There’s nothing like a park to bring a neighborhood together and get people outdoors. Such a park is to be at the heart of Villa Encanto, where some of the romantically European-style homes with tile roofs will have patios for people to enjoy the weather, leisure time, and each other.
Another park is at the heart of a project that will give children a better place to play and inspire the wildest of young imaginations.
Both are in the Upper Valley neighborhood of Chad and Caroline North.
Chad is enhancing how urban home design in El Paso meets a higher standard of living by developing the innovative Villa Encanto subdivision – around a park – through his company, CGN Designs. Caroline is enhancing her neighborhood by co-chairing the community project PARK: Parents’ Association for Recreation for Kids.
Architecture was Chad’s calling ever since he was an adolescent building skateboarding ramps and sneaking off to the library to read Architectural Digest, always admiring how master architects like Frank Gehry create art with their craft.
“Urban design is my specialty: the study and design of cities, how the machine of a city works, the mechanism of the city,” he said.
Obtaining his bachelor’s in architecture and interning with local firms, Chad wanted more. He and Caroline, both 28, had been married only a year when they packed their bags and moved overseas. Chad received his master’s in architecture, specializing in urban planning, from Syracuse University in Florence, Italy.
There, “You are not rushing around in your SUVs from place to place. You are walking to the grocery store, you’re walking to open-air markets,” Caroline said of how Italians savor a more simple way of life.
The pedestrian, robust lifestyle rubbed off on Chad, whose architectural style takes on a Mediterranean flavor. It shows in the private homes he has designed. It’s also why Villa Encanto’s blueprinted seven patio homes, 11 estate homes, and 15 other homes that are to encircle the park will emulate Tuscan living.
Bulldozers are clearing the land adjacent to the Norths’ home, which has been in Caroline’s family for 35 years. Her mother, Carol Maxon, is working with Chad to put the land to good use.
“New urbanist” architecture has found its niche in El Paso, as well as community parks that are planned by children and constructed by their parents and local volunteers. That’s Caroline’s baby, revitalizing White Spur Park off Sunset and Doniphan into a magical kingdom for children.
“We really want a first-class place for kids to play,” Caroline explained.
It will take a dedicated committee raising over $150,000 and recruiting 800 volunteers to assemble a park that will have a volcano to climb, castle spires to explore, and the tongue of a dragon on which to slide down. PARK actively searches for more people to be involved in its construction, scheduled for mid-October.
The fund-raising and donation process trained Caroline and other mothers so well, she said. “We’re putting together a how-to manual as a gift to the City. Since Mayor Wardy has this neighborhood initiative, they can use this as a model to show others how we did it.”
Originally, Caroline studied sociology and education because, “I love studying groups of people and the dynamic of groups. I got my teaching certificate because I love being with kids.”
“I am a child myself, so she has to be patient,” Chad joked. “She has three children, not two!”
Caroline devotes time to their 1-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, but foresees social work in her future.
“We could have lived anywhere,” Caroline added. “Chad is so marketable, and we really thought about moving other places because there are better opportunities out there for him. But when we were in Italy, we made the conscious choice to come back here and try to make a difference and be near our families. That’s a huge deal to both of us.”
All roads have always pointed back to El Paso for them, especially considering their family legacies. Chad’s father is the late Paul Gibson, a UTEP track star in the 1970s who played football for the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills. After Gibson passed away in 1975, Chad’s mother, Pam, married Ken North and the two now live in Dallas.
Caroline’s grandfather, Jim Shelton, started Cashway in El Paso and owned El Paso Sand. Her mother, Carol, continues to manage the family business and also delves into private real estate investment and development. Caroline’s father is attorney Luther Jones, and her stepfather is the former Jaxon’s restaurant owner, Jack Maxon.
Chad and Caroline first met in seventh-grade and were best friends throughout high school.
Today, they are on the Twelve Travelers board together. Caroline is in the Junior League, Chad is on the City Planning Commission, a member of the American Planning Association, and the Congress for New Urbanism – a group of architects, planners, and designers in the U.S. trained to continue the movement of new urbanism, building walkable neighborhoods, and livable communities.