
That is the question posed by the lead article in the November issue of Builder magazine. As an architect, I am not really supposed to even be reading this magazine. It is too low-brow, too mundane, too quotidian for the likes of us building artistes. We are supposed to take our cues from the publications of high design that no one but fellow architects look at. (Architects don’t read. They look at pictures) But I love the art of home building, so I do read this trade rag, along with Fine Homebuilding and The Journal of Light Construction, when I get a chance. But back to the question at hand. Is the McMansion dead? My answer is yes and no. In order to understand the question and my answer, let’s look at what evidence the article presents.
What exactly is a McMansion?
By some accounts, it’s the gargantuan greenfield tract home with a Hummer parked out front that perpetuates sprawl and makes gas guzzling a way of life. Others use the derisive term to describe ostentatious infill homes that—while walkable to schools, shops, and transit—tower over beloved bungalows in established neighborhoods in a way that is less than neighborly.
That is a pretty fair description of the McMansions I am familiar with, especially in Sun Belt cities across the South and Southwest. Although here is a more qualitative definition from the article: “houses that are built to minimum code specifications and saddlebagged with spaces that are used less than 30 percent of the time by their owners.“ I would add that a “true” McMansion is not well designed – the scale and materials are wrong or badly used, and that it doesn’t sit comfortably on its piece of land.
This is a graceless space, to the right, is best used for parking your pet giraffe.
Fortunately because of the way I positioned my own practice (back when there was money for an architectural practice) I didn’t and don’t do much of that kind of work. But I have worked on my share of ostentatious houses for people with monstrous egos. I tended to get called into other firms to help them out when commercial clients decided to have the same architect who did their shopping center or their office building also do their house. One time I helped a three person family downsize from 24,000 square feet to just 12,000!
So is the McMansion dead? It appears to at least be dying because of the current depressed economy.
Even for those who can afford them, trophy homes constitute an image problem at a time when modesty has become fashionable. One recent CNNMoney.com poll asked more than 33,000 online readers if they thought American homes had gotten too big; 69 percent said yes.
[snip]
[I]t’s no surprise that American house sizes, which doubled from 1960 to the height of the boom, are now backpedaling. The average house breaking ground in the first quarter of 2009 was 2,335 square feet, down from 2,629 square feet in the second quarter of 2008, according to NAHB figures. Since 2007, median sizes for new single-family homes have fallen nearly 10 percent.
The problem is that you can’t really gauge buyer’s tastes in depressed markets. People buy what they can afford, if they buy at all. Being a magazine for production home builders, the article ends on this note:
Before the housing bust of 2007, the largest annual decline in median square footage occurred between 1979 and 1982, when new-home sizes dipped 8.2 percent, observes NAHB chief economist David Crowe. Four years later, house sizes were back up above their previous peak.
Atlanta builder Brendan Murphy sees this as evidence that old habits die hard. “We Americans have always associated bigger with better,” he says. “Look at how many crises the automobile industry has gone through with gas prices. And yet it always returns to large vehicles because that is what sells.”
It will be interesting to watch to see if Americans ever do end their love affair with bigger is better in either housing or cars. In the meantime, let me end by introducing you to a concept that has grown tremendously over the past ten or twelve years, ever since Sarah Susanka published her book, The Not So Big House. I was and am part of this movement. (We’ll talk about that in a later post.) It will never die, but like a lot of things it also will never replace the American need to show off with big houses, big cars and big hair (or boobs, or jewelry, or whatever).



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Good morning Gnome!
@ Texas Betsy:
business that is requiring my presence.
‘Morning! I can’t seem to get myself out of this chair and onto the
If it takes a day to get through it, a house is too big, IMHO. I like the craftsman homes, but also like some modern ones. I am troubled at teardowns and big rebuilds. There is one particular street here on which the homes back up to a golf course. The original homes were built probably in the 1960s and were not small to start with. They are now being torn down and replaced with super large structures which really crowd the lots.
It is interesting that here we have a museum which features a total electric house of the 1950s.
Today is shopping for tomorrow’s food kitchen and a family dinner tonight (a brother is coming in from out of town).
Hi Honeys! Done teaching. Still at work for a bit though. Picking up Lollipop & Texteenbuddy after school, then probably texteen. Shabbat dinner with them at their dad’s house.
I’m home, too! For a little bit, then I need to run to the bank. Wow, did it pour! Thunder and lightening, too! It was a great day to get stuff done in the greenhouse. I would have stayed longer, except for the bank run that has to be done before the cut-off time for deposits. (Bank is about 20 minutes away.)
I took pictures of blooming orchids and will compile them in a post for use whenever you need a filler or a happy post, Betsy.
g’afternnon, Bumz!
i’m a lady of leisure. No overtime this weekend
great post, gnome! I lurrvvs Sarah Susanka’s Not So Big concept. I love houses with lots of interesting little nooks and crannies, everything useful and pleasing to the eye.
I think that McMansions are not dead, alas. I think there will always be people with too much money and too little taste, hence there will always be a market for McMansions, John Ensign’s mistress and her pimp hubby being a prime example.
gnome, sad news about the buck … it always bothers me to see a creature wantonly killed by our automotive culture.
Hey Gnome!
That is one ugly-assed foyer up there! Flowered wallpaper? Fake topiary and ivy on shelves so high you can’t reach them without a ladder??
I’d bet anything that the giant window above the door is opposite a sweeping staircase, down which one must descend every morning. And don’t dare do it without being fully clothed, because the neighbors (that are within spitting distance) can see right through that window and really don’t want to catch an early morning glimpse of you in your ratty bathrobe.
I’ve never read Susanka’s book, but the room pictured on the cover is not exactly small. It’s at least double the size of my living/dining area.
madmommy wrote:
Don’t you love the closet doors on either side of the entry door? I am still trying to figure out what they go to since the window shows the front yard and street.
I got Not So Big from the library when I thought I was going to buy property and build. Good stuff.
At the time I was living in an 1100 sq ft house which had only one interior door (the door to the bathroom, and it didn’t latch). By myself, it was more than enough. But half the time, my younger was with me. It was still enough room, but I really could have used an acoustically isolated area (for a couple years, he regularly had 3 noise sources going, each at high volume).
This house is much bigger, but it’s all rooms, so it’s much easier to get cabin fever during bad weather.
gnome de plume wrote:
My thoughts exactly on those two tacky doors.
And how big is that entry way? And fake topiaries inside? Bad enough outside.
I just can’t see paying for a huge *tract* home that looks like everyone else’s on the block. You pay big money for a home, it should be unique!
gnome de plume wrote:
I have seen way too many dead animalies on the roads of late. All kinds. Very upsetting to me.
Very windy and cold today. It actually snowed, didn’t stick because ground still warm, but the temp dropped enough (52 this morning to current 36) (snow at 34ish) for the snow flakes. I’m guessing the upper levels must be really cold for snow to form and fall.
But we’re just coming up on winter, which now doesn’t really arrive until mid to late December. There was a time, when I was youngun hereabouts, that we would be skiing on 6 feet of nice NOT man made snow by Thanksgiving. Not any more. And this year it has been too warm for the making of man made snow.
@ gnome de plume:
I didn’t even notice those at first, for all the other ugly that caught my eye. WTF is that about? Doors to nowhere??
I thought I was all caught up on work, but the step-monster gave me a few more today when I dropped the madkiddies off for a sleepover. I still need to finish a load of laundry and pack the suitcases and gather up travelling snacks and such.
Howdy Bumz!
Gonna run an hour late for Foodie Friday.
Been a busy day . . . but I’m working on it as of now . . . see ya there, then!
(dang that’s a butt ugly house up there)
ZOMG!!! They even put the butt-ugly wallpaper on the crown moulding
madmommy wrote:
You are right! The only other place I have seen trim like that is in a double-wide!
@ Pellora:
I was already saddened because I had “killed” a couple of buds on orchids while repotting. So seeing my beautiful guy on the side of the road hurt more.
Yes, I am super-sensitive. Why do you ask?
Don’t tell Mr. Gnome that I shared this picture with you. He was exhausted when he got home this afternoon and went straight to bed. The whole gang was so happy to see him that they joined him! (Now you can see why we have space issues at night!)

@ gnome de plume:
I love how they’re all looking at you like “what?? We’re having nappies!”
Holy crap!!! Y’all need a bigger bed…like maybe a double-king-sized one
hahahaaa! I totally read the look on their faces as “MOMMMMM! Daddy’s hogging the bed and there’s no place for our paws!”
Srsly, Gnome, there’s not room for one full grown human on that bed, much less two
Names from left to right, please!
@ madmommy:
Left to right: Bucky, Beulah, Arthur, Peewee, and Mr. Gnome.
Beulah and Arthur are the parents of the other two.
And no, they all don’t sleep with us – one or maybe two for just a little cuddle, but not all night. This is the only time I remember all four being on the bed together.