Gentrified architecture is an architectural style which has been identified as homogenizing, overbearing, lacking imagination or character, and disconnected from the social histories in which it exists. Gentrified architecture is often compared with the style of architecture preexisting the process of gentrification in a particular location. As a result, its presence has been described by Maria Nicanor as producing “two very different dynamics and two very different futures.” The architectural style has been identified as a marker of borders between communities and a site of racialized hostilities.
Effects
Gentrified architecture has been described as transformative and obliterating because it does not modify or build from an existing architectural tradition of an area, but rather changes it completely. The presence of gentrified architecture produces both material and symbolic changes to an area, shaping collective perceptions and altering behaviors. An area once "strongly associated with the working class," which may be perceived by outsiders as "unsafe" or "dangerous," may shift with the presence of gentrified architecture. For outsiders, it brings a new heroic "innovative," "forward-looking," and "cool" identity to a location. The construction of buildings in a gentrified architectural style increases appeal for outsiders, who are often tourists, white, and wealthy future residents, who see an area as "revitalized" or "redeveloped" because of its presence. This creates space for more developmental projects in a gentrified architectural style, as the buildings increasingly serve as invitations to outsiders while communicating to the current residents that the space is not for them or their communities. Gentrified architecture may drain the presence of color from certain areas. For example, in Santa Ana, California, the "colorful pastel tones of the commercial buildings that used to represent a symbol of Mexican architectural design" were replaced with "neutral tones."
Reception
Gentrified style has received mixed reception. Gentrified architecture has been described by academics as embodying a "haunting predictability" that is "replicated from city to city." Michael Sorkin refers to it as "urban renewal with a sinister twist, an architecture of deception which, in its happy-face familiarity, constantly distances itself from the most fundamental realities." Houston architect Ben Koush describes gentrified style buildings as follows: "I think they’re ugly, but I also realize that they’re following the requirements of the market. What is upsetting is that people made lives for themselves, and then the middle-class white peoplewant tomove back in and claim the territory for themselves and push those people out." Maria Nicanor refers to the buildings as creating "a rampant sense of single-family homogeneity entirely devoid of any imagination and disconnected from the realities of families and how they age."
