The Artistry of
Norman Hurd HORSESHOE BAY — Horseshoe Bay Resort, renown for its breathtaking beauty and world-class amenities, owes its justified fame to the artistry and uncompromising taste of its founder and former owner Norman Hurd. The resort's excellence is not by accident. From the beginning, Hurd determined that few rivals — if any — could challenge the resort's location and its amenities as the most beautiful, and of the finest quality, in the country. Located in the famed Llano Uplift, one of the oldest geological formations in the world, Horseshoe Bay Resort is special, indeed. Not only does the natural beauty of the Uplift surround this unique piece of real estate, Hurd's extraordinary appreciation of that beauty produced in him a compulsive creativity out of which an equally extraordinary Horseshoe Bay Resort came into being. This is evident in every detail of the property: its lush landscaping, its special lighting effects, its innovative design. Hurd selected each shrub, tree and boulder in his landscape designs that so beautifully characterize the resort. He selected the exact site for each. He chose the location, height and angle of the lights which illuminate his landscapes, waterscapes and visual settings throughout the resort. "Beauty and quality are the first considerations in everything we do," Hurd said. "It's the window of opportunity, because the world is going too fast and too much attention is paid to the bottom line: 'How much profit can I make from this endeavor?' " Hurd insisted that making money was never his objective. It was a matter of getting one's priorities straight: create beauty and quality out of love for beauty and quality, and the money would come as a result. "If you excel in your beauty and quality...you have less competition — that's the window of opportunity," he emphasized, always. This philosophy was based not only on Hurd's love for beauty and his joy in creating it, but on a business logic born from astute observation as well. In creating a country club resort, Hurd contended, most developers develop its amenities — such as, for instance, a club house, golf courses, swimming pools and tennis courts — to attract property buyers. Once the property is sold, the developer collects his profit, turns the maintenance of the amenities over to the property owners association and moves on. What happens then is logical. The property owners either cannot afford the extremely high cost of keeping up quality amenities — or are not willing to spend the money. Consequently, the amenities lose their quality and thus their attraction, and the individual's property diminishes in value. Not only is his chance of profit from selling the property slim, he could possibly even lose money on his original investment. Hurd's reasoning was clear — and, from experience, correct. "You can't maintain a constant level; you go either forward or backward. Our purpose here is always to improve...more detail...more quality...more detail. Go anywhere, they've got golf and tennis. But not more quality golf and tennis, not more detail golf and tennis. We never make promises, we only make progress." There is only one way to keep improving and to keep the quality: put the profits back into the amenities, Hurd emphasized, until the amenities can pay for themselves. And eventually they can. Hurd's dedication to creating, and maintaining, beautiful quality amenities is everywhere evident — not just at the original Yacht Club complex, where Horseshoe Bay Resort made its spectacular debut — but in the farthest reaches of the resort, the borders of which have expanded many times, and continue to expand, since its inception. To understand why Horseshoe Bay Resort is what it is today, a study of Hurd's artistic progress in developing it over the years is necessary. It all began in 1970. And when Norman Hurd began, he began with a dream — but not an idle one. He coupled it with an unshakable conviction that, by utilizing and complimenting the area's abundant existing components — its ancient rocks, its spring-fed streams, its lofty and inspiring vistas, its natural foliage — he could build an empire of beauty purely for the sake of beauty. Then he set about doing it. "I saw four huge boulders I wanted to harvest for the waterfalls I was building," Hurd said. "I got them. I got them by constructing a road a mile and a half over the mountain, but got them and I laid that rock. I worked with my men in the sun and laid the rock. Every piece of landscaping you see here, I put the mark into the ground where it should be planted. That's every single flower, bush and tree that has been planted. "I have no personal image to create. The only thing I want to create is beauty." But to view the man's works is to realize that it is impossible to separate the one from the other. To see them is to see the man — the man limited to expressing only himself. But it's enough. The most intriguing result from a study of Hurd's chronological creation of Horseshoe Bay Resort, however, is that it reveals the remarkable evolutionary process of the soul of Hurd the artist. He began with the original Horseshoe Bay, followed by Horseshoe Bay South, Horseshoe Bay West, Horseshoe Bay Applehead and Horseshoe Bay Applehead Island. He built the club houses, swimming pools, tennis courts, a covered tennis complex, an equestrian center, golf pro shops, golf courses, an airport that can accommodate a DC-9 jet, a marina — the list goes on. In each project one sees a progressively daring artistry expressed in the innovative use of materials and in layout. One sees massive boulders and rock ledges — some of them almost the size of an automobile — moved, arranged, stacked for a certain effect. Tucked away here and there throughout Horseshoe Bay are delightful waterfalls, fountains, tree-lined walkways. A bend in the road can reveal an unsuspected setting of boulders, shrub masses, trees and water — a carefully planned and aesthetically balanced representation of the basic components seen in nature. Even the street signs became progressively more imaginative, more expensive, over the years. In a 1981 publication on the Texas State Golf Open held in Horseshoe Bay, one writer expressed it succinctly: "With the addition of over 2,000 poplar trees on the Slick Rock Course places beautifully by Norman C. Hurd, and his many juniper bushes on the Ram Rock Course, the landscaping defies description." One outstanding creation of Hurd's is the magnificent multi-level Japanese water garden, complete with lush landscaping, wooden bridges, lanterns, statuary, lighting, waterfalls and fountains. Soft strains of music fill the air from speakers artfully concealed in the trees and shrubbery masses. Another is an 18-hole putting course called Whitewater, one of Hurd's finest artistic achievements. This posh amenity, ranked among the very few of its kind in the United States, features waterways, fountains, bridges, sculptures, lush landscaping with tall palms and great masses of roses of various colors, live exotic animals, specially-designed wind chimes and a massive waterfall complete with fogging devices and theatrical, multi-colored lighting. And, as in all of Hurd's creations, music from concealed speakers throughout wafts across the dazzling setting. And so it was inevitable that Horseshoe Bay Resort, after years of development, should become recognized as the tour de force of Hurd's creative genius — and as one of the finest resorts in the United States. Besides his inimitable talent, Hurd has had plenty with which to work, a fact which he has always approached with a certain amount of awe and respect. "One of the wonders of natures runs through our land," he said. "There's a point on our property where basement granite rock — that's the actual foundation of our earth — pushes through the crust and touches limestone. Now, that may not sound like much to you, but the Indians considered such a place holy and blessed — and I believe it! "You can't go out and build a resort (like Horseshoe Bay Resort) unless 'the Old Man' up there left you with something. I think our biggest duty here is not to mess up what He left us. One should respect natural beauty." Ron Mitchell, today the president and chief operation officer of Horseshoe Bay Resort, tells of learning Hurd's basic philosophy concerning the development of the resort: "When I arrived in 1975, Horseshoe Bay was still young...I shall never forget being called into Norman Hurd's office and understanding, for the first time, what it was all about. That day Norman told me, 'First, there are no personal images to be created here, only success, beauty, and quality of product and service.' " Mitchell adds, "That commitment has been lived up to." In September last year, Hurd, along with Ron Lynn Mitchell and Frank Day King, sold his interests in Horseshoe Bay Resort to the Jaffe family of San Antonio, but serves as an advisor on the board of directors and oversees special projects, Mitchell said. After 26 years of discriminating development, the face of Horseshoe Bay Resort reflects, in all its beauty and quality, the unique artistry and uncompromising tastes of its founder, Norman C. Hurd. The Jaffe family has committed itself to continuing in that grand tradition. |
