We’ve all seen them. The big, white houses that show up almost overnight, transforming rows of tidy ranch houses into wide, gaping mouths with a few ill-spaced giant buck teeth. Soon, there’s another. And another. Before you know it, the entire neighborhood seems to be in the process of turning over on itself.
I’ve seen it happen in real time as I ride my bike all over east Dallas. I clock about 75 miles a week, and my irritation builds with every mile: Who builds these? Why would they want to? What do the neighbors think? Monster homes have long been the mark of suburban tract-house developments, and now they’re taking aim at well-established city neighborhoods like mine.
Why is this happening, and why does it bother me so much? Ahead, I’ll take a look at what’s behind the trend and also examine broader themes at play behind these neighborhood transformations.
For Sale: A $500,000 Teardown
Dallas has long been a teardown town. Right now, the city is embroiled in a fight over our Brutalist, I.M. Pei–designed City Hall, which was slated for demolition to entice the Dallas Mavericks to stay downtown. (The Mavs recently said no thanks and are moving to the ‘burbs, though the fate of City Hall is still in limbo.) Plenty of other historic and not-so-historic buildings around the city have succumbed to the wrecking ball over the years…