination as easily as a primary structure.

Paul Janek, a principal with Zer03 Design, www.03design.com, designed a spectacular modern home in the most unlikely location, a gated street, Green Park Drive, off of Keller Springs Road. The home was designed with three unique sleeping environments and a series of connecting indoor and outdoor spaces. I am not a proponent of media rooms, but here Paul Janek designed one incorporating fabulous furniture from Scott+Cooner, www.scottcooner.com.

Cliff Welch was able to show in a single-family attached home what we have previously seen in his single family modern homes - his ability to use horizontal planks of wood and horizontal grout lines and deep overhangs reflecting early modernism with design technology materials that  express 21st century modernism. Other fabulous houses by Lionel Morrison and Bob Meckfessel were found in Urban Reserve and a home designed by Thomas Krahenbuhl was found on Abbott.

A tour of this quality becomes a resource for people who plan to have a modern home designed and built. It becomes an inspiration for architects to see their colleagues work and it elevates the understanding and desire for those who are just aesthetically greedy.

This tour will have a major impact on the architectural landscape for years to come just as the 50s Cool Tour did ten years ago for midcentury modern homes.

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