McMansion Hell

[svelte]

Great website!

Love the good-hearted ribbing of the opulent over-indulgence that defines McMansionism.

http://www.mcmansionhell.com/

I would love to be able to critique the site owner’s own crib though… 🙂 It’s only fair!

[FlyerInHi]

I love it.
He should do YouTube videos.

Most people like the McMansion look so it’s no wonder those houses sell.
Hell, I might even buy and live in one because that’s what is available. But my interior would be tasteful.

Eichler houses are more appropriate for california. Developers should take his ideas and update them for the 21st century.
This is a good video for people who want to learn about the california suburbs:
https://youtu.be/YLeEskeTxXc

Once you discover good design, you feel that everything else is just not up to par.

[njtosd]

I have two issues: (1) There is no indication anywhere as to who this person is, which wouldn’t be such an issue, if (2) s/he weren’t looking for money: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=3844491#/_=_

If someone wants to be a critic – fine, but this looks like an effort to be snarky enough to get revenue through ads or similar.

[JerseyGrl]

It’s a woman:

http://www.papermag.com/mcmansion-hell-tumblr-1994391954.html

[svelte]

[quote=njtosd]
If someone wants to be a critic – fine, but this looks like an effort to be snarky enough to get revenue through ads or similar.[/quote]

yeah, I can see that.

I do agree with some of the snark (scale, proportion, etc), but some of it lambasting mixing of styles (gothic arches on a tudor house – gasp!) is over the top for me – as long as things mesh well, I’m not very concerned with sticking within the confines of a typical architectural style.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=JerseyGrl]It’s a woman:

http://www.papermag.com/mcmansion-hell-tumblr-1994391954.html
[/quote]

This young lady is my type of gal. She sounds really smart. I wish her much success in building her architectural critique social network. Nothing wrong with making money while providing an entertaining and useful site.

She’s 22 yo, an architecture student so she probably lives in a college dorm. I think her future professional work will be very nice.

That said, architectural purity is like healthy lifestyle habits or sound frugal financial management. People don’t like thoughtful restraint; they like hyperbole and a wow factor.

If you have a party at home and only serve healthy light food, people will think you’re weird. You need: wow! an over the top smorgasbord of rich options.

When I bought my condo it had fake Italianate columns, moulding, etc… I ripped it all out for a plain square look. In contrast, one neighbor who worked for the developer and bought at the peak is very proud of his extra columns and mouldings. Unfortunately, that’s the look that sells. I have another furnished condo which is very glam hotel style. People 40 and over prefer that look and they are the demographics with money.

Can’t fault builders for selling what people will buy.

[Hatfield]

I like snark as much as the next guy… okay perhaps more than the next guy. But that aside, I think she has a bright future ahead of her. At 22 she’s already developed pretty decent taste and an eye for detail and she knows quite a bit about construction. She also has an appreciation for both recent history as well as historical architectural context. This is exceedingly rare in somebody her age.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Hatfield]I like snark as much as the next guy… okay perhaps more than the next guy. But that aside, I think she has a bright future ahead of her. At 22 she’s already developed pretty decent taste and an eye for detail and she knows quite a bit about construction. She also has an appreciation for both recent history as well as historical architectural context. This is exceedingly rare in somebody her age.[/quote]

I suppose it is rare in the general population, but anyone with an undergrad degree in architecture should know this stuff.

And she doesn’t get all the terms right, like calling chair moulding crown moulding. Still funny though.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=harvey]
I suppose it is rare in the general population, but anyone with an undergrad degree in architecture should know this stuff.
[/quote]

I’m not quite sure about that. After all, architects are the ones who design the McMansions and strip malls. It architects had good aesthetics, they would push developers to do a better job of building.

The blogger mentioned something about the relationship between boom times and architectural monstrosity. China is where you see the weirdest architecture. Sino Greco Roman Italianate style mishmashed together, all the result of uneducated folks becoming rich within a generation.

[Hatfield]

[quote=harvey]I suppose it is rare in the general population, but anyone with an undergrad degree in architecture should know this stuff.[/quote]
There’s no shortage of architects with no taste or judgement.

[Anonymous]

And there’s no shortage of old men that believe a 22 year old woman could not know anything about building construction.

[spdrun]

It architects had good aesthetics, they would push developers to do a better job of building.

Developers won’t like the cost. They’ll fire the architect and find another hack to replace them.

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