10-17-2016, 03:59 PM
I ran into this absolutely hilarious blog by a 22yo architecture student that makes fun of McMansions and other houses with terrible, tacky design. Her comentary has me laughing my ass off.
(10-17-2016, 05:34 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]I get it. Building houses simply but solidly makes eminent sense, as shown by the livability of many modest houses (built to be owned by factory workers in the 1950s who had a mortgage on the house and a car loan, but were otherwise on a pay-as-you-go basis for everything else... ah, the economy of the 1950s). I can't say the same of the pretentiously-made McMansions that builders and real estate hustlers pushed with the perfect word for attracting suckers:
LUXURY!
(10-18-2016, 04:19 PM)Mikebert Wrote: [ -> ]I thought it a bit snooty. I liked many of the houses in the early sections. I like lots of dormers, roof levels, turrets on other people's houses (not my own of course). They are nice to look at when you walk by and give the neighborhood character. In the latter part there were what I consider McMansions, pretentious houses too large for their lots made of cheap materials that look fake.
(10-18-2016, 04:19 PM)Mikebert Wrote: [ -> ]I thought it a bit snooty. I liked many of the houses in the early sections. I like lots of dormers, roof levels, turrets on other people's houses (not my own of course). They are nice to look at when you walk by and give the neighborhood character. In the latter part there were what I consider McMansions, pretentious houses too large for their lots made of cheap materials that look fake.
(10-18-2016, 08:19 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: [ -> ](10-18-2016, 07:41 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ](10-18-2016, 04:19 PM)Mikebert Wrote: [ -> ]I thought it a bit snooty. I liked many of the houses in the early sections. I like lots of dormers, roof levels, turrets on other people's houses (not my own of course). They are nice to look at when you walk by and give the neighborhood character. In the latter part there were what I consider McMansions, pretentious houses too large for their lots made of cheap materials that look fake.
Quoins, multiple roof angles, cheap materials, Great Rooms (as if one wanted to live in a Tolstoy novel), and turrets (I suppose that if one needed sentries on site to defend against barbarians, a proletarian revolution, the Mossad, Spetsnaz, or Seal Team Six one might need turrets with sentries) are obvious offenders. The blogger did not mention one of the obvious failures of aesthetics: the violation of symmetry.
In view of my age I am unlikely to see this happen, but I can imagine these buildings becoming slums within thirty years
Well at some point, the overall demand for housing will fall. Population dynamics make it inevitable. Combine that with many Millies having little to no taste for McMansions. Silver lining - they are built so poorly, many will fall down within a few decades. Meanwhile our little 1000 S.F. built-for-GIs place 20 miles out from DTSF will be going strong as it hits its 100 year birthday.
(10-19-2016, 09:26 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ](10-18-2016, 08:19 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: [ -> ](10-18-2016, 07:41 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ](10-18-2016, 04:19 PM)Mikebert Wrote: [ -> ]I thought it a bit snooty. I liked many of the houses in the early sections. I like lots of dormers, roof levels, turrets on other people's houses (not my own of course). They are nice to look at when you walk by and give the neighborhood character. In the latter part there were what I consider McMansions, pretentious houses too large for their lots made of cheap materials that look fake.
Quoins, multiple roof angles, cheap materials, Great Rooms (as if one wanted to live in a Tolstoy novel), and turrets (I suppose that if one needed sentries on site to defend against barbarians, a proletarian revolution, the Mossad, Spetsnaz, or Seal Team Six one might need turrets with sentries) are obvious offenders. The blogger did not mention one of the obvious failures of aesthetics: the violation of symmetry.
In view of my age I am unlikely to see this happen, but I can imagine these buildings becoming slums within thirty years
Well at some point, the overall demand for housing will fall. Population dynamics make it inevitable. Combine that with many Millies having little to no taste for McMansions. Silver lining - they are built so poorly, many will fall down within a few decades. Meanwhile our little 1000 S.F. built-for-GIs place 20 miles out from DTSF will be going strong as it hits its 100 year birthday.
Bingo. The house built for the GI Generation was built to last. It was also made to avoid fads and eccentricity. Housing pushed to the GI was functional and durable, meant to last as long as the original owners at the least. In the event that a house had to be foreclosed upon it had to be marketable to another owner.
The McMansion will eventually prove its inadequacy for the high-end market. Many seem suited to be cut up into tiny, bad apartments. As apartments they will become slums, and as such they will become targets for 'urban renewal' as understood in the next Awakening Era. .
(10-20-2016, 06:07 PM)disasterzone Wrote: [ -> ]I prefer Victorian Houses to McMansions or to GI Generation houses. I think McMansions are low quality and that the GI homes are well built but don't have the frills I want.
Quote:Trump official and fellow rich person DeVos just rolled back Obama administration loan forgiveness rules for students defrauded by for-profit colleges. It’s unsurprising that she doesn’t want to forgive the student loan debts of those defrauded by for-profit colleges considering that she got her net worth of more than $1 billion from her husband’s company, the multilevel marketing giant Amway, which is often described as a cult. Meanwhile, her brother Erik Prince owns the Blackwater firm, which essentially sells mercenaries. As we can see, we are not dealing with nice people.
(03-27-2019, 09:22 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]It fits into my discussion of the taste of dictators -- ten boats? In my dream of success, one sailboat would be enough. McMansion meets dictatorial tastes? I can imagine her as a successor of Donald Trump, and then I reach for a barf bag.