American Cities

The Homes of the Park Cities, Dallas: Great American Suburbs

Description

Dallas local Virginia McAlester, author of Random House's A Field Guide to American Houses, the classic book on the subject, and Abbeville's celebrated Great American Houses and Their Architectural Styles, teamed up with Prudence Mackintosh and Willis Cecil Winters to write Homes of the Park Cities, Dallas. This impressive and informative case study immerses readers into the architecture and culture, both past and present, of these classy neighborhoods.

Illustrated with over 280 specially commissioned photographs, in addition to over 75 maps, graphs, and archival images, this insightful work covers the history and development of Dallas's suburbs, as well as the architects who designed them. Homes also features several appendices, providing notes on how to preserve early-twentieth century homes and a catalogue listing over 1,600 homes by address and architect. McAlester authored an additional appendix that illustrates the architectural styles found in The Park Cities, which run the gamut from Tudor and Colonial Revival to Minimal Traditional and Mid-Century Modern.

As grand as the houses it chronicles, Homes of the Park Cities, Dallas will fascinate architects, historians, suburbanites, and would-be suburbanites alike.

325 full-color photographs
plus 75 maps and archival images

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-02-06
Summary: "Fantastic Book and a Fantastic Town"

Highland Park is a storybook town, and this book explains the feel of the town, as well as giving interesting details of the history and architecture of the pre-war homes. I strongly recommend this book.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2008-12-22
Summary: "INSIDE THE GLORIOUS BUBBLE"

As for as im concerned the Park Cities are the closest thing to heaven on earth as you can get. I absolutely love to jog through the winding streets and admire the beautiful landscape. Kessler and Cook did a fantastic job in their design of Highland Park, Old and New Highland park are like beautiful identical twins, your always trying to deside which is the more spectacular. The breathtaking linear and pocket parks and the slight roll the the terrain give the neighborhood a uniqueness. I've been to River Oaks, Beverly Hills, Buckhead, Grosse Pointe, etc..and I can honestly say, the Park Cities are by far and away my favorite. University Park is equally interesting, as the home of SMU and at it's center the uber chic, Volk Estates, as well as all the spectucular churches, they may be called Highland Park this and Highland Park that, but they actually are all in University Park. Though the Park Cities, in particular, the more affluent Highland Park, has gone through the McMansion phenomenon, the neighborhood is none the worst for it, by in large the new homes are elegant and chic, with a few notible acceptions, uh one being that HORRIBLE mess on the corner of Armstrong and Preston, really I think the city should purchase it and tear it down for a small park, but i digress. This book is a welcome addition to anyones collection, the images are beautiful and the history is enlightening. The book goes indepth on the history, I thought I knew everything about the formation of the Park Cities, but this book taught me quite alot I didnt know. I appreciated that the architects of the houses are given their due, and in the appendix, every house in the Park Cities is chronicled as to who was the architect of record. I appreciated the anectdotes such as the story of the owner of one of the most spectacular houses in dallas, getting the Highland Park city budget in the mail and thinking it was a bill, so she payed it; this is also the lady, who when approached by the Dallas Country Club about buying her mansion so that they could expand the golf course through her land, responded that, how about if she just bought the Dallas Country Club instead..lord, I would have loved to have met this woman. The author has done her homework and as a native to Dallas, she gives the subject the attention it deserves. No doubt this is one of the Great American suburbs, I think the Greatest.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2008-12-18
Summary: "PARK CITIES? INTERESTING? SUPRISINGLY YES!!"

Before discovering this book, I thought of the Park Cities as a place to avoid, or if absolutely necessary , drive through with the utmost caution and dread, due to the local police force's penchant for pulling over outsiders for the most mundane of traffic infractions, or simply for just "looking" suspicious. Imagine my surprise when I started pouring through the pages of "The Homes of Park Cities", and was drawn by Clicque's artful photographs, Mackintosh's entertaining essays, and McAlester/Winters' excellent and informative scholarly research and writing. Who knew that Azaleas, the signature foliage of the Park Cities, were not native plants, but actually a brilliant business strategy executed by a new and struggling landscape company? Who knew that the Park Cities steadfastly, and presciently, avoided constant pressure and intimidation by the City of Dallas for annexation, thereby avoiding the zoning/building incompetence that Dallas continues to struggle with to this day? Who knew that a coffee table book would make a confirmed "Park Cities Naysayer", such as myself, a convert? Well, this book does all of that and more. LOVE THE PHOTOGRAPHS! LOVE THE ESSAYS! LOVE THE HISTORY! LOVE THIS BOOK! FIVE STARS!

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2008-11-19
Summary: "WHAT A SURPRISINGLY INTERESTING BOOK!!"

Just wanted to weigh in on a fascinating "coffee-table" book. If you are interested in the development of american suburbs throughout the twentieth century then you must procure this excellent tome! It features sumptuous photography, scholarly research, amusing and informative historical anecdotes, rare archival images...all presented in a beautifully laid-out and artfully done volume. Never thought that I would be completely engaged by the history of the Park Cities in Dallas, Texas...but I am! Kudos to the authors and photographer! When is the documentary coming out? I would love to see it! A MUST BUY FOR THE HOLIDAYS!