I thought I’d start a new series of posts here on the site, detailing the works of current, practicing architects whose work I like. Most of you have gathered by now that I’m very much a traditionalist, not a modernist, and hopefully this series will give you some idea of what I look for in a great building.

For the first entry, I’ll be talking about David M. Schwarz, of Washington, D.C. and Fort Worth.

The Sanguinet Building, aka the Chase Building, downtown Fort Worth – 2003

Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville – 2006

Southlake Town Square Brownstones, Southlake – 2006

Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville – 2006

Chapman Cultural Center, Spartanburg – 2007

David’s buildings become part of the architectural future of whatever setting they are in.

—Ed Bass

David Schwarz is that rarest of architects — a popular architect. He builds for the public, which returns to him and to his clients the high accolade of sympathetic appreciation.

—Robert A. M. Stern

If after spending hundreds of millions, all you get is a building, it’s not worth it. What you ought to get is a community pride, a center of community activity.

—David M. Schwarz

David M. Schwarz – favorite architect of the Bass family, Public Enemy No. 1 of Fort Worth/Dallas-area modernists. I’ve talked about my appreciation of Schwarz’s work a few times before, and it’s no secret that I defend his buildings to the very end from the onslaught of local modernists who would have preferred to see, say, Bass Hall look more like Dallas’ Meyerson, a cold and technological assemblage of concrete walls and random glass shapes. I make no secret about it – I love Schwarz’s work, and am thrilled to have his firm practicing here in Fort Worth.

Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville – 2006

A board member of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America, David Schwarz put together his firm, David M. Schwarz/Architectural Services in 1976. The firm’s Fort Worth branch opened in 1985. According to the firm’s web site:

Appropriateness to context is a fundamental tenet of our design philosophy. We never see our buildings as isolated independent objects, but rather as interactive parts of a larger whole. We design buildings and places for the people who use them; the active users who live, work, study, play or travel through them, and the passive users who may walk or drive by during the course of their daily lives. We strive to craft welcoming, well-proportioned spaces with an appropriate scale and level of detail such that the building responds to and engages directly with the people who use it.

Mr. Schwarz himself received a B.A. at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. St. John’s is a unique school based on the ideal of liberal learning through a “Great Books” curriculum. Anyone who goes on from St. John’s to an architectural career is unlikely to be a run-of-the-mill architect. Schwarz then received his M.A. in architecture from Yale, where he later returned to design the Environmental Science Center in 2001.

Yale Environmental Science Center, New Haven – 2001

Sundance West, downtown Fort Worth – 1991

Virtuoso Building, downtown Fort Worth – 1996

Schwarz’s buildings, most of which are urban infill developments, are wonderful from an urban design perspective. Humanly scaled, made of human-relatable brick, stone, and stucco, with interesting detailing and facade variation, and definitely in a traditionalist vein, though not completely beholden to it. He takes Classical, Art Deco, and Beaux Arts forms and combines them with more and larger glass for a very subtle present-day flair.

Schwarz has a real understanding of what makes a great urban space, and his buildings serve to enhance the streetscape with real traditional urbanism.

McDavid Studio, downtown Fort Worth – 1999

1201 F Street, Washington, D. C. – 1990

Bass Performance Hall, downtown Fort Worth – 1998

Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville – 2006

Tarrant County Family Law Center, downtown Fort Worth – 2005

His incredible variety of work – office buildings, residential buildings, cultural facilities, sports venues, civic structures, educational buildings – has given Schwarz the opportunity to refine his technique on every sort of urban structure. His civic structures, such as the Tarrant County Family Law Center above, are solid and convey a sense of societal importance appropriate to civic buildings in real urban settings. His cultural facilities, like Bass Performance Hall or Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, have a strong sense of grandeur and soaring beauty appropriate to centers of arts and culture. His office and residential structures, on the other hand, are dignified, attractive, and restrained. They honor context and don’t try to scream for attention, and as such are fantastic at being “background buildings” – the everyday structures that make up the majority of proper urban environments. The sort of structures that modern architects have forgotten about in a never-ending quest for “creativity” and “uniqueness.”

The Carnegie, downtown Fort Worth – 2008 (under construction)

1133 Connecticut Avenue, Washington, D. C. – 1987

Ferre (Italian restaurant) downtown Fort Worth – 1996

Chapman Cultural Center, Spartanburg – 2007

Southlake Town Square Brownstones, Southlake – 2006

Rather than prattle on too long, I’ll let photos tell the tale, along with quotes from the firm about their projects and some details on techniques used in their developments.

Van Cliburn Hall, downtown Fort Worth – 1999

West Village, Dallas – 2000

Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville – 2006

The buildings maintain unity through brick and limestone facades, which respond to the city’s rich architectural heritage. Operationally, the wings allow maximum flexibility to change programs over time, yet the location of common areas provides each independent organization much greater amenities than would otherwise be possible. The three buildings surround an open public plaza, which further encourages community interaction with the arts and helps to define the new heart of downtown Spartanburg.

—On the Chapman Cultural Center

Cook Children’s Medical Center, Fort Worth Near Southside – 1985

The Saratoga, Washington, D. C. – 1986

Bass Performance Hall, downtown Fort Worth – 1998

Even though the construction budget for this work was extremely limited, the design achieves a sense of permanence and civic importance appropriate for a central library. To maintain scale and rhythm appropriate to the surrounding urban fabric, facade appears as three distinct buildings. Two, 2-story wing buildings flank a central building with a pedimented entry pavilion. Small garden courts, used as a reading garden and an outdoor children’s story telling area, separate the main building massing from the adjacent wings.

—On the Fort Worth Central Library

Magnolia Theater, Dallas – 2000

Palace Theater, downtown Fort Worth – 1996

1201 F Street, Washington, D. C. – 1990

Design objectives included a predisposition toward a timeless, Neo-Classical building. However, it was also determined that the building should be a reflection of its time and age. The resulting design achieves a balance between these objectives by reexamining the elements of classicism and reinterpreting them in a contemporary manner for this specific building. The design includes such unique elements as clerestory windows and a floor which changes from flat to raked seating.

—On the Schermerhorn Symphony Center

Barnes & Noble Cafe, downtown Fort Worth – 1996

1133 Connecticut Avenue, Washington, D. C. – 1987

Sundance West, downtown Fort Worth – 1991

It exhibits a distinctly urban identity that embodies an elegance resultant of design skill rather than extravagant materials. Unique in the area is its essentially vertical rendering, emanating in part from its unusual masonry to glass ratio. The lush façade detailing and the use of limestone throughout lends an inherently sensuous, sculptural richness. The idea that proportion is almost the definition of art and architecture is evidenced throughout the project. Certain massing considerations were taken to capture the idea of a ‘jewel’ in a setting. The body is classically tripartite not only in a vertical, but horizontal sense as well. The carefully considered “plaid” of vertical and horizontal elements, scaled in proportion to function, accomplishes a vigorous cohesion, with an emphasis on the towers which crown the site.

—On 1201 F Street

1201 F Street, Washington, D. C. – 1990

American Airlines Center, Dallas – 2001

Chapman Cultural Center, Spartanburg – 2007

Its façades are a blending of simplified ornament and elaborated grid. Ornament relates it to the historic buildings and emphasizes its verticality, but is executed mostly in flat patterns of polychrome brick. The brick patterns, made with four different colors of brick, also produce horizontal accents. The window grid is modulated to make the building more open in the center and more solid at the corners and small adjustments to window planes in the base and slightly projected brick corbels and cast stone cornices create a traditional base, column and capital composition.

—On the Sanguinet Building (aka Chase Bank Building, formerly Bank One Building)

Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville – 2006

Barnes & Noble bookstore and office space, downtown Fort Worth – 1996

West Village, Dallas – 2000

The brownstones have corbelled and polychrome brickwork, with cast stone employed for detailing. Five basic, interchangeable plan and façade types were designed for the first phase, including four for the in-board lots and one for corner lot conditions. A varied rhythm is created along the street with groupings of different facade types expressed as single houses.

A high-quality, pedestrian-friendly streetscape is maintained by locating parking and garages in the rear of the units, serviced by alleys. Arcades link the garages to the houses, but the two are separated by private rear courts. Many of the garage spaces also allow for a second floor that can be used as a guest suite, home office, recreation room, or other ancillary facility.

—On the Southlake Town Square Brownstones

Bass Performance Hall, downtown Fort Worth – 1998

Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville – 2006

Bass Performance Hall, downtown Fort Worth – 1998

Gable roofs, pediments, recessed balconies and architectural ornament all enhance the residential ambience. Human scale and detailing carefully weave together Victorian turn-of-the-century characteristics and modernism to create a presence that is innovative yet warmly familiar.

—On Sundance West