The Internet Thinks Highland Park Houses Are Ugly

Preservation of historic homes is a hot topic in Dallas, as preservation organizations advocate for zoning ordinances that protect the character of Dallas’ older neighborhoods. For these activists, it’s a point of community pride.

This debate is also prevalent in online spaces such as Reddit, where architecture enthusiasts from around the world bemoan the demolition of charming old buildings and complain that they’re always replaced with something bland and generically trendy.

Many of these critics aren’t from around here, so their grievances come less from a place of community pride and more from a place of aesthetic horror.

Highland Park has recently earned the ire of this online community, as its residents have developed a reputation of buying beautiful, century-old homes for the dirt they stand on, demolishing them and building plain, minimalistic buildings in their place.

And by plain and minimalistic, we mean they look like concrete cubes. Rich people love brutalism, apparently.

Another travesty in Highland Park, Texas!
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The Dallas subreddit is currently mourning the loss of a 1930s Tudor-style home with charming arches and brickwork and roasting the hell out of the white cube that stands in its place.

“Minecraft-ass house,” reads one comment, referring to the video game where everything is made of boxes but somehow looks less boxy.

“Federal building,” another comment reads.

This 1917 Italianate Villa was bulldozed!
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A 1917 Italian-style villa was also demolished in Highland Park this year and was quickly replaced with another controversial structure.

“The new one is an abomination,” says one comment. “I bet the new owners are insufferable.”

“What makes the least amount of sense is that the wealthiest and most established families in Highland Park choose to live in the older home,” another Redditor wrote. “Everyone else wants to be like them, so why build [something] new and tacky???”

After existing for 104 years, this Hal Thomson-designed mansion was demolished in Highland Park, TX!
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Two years ago, a 104-year-old mansion designed by renowned architect Hal Thomson was razed. Nothing has been built in its place yet, but the subreddit has a shared guess at what its replacement will look like.

“Chip Gaines will build a shiplap McMansion no doubt,” wrote one commenter referring to the controversial design style popularized by HGTV’s Fixer Upper.

“Most likely the home that will replace it will not last 104 years,” another Redditor wrote. “ Beauty and endurance should be appreciated.”