The open-plan office debate comes home. Living in a 1920's neighborhood for more than 3 decades, I have watched with sadness as the Tudor-inspired bungalows and Minimal Traditional homes that look like they began as exhibits at the Texas Centennial Exhibition in Fair Park back in 1936, are routinely and mindlessly subjected to the open floor plan conversion. It has gotten to the point that new neighborhood friends will come by and marvel that our house still has actual rooms on the public side. We even still have the swinging door separating the kitchen and breakfast room from the dining room. I have said for a long time now that this will be my forever home because I know that as soon as this house passes to a new owner, that conversion will likely be the very first step in "modernizing" the house, probably before they move in. It will be much better if I am home with my ancestors if that happens.

This article is an interesting look at this phenomenon, offering a surprisingly rich historical background to the forces that gave rise to this approach to domestic life.