Gentrification Architecture—It’s Baffling

Critics say the design of homes that come with gentrification is too often uninspired, incompatible, and downright ugly.

2 minute read

March 16, 2020, 8:00 AM PDT

By Camille Fink


Townhouses

Imagenet / Shutterstock

"When [Maria] Nicanor looks at the newer houses in Houston that she calls 'white elephants'—those wonky, stacked boxes that look more like what children build with Legos than what they draw with crayons—it’s not so much that she finds the architecture aesthetically dubious (though she does), it’s that she sees right through it to 'the systems that over decades have made it this way,'" writes Allyn West.

Nicanor is the executive director of the Rice Design Alliance, and her take on housing design in Houston describes the standardization of architecture as gentrification sweeps through that city and others throughout Texas.

The phenomenon reflects the inability of cities to balance new development with what has long existed there, says West. "Nicanor wonders what can be done at city hall, from rewriting zoning laws and enacting preservation ordinances to protecting renters and supporting community land trusts. Should the market make all the decisions?"

West looks at a variety of examples of this gentrification architecture in various Texas cities, including huge homes out of scale with the bungalows and cottages around them, packs of generic townhouses, and houses dominated by their garages. 

Architect Ben Koush has an issue with mammoth homes, whose design reflects the market more than what neighborhoods need, notes West. "I think it’s almost disrespectful when you build a big, hulking box," Koush says. "But I’m also not a developer, so I see things differently than they do, and they think it’s probably stupid to build what I did. And they’re like, 'You’re an idiot.' And I’m like, 'You’re an idiot.'"

Thursday, March 5, 2020 in The Texas Observer

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Use Code 25for25 at checkout for 25% off an annual plan!

Redlining map of Oakland and Berkeley.

Rethinking Redlining

For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

May 15, 2025 - Alan Mallach

Interior of Place Versailles mall in Montreal, Canada.

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units

Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.

May 22, 2025 - CBC

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

May 21, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Flat modern glass office tower with "County of Santa Clara" sign.

Santa Clara County Dedicates Over $28M to Affordable Housing

The county is funding over 600 new affordable housing units via revenue from a 2016 bond measure.

May 23 - San Francisco Chronicle

Aerial view of dense urban center with lines indicating smart city concept.

Why a Failed ‘Smart City’ Is Still Relevant

A Google-backed proposal to turn an underused section of Toronto waterfront into a tech hub holds relevant lessons about privacy and data.

May 23 - Governing

Pale yellow Sears kit house with red tile roof in Sylva, North Carolina.

When Sears Pioneered Modular Housing

Kit homes sold in catalogs like Sears and Montgomery Ward made homeownership affordable for midcentury Americans.

May 23 - The Daily Yonder