Suburbanization swept across America during the 1950s altering the landscape of the country and creating new, unforeseen challenges for the small, rural towns that were being re-invented as suburbs.
In January 1961, Architectural Forum published an article taking a critical look at the often uncontrolled suburban growth. They didn’t like what they saw and used Irving as a prime example of what was wrong with suburban development.
The articles in the January 1961 issue of Architectural Forum address the issues of suburbanization.
Prior to Irving's expansion in the early 1950s, most of the town was bounded on the north by the railroad track, which today parallels Rock Island Road; on the east by Britain Road; on the south by Sixth St.; and on the west by O'Connor Road.
In commenting on all new suburbs, but citing Irving specifically, the article pulled no punches beginning with:
The brand-new ugliness of Irving, Texas, is a danger sign to other suburbs growing up along the highways throughout the nation.
Aerial view of an expanding Irving along Highway 183. The 183 Drive-In Theater at the corner of Britain Rd. and Highway 183, is in the bottom center of the picture.
That was just a warm up. The article continues:
In 1950 there was a mild little town on this landscape called Irving, population 2,621. Today the booming suburb of Irving, population suddenly 45,489, the fastest-growing municipality in Texas, sprawls senselessly over 20 square miles where cows were lonely two decades ago.
What had recently been farm land was being turned into acres of houses.
The article notes that a ranch-style house on a 60’ x 120’ lot could be had for $375 down and a monthly payment that was cheaper than that for a cramped apartment in Dallas or Fort Worth.
So into the arbitrarily curved road of the contemporary sub-dividers have sped home-hungry hordes creating an instant suburb. There is very little industry and not even much retail trade…. There are just houses, roads, cars, children and signboards promising more houses.
A newly built neighborhood evidenced by the recently planted trees in the front yards.
The barbs continue:
It is not the brand-new ugliness of the endless development tract like Irving that is most appalling, or its homogenized, tasteless architecture….. The truly tragic thing about the Irving’s of America is more technical: the lack of forethought which today is evident in an absence of public transit, in a developing squeeze on public park and playground space, in inconvenient ribbon-shopping facilities and little thought for parking, in a pressed school situation, immense peak-hour traffic congestion…and an increasingly narrow tax base which could spell disaster for an economically vulnerable community bought on credit.
Rapid growth caused tight parking in downtown Irving, 1953.
Demand for parking along Main St. in downtown Irving often exceeded availability. Architectural Forum lamented the lack of forward thinking.
Shoppers at Reese's Food Store on Main St. had only a few spaces to choose from in front of the store. If one was not available, a shopper might have to walk a block or two from the nearest parking spot.
Visible are the massive number of repairs made to this once lightly used black-top road that was not made to stand up to the heavy suburban neighborhood traffic.
This asphalt road shows the damage created by all the new traffic. The small white structure along the side of the road was a school bus stop location designed to protect the children from inclement weather. Several of these were placed around town and local businesses used them as advertising billboards.
The automobile made the suburbs possible. Inexpensive gasoline was essential to get the suburban commuter from his affordable home in the suburbs to his place of employment in the city.
This Superior Service Station was located on the east end of Irving Blvd. for the convenience of workers heading from Irving to Dallas.
The article ends by praising Irving for realizing the dangers of unplanned growth and hiring a firm to develop a city plan to formulate a coherent scheme for orderly physical and economic development.
Architectural Forum sums up with a warning:
…a boom town which does not pause to catch up with itself is likely to become a doomed town for pleasant living.
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The cover of the Leipziger Plan for Irving, 1960. The city of Irving contracted with Hugo Leipziger-Pearce and Associates to create a comprehensive development plan for city growth to help bring order to the town's rapid, chaotic expansion.
Shown is a projection from the Leipziger Plan of what Irving's downtown area might look like in the year 2000. The buildings on the far left are a proposed Civic Center complex. Their location is where today's city hall is located. From that point and everything to the right on the rendering is the foreseen central business district lining Irving Blvd. all the way to Loop 12.
The introduction page to the Leipziger Plan for Irving - Texas' fastest growing city, 1960.
The plan addresses all aspects of city development: land use; schools; parks; sewerage; water use; and neighborhoods to name a few. This page shows recommendations for use of some of the larger roads in Irving.
One of the many development issues addressed in the report is growth of the school system. The plan's long-range projection suggested that Irving's population could reach as high as 365,000 and if that occurred the city would need 16 middle schools and 8 high schools by the year 2000.
