The multiple parks, beautiful boulevards and tree-lined streets found in Highland Park are like a magnet to those moving from the increasingly dysfunctional East Coast and West Coast cities. Now, a new home might require two Highland Park homes to be torn down to obtain the desired land. Homeowners who desired a larger home desired proportionally more land which precipitated landowners assembling more than one lot for a new home. Dallas residents moved from denser neighborhoods and more vibrant neighborhoods to neighborhoods with more land and a calmer environment. The pandemic - as well as the rise of inner-city crime and the disorders of 2020 - accelerated this prediction. I said five years ago in my TEDx Talk, Homes That Make Us Happy, that land and its site would become increasingly important. “Homes That Make Us Happy” Create More Demand for Land Better Highland Park homes often replaced inferior homes and the better homes were not outlandishly larger than the Highland Park homes torn down. These insignificant Highland Park homes were rarely missed, and their absence was often applauded. These were the homes with the least aesthetic and economic value. Years ago, the homes being torn down were the low-hanging fruit. For many years, this was not a significant problem in Highland Park. But in an established neighborhood like Highland Park this requires another home to be torn down.

Perfect Storm for Highland Park Homes to be Torn Downįor decades, homebuyers have desired vacant properties on which to build their dream homes. These architecturally significant and historic homes have been torn down because of a lack of knowledge, lack of preservation advocacy, and teardown pressure from real estate agents, contractors, architects, and even, at times, the Township of Highland Park. On the other hand, exquisite and timeless homes designed by our best Dallas architects have been torn down for no good economic reason.

Many homebuyers wished for the house to remain standing as it was the perfect size for the lot and had great architectural style and merit. The lot was on the market for over five years before someone bought it. It was torn down for no other reason than the listing agent and seller thought it would be easier to sell the property as a vacant lot. It is Tragic When Exquisite Homes are Torn Down-Especially for No Good ReasonĪrchitects Fooshee & Cheek trained under architect Hal Thomson and continued to design architecturally significant homes like this one at 4208 Beverly Drive. We have seen examples of inferior or uninspired homes replaced with exceptional homes that add to the rich architectural landscape. On occasion, the continuity and architectural flow of the street is compromised by one outlying small house. Other homes, excruciatingly small, are surrounded and dwarfed by gracious large homes. The architecture of the neighborhood improves when these architecturally mangled homes get torn down. Some homes were originally very nice homes that became irrevocably mangled through stylistic renovations and additions. It is time for some inferior homes to go. Some of the homes torn down are not architect-designed homes from the 1920s, but a builder home from the 1970s that had replaced a good home designed 50 years earlier. Sometimes we are put out of our architectural visual misery. Some Highland Park Homes are Torn Down for Good ReasonsĮvery decade, as our city and neighborhoods evolve, we can expect some Highland Park homes to be torn down.

First, we need to understand why Highland Park Texas, homes are torn down. There is no way to prevent every historic home from being torn down, but we can slow the demise of historically and architecturally significant homes. These are the types of home buyers where money is no obstacle and if they can’t find what they want to live in, they have the resources to buy a home, tear it down and build a new one, adding to the acceleration of Highland Park teardowns. During the last two years we have seen corporate relocations, but also company owners or firm partners who are moving to Dallas but leaving their businesses in New York or California. Usually, corporate relocations move hundreds of middle level employees and a few executives. It is not just the raw numbers of people moving to Dallas. Perhaps new residents - the great influx of home buyers from California to Dallas has exacerbated some problems, with the most troubling being the escalation of Highland Park homes in Dallas being torn down. For decades, Highland Park, a wealthy older suburb two miles from downtown Dallas, homes have been torn down, however, this year this activity has accelerated.

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