Daron Tapscott/Landmark Commission

Surprise demolition of historic buildings is nothing new to North Texas, but the Sunday morning razing of 2505 Turtle Creek Blvd. has the local media and architecture lovers abuzz. One neighbor calls it a “crime scene” on the Dallas Observer‘s Unfair Park blog.

The office building, designed by the late Harwood K. Smith and the site of a proposed luxury hotel, was listed as one “of the best examples of midcentury-modern architecture in the Dallas area,” in a Dallas Morning News article about preservation efforts.

An insider at the City Plan Commission, which turned down the hotel plan, tries to explain. More outrage here.

Update: Demolition process reexamined