McMansions from Hell

Weird that someone would care enough to make such a page. I don't know or care enough about design to offer a real opinion on what is or is not a mcmansion. A lot of the houses in the link are ugly, but I never bothered to look for 'voids' in other people's houses. I guess I just don't know enough about design to really pay attention.
 
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The neighborhood I grew up in (unincorporated Cook County between Northbrook and Deerfield) had really big yards. A lot of folks have bought these properties, torn down the (fairly modest) homes and built this sort of monstrosity on the property. They are jarring, ugly, pretentious, and don't fit at all into the character of the neighborhood, but these folks don't care because they are tend to be me-first insensitive assholes who have zero regard for anything outside of their precious selves...
 
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As compared to the home I spent 5th through 12th grade in:

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All the pics are not showing up for me, but I have a pretty good general idea about the edifices that they are referencing.
 
:shrug:

I don't understand the gripe, honestly.

Now, my buddy lives in a McMansion in DE which is a newly built development..............my only complaint is that all the houses look the same, and there are no grown trees in the yard which gives you no privacy, or shade for that matter.

It's a nice house, just not my style....

So......I don't get it. Not saying it is right, wrong, indifferent, etc....I just don't get it.
 
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Shocking that there are people who care about architecture. You'd think a forum full of guitar dweebs and craft beer dorks wouldn't be so righteous about this. There are also land use and other issues involved that are pretty damn important in the grand scheme of things.
Talking about architecture on a guitar forum is like dancing about music? something something like that
 
Shocking that there are people who care about architecture. You'd think a forum full of guitar dweebs and craft beer dorks wouldn't be so righteous about this. There are also land use and other issues involved that are pretty damn important in the grand scheme of things.

I didn't intend for my comments to mean that no one should care about architecture/design, but rather to point out that I don't really know anything about the subject. I find it weird that people look at stuff like this, but certainly it is no weirder than our group rejecting guitars based on the number of saddle screws or burst finish layering.
 
Complaining about McMansions is just punishing success. So sad.

McMansions are the real estate equivalent of the PRS.

Nah. PRS does some really ugly finishes, but aside from that the designs are usually practical and tasteful. McMansions are more like a a booteek offset LP-style guitar with mismatched pickups, quintuple bindings, jewel-topped knobs, abalone inlays, and an ornamented iron cross carved into the top.
 
I used to do architectural drafting a few years ago and one home builder I worked for had all the gripes that, that website brought up lol.

I will say, most of these newer style homes with varying pitches and roof designs........you better pray that the designs are right otherwise constructions stops! Boy do I have some stories lol.
 
Talking about architecture on a guitar forum is like dancing about music? something something like that
Talking about architecture on a guitar forum is like talking about dancing on a music forum. sheesh, I'm off my game
 
You better be rich to live in one because it won't be long before it starts to $1000 to $5000 you on a regular basis for monthly up keep.
 
I spent my life as a Superintendent building homes. During the boom of the 90's we built some of the most over the top and ostentatious stuff that I ever experienced in my 30+ year career. 3 to 4 thousand square foot monstrosities with 5 to 8 bedrooms and front elevations that looked like mortuaries. Here in Vegas we used to call them Mormon Big Boxes. Most of them today are sitting empty waiting for some Rap promoter or drug dealer to make an offer.
 
While those are some ugly houses, and while 2000-3000 sf homes in an established neighborhood are more my speed, I bet that the creator of that website is an architecture wonk of modest means and has some serious sour grapes when it comes to housing.

My biggest beef with Mcmansions is that they tend to be far away from everything, at least here in the northeast. Neighborhoods built in the 1940s-1970s seem to be a lot more convenient.
 
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